Thus begins part two. I've done some editing with this one, which turned it into three chapters instead of two. There wasn't anything new added, I just fleshed out some details and such.
PART TWO
I. Dyoko smiled bitterly at the ground. His sister had been right. She was always right. He should have listened. But he hadn't. He couldn't. He had wanted his own path. But now what had happened? An unending stream of crazy situations he barely escaped. Captured again.
He glanced at the rope around his wrists. He burned it away. No one expected him to be a firebender. Not dressed in blue anyway. He brushed his dark hair that had come loose out of his eyes and started to climb the tree he had been tied to. The pirates would be back soon.
Dyoko reached the top. He peered over the branches to the beach. The pirate ship was ashore. A few pirates were milling about the decks. But off in the distance, Dyoko saw something else. Were those Water Tribe ships? What were they doing in Chameleon Bay? Interesting. As soon as the pirates left…
II. "I think it's time we parted ways," he told her.
"But Dad said to stick together," Lee Ang protested.
"Dad said a lot of things. He said he would come find us."
"He will!"
"It's been three years."
"It's not like the war is over."
"If he cared—"
She cut him off. "How dare you? Dad saved our lives."
"For what? This life on the road? On the run?"
"Just stop and think for a moment!"
"I have been thinking. I want a life. I'm leaving."
"But—"
"I need to find my own destiny."
Lee Ang looked to the ground. She couldn't stop him. She could try to stop her brother, but she couldn't literally stop him. She dug into her pack and drew out a small dagger. It was an old dagger. The handle was a soft blue with a moon carved in the hilt. Even the blade had a blue-ish glow to it. "At least take this," she said. "Despite what you think, I believe we will see each other again."
"Maybe. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, brother."
Lee Ang woke from her dream with a start. A small tear trailed her cheek. She hadn't had that dream in a long time.
III. The gang had split up with the fliers. Katara strolled through the Lower Ring; occasionally take a poster from her bag and pasting it to a wall. She noticed a small tea shop on her right. Where was she? About a block from Lee Ang's apartment. Katara smiled. Zuko.
She went inside. She saw Zuko behind the counter, wearing… an apron? She waited by the door until he saw her. "Uncle, I'm taking my break now." He turned around to take his apron off. Katara slipped outside again.
Zuko came outside, looking around for blue. A tap on his shoulder. He turned and pulled Katara into him. To have her in his arms…
Katara melted into his embrace. To be in his arms… "Hey, Li," she whispered in his ear. "I was in the neighborhood. "Can we go somewhere I can talk to Zuko?"
Zuko smiled. They walked hand in hand into the alley behind the tea shop.
"How are you?" Katara asked.
"Ok, but I missed you."
"Really?" Katara laughed. "Or did you just miss this?"
Katara kissed him. Her fingers found their way into Zuko's hair and his to her hips. As they pulled away Zuko muttered, "That too."
Katara smiled. She loved being held by him. He mad her feel said with his presence. He was a man. "Toph knows that you're Li, but Aang and Sokka don't," she said.
"My Uncle knows," Zuko said.
"Sokka would go on a manhunt is he knew. And I don't know how to tell Aang."
"I know. I understand."
Katara kissed him again. The attraction was amazing. "Katara? Katara?"
"Huh?"
"My break is almost over."
"Oh." She blushed. "Right. I have to get back to work with the posters."
"Come see me soon?"
"Of course." She left him with a parting kiss. "I'll come see you soon."
IV. Katara put up some more posters then stopped in to see Lee Ang.
"How's the search going?" she asked, searching through her cabinets for something for them to eat. She had an obsessive need to take care of people in her company.
"Nothing yet. We're putting posters."
"Dai Lee won't like that," Lee Ang said distractedly, still searching her kitchen.
"Yeah, we already know. Joo Dee came but Aang yelled at her and Toph blasted a hole in the wall for the hell of it."
"Nice." Lee Ang smiled a little. "You'll find him."
"Yeah, I know. It just takes a lot out of Aang." Katara glanced absently at the table. A white envelope caught her eye. "What's that?"
Lee Ang looked horrified. "Nothing. Just a letter from my father. It's old."
Katara stared at her. "You can tell me anything, Lee Ang. We're friends."
"It's nothing," Lee Ang lied. "Just a letter from my father when he left." A half-truth, but it satisfied Katara. "So how was your date with Li?"
V. "The Avatar is looking for his bison," Zuko said, showing his Uncle a flier.
"Zuko, I thought you were turning over a new leaf," Iroh said.
Zuko didn't say anything, afraid that perhaps he was. But if the bison was found, Katara could be with him more. That and soon he'd be in the Upper Ring. That much closer. He locked himself in his room and waited for night to fall. When the Blue Spirit would come out.
"The tea weevil," he heard his Uncle declare. "No, that's stupid."
Iroh scratched his head vigorously. On the outside he was a man of simple pleasures. And he was that on the inside, but Iroh also had a deeper layer to his proverbial onion of a personality. Deep inside was as much emotional pain as Zuko bore. Iroh had lived longer. He had managed to find the things in life that pleased him and bury the hurt. He sympathized with his nephew. Life was hard. Especially for the first born children that had done nothing but try to please, but had the nasty habit called morality. Iroh too had been rejected by his father. His father had been proud of him for a time. His father was proud of his status as a general. His father had thought he would make a great ruler. That was, until he showed weakness. When his son had died, he had fallen apart. Lu Ten had been so like his mother. She had died long ago of a plague. When Lu Ten died, Iroh lost every last bit of the people he'd loved the most. When Lu Ten had died, Iroh had died.
Iroh understood Zuko far better than the temperamental adolescent thought. He understood completely. Iroh had been like that once. One would not think such a thing, but it was true. Iroh understood a lot better than anyone.
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