A/N: Oh...my... gosh.
I have killed my brain trying to write this wretched chapter. You kids better like it, or I'll... eat you, or something. xO
5,750 words. My goal was 5,000. OOO:
Read, betches.
KATARA
I curled tighter against Aang's chest and fought the sobs that were threatening to escape. Chao had finally set me down after carting me threw a plethora of hallways, and swinging me about the deluxe cell, ignoring my protests. When Aang interfered, Malai finally stepped in, saying "Kindly allow the Avatar to enjoy his girlfriend, Chao". The urge to cry out strengthened considerably as I remembered the malice on her face as she said the word 'girlfriend'. She made the word sound sinister, like it was a dangerous weapon.
"It's alright, Katara…" Aang had tried to soothe me again and again, but everything was not alright. It was completely and utterly wrong. He and I had been captured and towed across the Earth Kingdom, finally entering the Fire Nation, where we were dumped into this horrible place. We didn't know if Toph and Sokka were even searching for us, or if they believed we had really eloped, as we joked about. That last happy memory burned against my aching heart, and a small tear leaked out. I made to brush it away—I wanted to hide it—but Aang beat me.
"Let me…" he brushed across my cheek, wiping the tear away. I looked at the floor—I wasn't embarrassed, just sad. We were sharing a close—almost intimate—moment, and, more than anything, I wanted to be somewhere else, sharing the same moment. Hundreds of places flew to my mind, but, for whatever odd reason, sitting around that fire, with Toph and Sokka, seemed most appealing.
I wanted to be with my brother and my friend. I wanted to be with Aang, wrapped comfortably in his arms, as we were now, sitting happily without worry with Toph and Sokka. If I had my way, Aang and I would never have woken up, and we'd still be lying under the stars, hidden by the cover of night and the forest canopy. We wouldn't die; I didn't want that, of course. I wanted the easy feeling of friendship, the one that seeped so easily through those last moments around the campfire, and the same one that fled immediately as Aang and I woke up to find ourselves in the darkness of a ship.
--
I heard a slight knock on the door before a small, timid voice asked: "May I come in?"
"Yes," I replied, pulling my knees against my chest and scooting closer to Aang where he sat against the far wall. Yoko stepped in, carrying a tray with water and bread. She took a step toward us, and stopped. Chao entered noisily behind her, smirking when he spied Aang and me, now cowering slightly on the floor.
"Ning requests the Avatar's presence immediately." Aang and I exchanged a look. His said, 'Don't worry about me,' while I hoped mine said 'Please don't leave'. "Now, Avatar." Chao growled. With a sweeping motion, he picked Aang up by the forearms and half dragged him out of the room. The door slammed, and Yoko turned apologetically to me.
"I'm sorry you've been put through all of this, Miss Katara," She said, he voice a bit stronger now that Chao was gone. Her big, bright eyes turned on me. "I understand if you hate me, though I honestly hope you don't. I'd rather not be here myself, actually." She remained standing over me, looking at me as though she were scared I was about to lash out at her. I didn't feel hate, or anything similar to hate, towards her, however. I felt… curious.
"I don't hate you, Yoko…" I mumbled, listening to the gravely sound of my own voice; the lack of speaking had obviously taken its toll. Yoko smiled warmly, and set the tray down by my feet. I noticed two cups and two loaves of bread--one for Aang and one for me. It felt thoughtful, but I wasn't hungry.
"Thank you, Miss Katara." What was with the 'Miss Katara' thing? "This is a horrible experience for all of us, but I know that it has been particularly awful for you and your friend…unless he really is your boyfriend." She added when I jumped at the word 'friend'. I sighed.
"Aang and I are… I don't know what we are." Yoko nodded. I vaguely wondered how old she was, and I was desperate to change the subject. "What do you mean by 'this is a horrible experience for all of us'?" Her eyes hardened, and she sat across from me.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressed about you and the Avatar. Aang, isn't it?" She was so polite… "What I meant by the horrible experience is: no one wants to be doing this. Except perhaps Malai and Chao. Ning is following orders from a higher officer, but Malai is the truly viscous of the two. But I suppose you already know that." She eyed the various cuts on my arms and legs. I had managed to heal many of them using the water Ning had Yoko deliver to the cell two days ago, but several were either too deep or too large to completely heal. "Yoon and I were brought here against our will, and now we work as 'servants'. Chao was here before us, and it has been clear that he wishes to become part of the Army. He wants to do what Malai does." Torture people?
"So you two don't want to be here, either."
"No. My parents were considered traitors—they hid Earth Kingdom prisoners in the house. They were executed by order of Fire Lord Ozai, and I was brought here after I turned ten. Yoon was caught trying to escape her burning village in the Earth Kingdom. They chose not to kill her—she was the only survivor. Though she does say that she'd rather be dead than here." Yoko added sadly. I thought of my mother, and felt oddly joyful that I had not been taken as a prisoner when she died.
"I'm sorry…" I didn't know what else to say.
"Oh, Miss Katara, you don't have to be sorry! Absolutely none of this is your fault. Until the world is completely right again, this is the way it will be." Completely right again. That stung.
The war had ended—the Fire Lord was defeated—and Zuko had taken the throne. Azula was locked away on an island somewhere, being rehabilitated; the thought of her being locked in a cell still gave me the urge to cackle. Yet, the world was still in turmoil. Ozai's supporters were still being rounded up, and the nations were slowly learning to trust one another again. But the process what exceedingly slow. I wondered if the world had fallen into another war without Aang to settle things as the Avatar. This new world needed him to take of things, like a newborn child needs a parent to care for and raise it until it is ready to go on its own without hurting itself.
The thought of Aang as "Avatar Aang" made me a little sad. I didn't want to think of him as something more than simply "Aang, my friend who happens to be able to bend all four elements and is the last Airbender in existence." I wouldn't let a silly title ruin the way I thought of him.
A clanging sound and a shout that seemed to come from down the hallway shook me out of my thoughts. Yoko's eyes shot open—she also seemed to have been deep in thought—and she stood up and faced the door. I peered around her legs, and the clanging continued, growing ever louder—whatever was making the noise was approaching ever closer.
Aang fell through the door, followed by Chao. I gasped, wanting to help in whatever way I could though I had no idea what was actually going on, but Aang raised to his feet a smacked Chao in the face with an Air whip. Staggering backwards, Chao groaned, and ran down the hall, his huge feet echoing louder than the clangs.
Aang breathed heavily, standing in the doorway and watching Chao run. His face was contorted with a strange mix of rage and hurt—maybe he'd gotten burned.
"Aang…"
"What!?" He turned sharply, his glare filled with anger. I shrank against the wall, not wanting to make him angrier. He blinked several times, and relaxed his shoulders. Yoko shifted her weight from one hip to the other.
"Uhm… I think I'll go now. It was nice talking to you, Miss Katara." She said shyly, inching out of the room. When she passed Aang, she smiled sadly at him—she was shorter than him, maybe even shorter than Toph—and then scurried quickly out the cell.
"Aang…" I said again. He turned more slowly this time, and I saw that his face was not contorted with the same amount of anger, though I still saw a trace of the fury he was now trying to hide. What had happened? "Are you… alright?" I stood up off the floor, and started to make my way to him.
"Stop, Katara." I halted immediately. "I need to calm down a bit more."
"What… was going on?"
"He took me to see Malai, not Ning…" Malai is the truly viscous of the two, I recalled Yoko saying. I scanned Aang's body hungrily, to see if he bore any new cuts, but he didn't seem to be hurt.
"What did they do to you…?" I pressed. I wanted to help him—I couldn't stand to see him like this. He raised his eyes to match level with mine, took a step foreword, and fell onto me with a sob.
--
TOPH
"Have you seen a boy with a blue arrow on his head?"
"Do you mean the Avatar? Yeah, I saw him on a poster a few weeks ago…"
"No, I mean: have you actually seen him?!" Sokka pressed. I sighed. Wasn't he the one who said we couldn't simply ask questions about an arrow?
"No, boy. Now, get out my shop." Sokka huffed, grabbed my hand, and stomped out of the meat store.
"They were horribly rude!" He sulked.
"Because they wouldn't let you buy all the meat in the store, or because they kicked us out for holding up the line with questions about someone they've never met."
"Both." He paused. Pondering, I supposed. "But especially the first one. Why can't I buy all the meat in the store? It'll go bad if someone doesn't buy it."
"Sokka," I said, noticing that he had not released my hand. I decided that I would not point this out to him. "This may be a huge surprise to you, but there are other people in the world who want to buy meat."
"Well…those people can go somewhere else." He pouted. I chuckled.
"I don't think Aang and Katara are here, anyway. I would've recognized Aang's footsteps by now."
"You know, Toph, you pay a lot of attention to Aang's footsteps." Sokka said suddenly, as though the thought just came to him.
"Maybe that's because he walks like he's not trying to touch the ground, Sokka. And you walk as though you're trying to dance." This was not entirely true, but I wanted t see his reaction.
"I dance when I walk?" He didn't sound mortified, as I had anticipated. He sounded more or less astounded. "I must look extremely intimidating, then." I could almost see his stupid grin.
"Actually, Sokka, I lied. You don't dance when you walk." I shifted my hand slightly in his—it was rather humid outside, and my palm was starting to sweat. I didn't bother me, but I couldn't quite say the same for him.
"I don't?" Now he sounded heartbroken.
"No… you walk like you're always waiting for something exciting to happen, but only when you're simply walking around. When you're running, you sometimes jump and flail about, like you're fighting off things that aren't there." I laughed. "And your steps are really loud, too."
"Ohh… Why did you tell me that I danced when I walk? It was unkind, you know."
"Sorry...I just wanted to see your reaction."
"Well it was still—really?"
"Yeah…? That's really why I tease you, Sokka. Because you act like an idiot and it's really funny."
"Well… can I tease you?" He asked; I could almost hear the evil grin I was certain was plastered on his face seeping through his question.
"Why would you want to tease me?" I retorted, putting all my weight on one hip. I remembered his words from the Air Temple, however, and shifted myself so that my weight was distributed evenly. Somehow, I felt less threatening and mean this way. I put my weight on my hip again.
"Because I want to see your reaction." He said. "Toph, when you eat, you make a lot of slurping sounds."
"Sokka, you're going to have to come up with a better way to tease me than that." I laughed again.
"Do I get credit for trying?" He asked, leaning down to my level.
"No, you don't. You only get credit for succeeding." I worked to keep my breathing steady as I slowly registered the way we probably looked to others: like a couple. Holding hands (Sokka had not realized that our hands were still cupped together), him leaning down to me, me standing on one foot. And I felt quite certain we were whispering. How was he so good at getting me to whisper? I never did it before… "Anyway, we need to concentrate on finding Aang and Katara."
"You're right, Toph! Here the two of us are, talking about teasing one another when we should be looking for the Avatar! Are you sure they aren't here?"
"I'm sure."
"Good. I didn't like this town anyway." Because they restricted your meat buying? I thought. "Let's get out of here. Maybe we can hunt or something…" he walked away, pulling me by the hand just as he did when he led me out of the store.
"You mean that you'll be hunting, right?" I said as I followed him through the crowded street, concentrating on stringing the words together correctly and ignoring the tingling feeling that was coursing through my body and seemed to origin from my right hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid. This was all very stupid. I shouldn't be feeling like this. Especially not about Sokka. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"Yeah, since I am the man around here, I guess I will be doing the hunting. Will you cook for me?" Sokka said, oblivious to my internal struggle. He pulled me closer to him when a cart pulled by a very loud Ostrich Horse rattled past us, and my breath caught in my throat. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I thought furiously.
"Sokka, you and I both know that I would never be able to cook for you without burning something down. Like you, for instance, or a small village." We crossed a street, dodging a papaya thrown by a middle-aged woman who was obviously angry with her husband, who was obviously near me and Sokka.
"I bet you could learn. Maybe, when we find her, Katara can teach you!" Two kids cackled as they ran by, chased by a fat salesman who was shouting "You gotta pay fo' the veg'ables!" I repressed the urge to laugh at both Sokka and the salesman.
"Are you trying to tease me again?"
"You know, maybe I am. I haven't decided yet." He truly sounded thoughtful. I heard a small tinkling noise—a little girl was tinkering with some sort of musical device. She had no rhythm, but the sound was very pretty.
"You seriously need to work on your material. You're not very good at teasing me."
"I will work on my material, and I will make you freak out. I promise."
"When are you planning to go about that?" The sounds of the busy street faded as Sokka and I walked away from the town; I was happy to leave. The many sounds and activities took away from what was really important: talking with Sokka and making sure he didn't realize that we were still holding hands. And finding Aang and Katara, of course.
--
Sokka had realized that we were still holding hands after he let go of it when we mounted Appa. To my great amusement, he bragged that he was the only guy who would be able to hold my hand for any length of time without being launched twenty feet in the air via Earthbending. Though I would never say it out loud, he was right.
--
SOKKA
"Look, Toph, an island!" I said, pointing down at what appeared to be a little dabbling of brown in a world of blue.
"Sokka, I can't see it, remember?"
"Oh…sorry, I forgot." Toph punched me in the arm. "But it's down there. Do you think we should check it out?"
"It's worth a try." She replied, hugging my arm closer as I flicked Appa's reigns to begin the descent. I took it slow—I knew she didn't like flying, and a quick landing would not improve her somewhat sour mood. I wasn't sure what had caused it, but I realized, after some careful consideration and tough thinking, I decided that it started after we were flying.
Toph continued to hold onto my arm as we slid down Appa's side and onto the ground of this island I had spotted earlier. "Toph," I said, shaking my arm slightly; maybe she had forgotten that she was still clinging to me. When she didn't respond, I began to pull my arm out of her constricting grip. "Toph, you're still holding onto me…"
"Hmmm… is that so?" She murmured. She sounded tired, and I wondered how late it was. Looking up at the sky, I saw that the sun had not yet set, but it looked as though it might rain. I tried to pull my arm out of her grip again.
"Uh, yeah. We've landed, and you can let go of it now."
"I'm trying to decide if I like it." She whispered. I twisted my neck to look at her face. Her hair was covering her eyes, as per usual. A gust of wet wind—it felt like hot breath—blew through the island, shaking the trees, rustling the leaves on the ground, and—conveniently—momentarily sweeping Toph's hair away from her face. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth and eyebrows were relaxed. It was Toph's way of a blank expression. Unless, of course, she was daydreaming, or something…
"Like what? My arm?" Her eyes snapped open. She glared—rather, she puckered her mouth and knitted her eyebrows—at me as though I had interrupted something very important.
"No, you meathead, the island. I can't tell whether or not there are other people here. There aren't any animals, though." Her retort was acidic. She let go of my arm and shoved it into me. I took a step back, taken aback.
"What do you mean there aren't any animals?" I said. It sounded angrier than I meant it to be.
"I mean exactly what I said. There aren't any animals on this island."
"And no people, either?"
"I can't tell. But the two of us are the only people who are fairly close to where we are."
"I guess this was a waste of time, then." I sighed, leaning over and staring at the ground. We were getting nowhere, and this constant searching was tedious. "Sorry. It's my fault we landed here."
"Well, I forgive you, meathead." Toph replied. Her voice sounded very far away. I looked up—she had he back turned to me. I wondered if I had made her mad. "But it looks like we'll have to stay the night here."
"It's going to rain." I pointed out.
"Is that why I just felt a raindrop hit my foot?"
"Yes, I think it is!" I said, straightening up. "I should set up the tent and the tarp…"
"I don't need a tarp, thanks." Toph said, stamping her foot and erecting an earth tent. I was so jealous that she was able to do that. "My tent's all set up."
"Oh…that's great. I'll set up my tent." I took a step toward Appa, who was already sheltering in the forest. "All alone," Another step taken. "By myself. With no help from a friend."
Toph sat up in her tent. "Sokka, do you want to share my tent?" She asked blatantly, getting my hints. I jumped over to her.
"Yes, Toph! I do want to share your tent with you! Let me get my sleeping bag." I rushed over to Appa, grabbed my sleeping bag off of his back, and hurried back to Toph's tent, where she was making her creation bigger. Much wider, I noticed.
"There, Sokka." She said, lying back down on the ground. I rolled out my sleeping bag, positioning it close to her, but not close enough for me to roll on top of her during the night, and slipped inside.
"Goodnight, Toph."
"Goodnight, Meathead."
--
TOPH
I lay awake for the better half of the night, hating and loving the fact that it was raining. I hated it because it constantly pattered the ground, sending millions of tiny vibrations across the Earth, and keeping me awake. I loved it because it gave me an excuse to close up my tent completely, thus trapping me and Sokka inside, though I hated it for this reason as well. I also hated it because Sokka's snores echoed off the stone walls, causing yet another distraction.
I didn't sleep well, to say the least.
The next morning I woke up earlier than I wanted, and crabbier than I would have liked. I shook Sokka awake, and, after demolishing the tent in the most destructive way possible, we went on a search for breakfast. Despite my constant reminders that there were no animals on the island, Sokka set out on a search for some sort of meat. I decided to lie on the ground, no matter the dampness, and try taking a small nap.
I seemed like I just closed my eyes when I heard Sokka's heavy footsteps approaching, and they sounded as though they were running. Sighing, I sat up.
"Toph! Toph! I found something!" Sokka shouted, panting. He grabbed my shoulders, trying to pull me off the ground. I fought him off—I didn't want to be lifted.
"Is it food?" I hissed from my place on the ground.
"Well, no." How I wanted to hit him… "I found a building, or some kind of structure! Aang and Katara may be in there! Come on, Toph!" He grabbed my hand and began to pull me across the ground. "We've got to see if what I suspect is true!"
"Sokka,"
"This is amazing, we might have found them!"
"Sokka,"
"And to think that it was on an island with no meat. No wonder they picked this place—they must've known I wouldn't stay very long."
"SOKKA! LET GO OF ME!" He released me, huffing as though I had taken away his dinner. I stood up, rearranging my tunic where it had gotten pulled out of place when he dragged me. "Now, tell me about this 'structure' you found, and don't drag me all over the place!"
"Well, I was looking for an animal to hunt, but, like you said, there weren't any. Then I found this amazingly huge bush! It was absolutely covered in berries. And they smelled good, so they had to be edible. Following my manly instincts," I huffed, "I tasted one. I decided that it was good to eat, so I began to pick more off the bush. As I was picking, I noticed that it wasn't just one bush, it was actually a plethora of these huge, berry-filled bushes!" I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Where was he going with this? "I was still picking the berries when I realized that the bushes were excellently trimmed, and they curved slightly. Once again, I followed my instincts." I kicked the ground, enjoying the feeling of newly dried dirt between my toes. "I followed all of the bushes, and I figured out that they wrapped around in a circular shape. Being the incredibly brave warriors that I am, I stepped into one of the bushes, and I felt this cold thing on my hand, and I realized that it was metal. And that's when I went running back to you."
"Did you get the berries?"
"The what?"
"The berries, Sokka, did you get the berries! Did you bring them back?"
"Uhm…no. I dropped them when I figured out that the bushes were hiding something." Walking over to him, I kicked him in the shins. "OW! Sorry!"
"Yeah, you better me." I murmured, walking away.
"Toph, wait! We've got to fly!" He caught up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around. "Come on, get on Appa. My instincts are telling me that Aang and Katara are in there!" He steered me toward Appa.
"Right. Instincts."
--
"Yes! I was right!"
"So there is a building down there?" I scowled.
"Yep! Let's see if we can get into it. Yip, yip." I closed my eyes and held on to Sokka's arms as Appa began the descent, screaming when Appa turned on the drop of a hat. Sokka chuckled.
"What are you doing?!" I screeched.
"Waiting to see your reaction." If we weren't in the air, I would have knocked him off the stupid, fluffy Bison.
--
"Well, you were right. There is a building here, and it's mostly metal. The base is made of something weird, though. I can't see it." I said, forcing my war through the thick bushes surrounding the building Sokka had spotted from the sky. I broke off a branch, throwing it to the ground. "Help me." I broke off another branch, this one larger than the last. Sokka took hold of it, pulling it away from me.
"Why are we tearing apart the bush?" He asked, behind me. With a snapping noise, he broke off a higher branch. I assumed it was blocking his face.
"Because we need to get through them to get in the building." I kicked a lower branch away from the stem of the shrub. How thick were these things?
"Oh, ok." He said, circling his arms around my head. He broke off another upper branch, nearly hitting me with it, and threw it to the ground.
We continued to rip apart the plant for several silent minutes, slowly reaching our destination. "Ah." I said, kicking the metal wall. Thick.
"Did we make it?" He asked from behind me. Not allowing myself to register his closeness, I placed my hand on the wall.
"Stand back." I punched the wall. He cheered. "Was that really necessary?" I snapped, whipping my head around.
"But you dented it!" He said. Still in a sour mood due to a lack of sleep and food, I punched the wall again, harder than I probably should have, but it did break through. He cheered again. This time, I hit the wall with both hands, palms facing me, breaking the wall completely. I smirked, he whooped.
--
KATARA
"Did you hear that?" Aang asked suddenly, his mouth full of bread. I looked up from my own piece of nourishment, and saw that he was looking at the far wall.
"No… what was it?"
"It sounded like a loud clanging sound. And then a weird sound…"
"I didn't hear anything, Aang."
"No, no, no, there it is again!" I strained my ears, trying to listen. This time I did hear a banging sound and another sound following it. It sounded like a…cheer. "Did you hear it?"
"Yeah, I did hear it! What do you think it was?" I said, scooting closer to Aang. Whatever it was, I didn't like it.
"I don't know…" He said. I heard the same sound again, this time louder than the last. I gasped, hoping that it wasn't Chao or Malai, hatching some new scheme to torture us with. Aang took my hand; we stood up and relocated ourselves from the general center of the room to the wall opposite the mysterious noises.
After several minutes, nothing else happened.
--
TOPH
"Ok, Sokka, I know the layout of the building. I couldn't see it last night because the base is entirely made of ice. I think it must've been built over a lake, and they froze it. From where we are there's a door a little way ahead that leads down into that frozen lake, but we'll have to crawl inside the walls do get there—the layer I just broke through was just protection. Everything else is made of stone."
"You're amazing, Toph." I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks, and hoped that he couldn't see it.
"Come on," I said, taking his hand and leading him into the hole I had made in the wall. We scaled the inner space between the metal and rock, moving to the right.
"It's dark." Sokka commented.
"Wow. What an observation." I hissed.
"Sorry."
Several more minutes passed before we reached the steps I was looking for. Sokka immediately relaxed when I announced that we would have more room to walk in.
Trailing my left hand along the wall of the long passageway, I tried to get an idea of the building Sokka and I were now under. There weren't very many people in it—maybe less than ten—and it seemed to be very large. I didn't recognize any of the gaits except—
"Sokka! Katara's in there!" I whispered, squeezing his hand.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, and she's with somebody…" I ran my hand along the wall, trying to get a better feel as to where she was. Yes, two people… they were talking, could that be…
"Aang. They're in there." I said blankly, Sokka leaned against the wall, sinking down to the floor, still holding my hand.
"We found them, Toph… I can't believe it."
"We found them!" I realized suddenly, registering the fact. "We have to get them out of there…"
"You're right. How do we do that?" Sokka said, standing up suddenly. "We need to get through these walls… there has to be a way…"
"We have to keep walking." I whispered. "There's no way to get directly to them from where we are without stirring up suspicion." I pulled on his hand. "Come on…"
"But…" he resisted my tugs "they're right above us. We need to get to them…"
"Sokka, come on. We'll save them, I promise…" I said, desperately trying to make him move. He wouldn't come. "We'll get them out, Sokka. We just have to get up there, first…"
"But what if there isn't a way up there?" He snapped. "What if we don't save them?"
"We will save them!" I retorted, seizing his arms with both hands and pulling him in my direction. Again, he refused. Sighing, I wrapped my arms around his stomach, and tried to pick him up.
"What are you doing?!" He demanded. "You're going to drop me!" He tried to push my arms away while I did my best to keep holding on, while his feet never left the ground. "Toph, put me down! I'll come!" I let go of him. He huffed, straightening up again. We stood for a moment in a somewhat awkward silence.
"Sorry," I said, though I was unsure of the cause for my apology. He shrugged; I heard the small sounds of his clothes brushing the earthy walls. I took his hand again. "Let's go."
We walked in silence once more, and eventually reached the end of the passageway, where a door stood.
"Alright, we made it." Sokka announced. "Where do we go from here?"
"The room Aang and Katara are in will be easy to get to, and I don't think anyone is near the hallway we'll go down. But, still, be really, really quiet."
"You got it." I opened the door, and we entered the building where our friends were held.
--
KATARA
Footsteps echoed through the hallway outside of the cell Aang and I was being held; this was not unusual. However, the footsteps didn't sound especially familiar; I now knew what Toph meant when she said that everyone's footsteps were different. Aang squeezed my hand, and the footsteps stopped.
"Who do you think that is?" I whispered to him; he shrugged, keeping his eyes on the door. We both watched it, straining our ears for any sound coming from the hallway. I could have sworn that two people were having a whispered argument outside the door.
The handle on the door creaked, turning a bit. I gasped and turned slightly, the better to face Aang. The door handle moved again, opening slightly. My breathing came fast and shallow; I brought my legs up to my chest and leaned closer to Aang.
Suddenly, the door flew open, and I screamed. When I saw who had fallen through the door, however, Aang put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming as though I had never screamed in my life. For, lying facedown on the floor was my brother. I stared at him in amazement. Before I could utter a single word, Toph stepped through the door.
"Great job, Sokka. Way to 'coup de main'."
A/N: Le gasp, Para's eyes are bleeding. OO:
If you have any questions about the plot, characters, or general story, feel free to ask. : Comments/crits are always welcomed, but flames are not.