A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I've been busy with other things lately... Again really sorry!
It's been about a week since I've seen my friends. All that time, out on the ocean, searching. We saw nothing. There was nothing out there.
Through all of that time, I've been so stupid. So pathetic. How I couldn't of thought of this before. How have I not thought of this before? Our searching could've been over a week ago, yet my head's been so blocked I couldn't think straight. My home. I could go home. Yoake could be searching there, right now, so why wasn't I there? I should be going home. And I only thought of this now.
I was about to go tell Zuko that I wanted to go home, when I felt his arms slide around me. I leaned my head on his chest.
"Can I go home?" I asked him. He already knew that I could waterbend. And that I was from the South Pole. It was kind of hard to hide.
He let go of me and turned to face me. "Like, your South Pole home?"
"Yeah. That one." He looked away to think for a second.
"Yeah. I don't see why not."
Yoake's POV:
We've been up searching for Sylaz for almost a week now. There's been nothing. Where would Zuko of taken her? There was nowhere for her to go, except-
Home. She could've gone home. But Zuko wouldn't of allowed her to do that, I mean, she is his prisoner. But I guess it's worth a look.
"Hey, guys, you want to go to the South Pole?" They have me a look.
"Why would we want to go there?" Toph asked. "Zuko wouldn't allow it."
"I know, but I just want to check. And if anything, we can tell her parents that she's okay. They're probably worried."
"But she's not okay," Aang said. "She's with Zuko." I looked away. He was right. She wasn't okay.
"I still want to check," I said.
"Okay."
Sylaz's POV:
We flew to the South Pole. I had to show everyone where her secret village was, because, you know. It's secret.
It's a small village, but it's nice. Quiet. Peaceful. Nothing becomes disturbed. I came here all the time. Before I ended up in the canyon.
As soon as we arrived, I saw Sylaz's mom. She was carrying a bucket of fish. I waved when I saw her. She didn't seem happy to see me, though.
As soon as she saw me, she dropped the bucket she was carrying and ran into the nearest home. Others followed her lead.
"What are they doing?" Katara asked.
"I don't know." Soon, the entire village was deserted. It went from everyone, to no one. In 10 seconds flat. Aang almost went to talk to someone, but I stopped him.
"There's probably a reason they don't want to see us," I said. He looked doubtful, but agreed.
We stood there. It wasn't long before I heard something. A ship. A giant, metal, ship. I knew one when I heard one.
I turned to see a Fire Nation ship coming towards the village. But it was Zuko's ship. And Sylaz was on it. On deck. Waving at us. Smiling. She was the happiest I've ever seen her.
But Zuko was there, too. Hugging her.
I ran down the bridge onto the shore, the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. I would finally get to see my friends again. After a very long week, I could finally see my friends again.
I was dragging Zuko behind me, although he had a hard time keeping up. When we were almost 20 feet away I let go of his hand and sprinted towards Yoake. I practically jumped on her, I was so happy. I refused to let go of the hug I had placed on her. She didn't seem happy, though. She didn't hug me back. Instead, she pushed me behind her in a protective way and stared at Zuko.
"What did you do to her?" Yoake demanded. Everyone else was giving him the same look. Stunned, he choked up on his words and nothing came out.
"He didn't do anything," I said, pushing myself past Yoake. "He helped me get through it. I was so worried when I got separated from you guys!" Now they were giving me strange looks.
"When we got separated?" Sokka asked. "No, he captured you!" My turn to give funny looks.
"No he didn't, we got separated. How would you know, you weren't even there?" He didn't respond, which shows that I won the small argument. "He helped me find you guys." I grasped his hand and leaned my head on his shoulder. "He's good now."
"Do you know what he's done to us?" Katara said sternly. "He chased us around the world. He destroyed villages. He's been wrecking our lives ever since he knew that Aang was alive. Even before then"
"I've changed, though." Zuko finally stepped up. He seemed to of found his voice. "Sylaz helped me realize that you can have more than one life. That you can start over." He looked at me, and didn't say anything more.
"He's coming with us," I stated. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Sokka fainted.
"Are you insane?" Yoake said, angry now. "He almost killed us, and now you want to take him with us?" I glared at her.
"Yes. And if he can't come, I'm not coming either."
Now it seemed like I was hated by everyone. No one said anything, just stared at me like I was from another planet or something. I didn't know what to say. Yoake looked away, and it seemed like she was thinking.
"She's coming with us," she finally stated. "Zuko too."
I was stunned. Happy, but stunned. I didn't think anyone would actually let him come. "I don't want to lose Sylaz again," Yoake explained. No one else said anything.
"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod thank you thank you thank you!" It seemed I couldn't say it enough. I jumped on Yoake, again, and basically proved I was the happiest person in the world. She rolled her eyes, and I dragged Zuko to Appa.
"Well?" I asked. Everyone followed me. Katara had to kick Sokka in order to get him awake again. He stumbled along, and practically fainted again when he found out Zuko was coming with us. He tried to protest, but found that it was useless.
I looked in the sky. Sunset. We would have to set up camp soon. It wasn't until we left until I realized that we were just at my home. My family.
But I was too excited to notice.
We found camp in a forest next to a river. It was too dark at this point to even bother making a fire, so we just pulled out our sleeping bags and went to sleep. I tried to sleep as close as I could to Zuko, while everyone else went as far away from him as possible. I didn't care, though.
When I woke up the next day, everyone was still sleeping just where they were before. Nothing changed. I stood up and walked out to the riverbank. The water was calm. I sat down and watched the sun slowly rise. I wasn't long before I heard grumbling behind me, and words that sounded something like
"Damn twigs….argh….stupid sunshine….sunshine is evil…" I laughed.
"Yoake, why did you come out here if you would be so angry?" I said.
"Because I needed to talk to you." She emerged out of the bushes. "Are you sure about this? This whole, Zuko thing?"
I sighed. "Yoake, he's changed. I swear."
"I know, you said that before, but it might just be a trick." I really didn't want to talk about this right now, so I stood up and walked to stand next to a tree. Finding that it was climbable, I reached up and grabbed the first branch closest to me and pulled myself up. "Sylaz, I'm just trying to do what's best for you."
"I know, but you just have to trust me on this one. You weren't on that ship with him for an entire week. You didn't see him change the way I did. He's different now. I promise." Yoake turned away, looking unsatisfied.
"Yeah, okay."
"Okay, how about this," I said, trying to prove my point. "How about we all go out to dinner? As one big, happy family." Yoake gave me a funny look.
"Out to dinner? With him? I don't think the others will like that too much."
"Come on, pleeeeease?" Yoake sighed.
"Fine. I'll talk with everyone else." I climbed down the tree to the bottom to help Yoake talk with everyone else.
The others weren't too happy with the idea, except Zuko, who thought that this was his time to shine or whatever.
A/N: Still really sorry for the long wait!
