Hey all! My hiatus is over! For now, anyway. Here's a new chapter, which I hope you all like.
Disclaimer: Bumi is my awesome :) Wait, that wasn't a disclaimer...
In Pending
That solid shadow on the sundial seemed to sit forever in the same place, refusing to move forwards, or even more desirably, a few paces back.
Katara knew that she was being too hormonal, a little crazy, and very unfair because of what she had just done to Aang in the kitchen. It wasn't his fault that Sokka was a moron who happened to bring others down with him whenever he got going. She wrapped her hands in her hair and pulled tightly, remembering how Aang had tried to kiss her in there. She wanted that so much right then, to accept all that he had offered, just for him to hold her, just for something to stop all of the chaos and bring them back together.
But even she knew that she couldn't. Otherwise, they were all in danger.
-
"...And then she just snapped! I swear, your sister almost put a blade through my chest, and it's all your fault!"
Aang looked accusingly at the man before him, his hands in tight knots. Sokka was barely shaken. "Look Aang, we've been down this road before. She'll be over it in a few hours, so all you have to do is-"
"No!" Aang spat back so quickly that Sokka had to shield himself from the spray of anger that came from the Bender's mouth. "I'm done taking advice from you! This is all your doing in the first place, and I prefer that you didn't ruin things for me any further. My marriage is in pending because of you!" He sighed heavily. "Sometimes I just wish that you would... stop joking around so much."
Aang ended his sentence with a hand that dragged down on his face, ever so slightly a red color. As the Avatar descended the stairs to the main floor of the tea shop, Sokka could only watch and feel a slight tugging in his chest - and only then realized his hand tightly gripping the stairwell as if to keep from being blown away by the Airbender's powerful sighs, or losing control.
-
"Hey Zuko, can we talk for a minute?"
Zuko looked up suddenly from the table he was cleaning, and put down his rag as he answered with a tentative "Sure?"
He grabbed a seat and sat down across from Sokka at the next table over, wondering what was about to happen. He was rather uneasy around the guy sometimes when the topic of advice came up. He was horrible at it, and he couldn't figure out why he was Sokka's rock of inspiration.
Sokka started. "Would you say that I... maybe, sorta, kind of joke a lot.. maybe a little too much?"
Zuko tried to keep himself composed, failing as his eyes pooped wide open. "Are you kidding me?"
Sokka looked offended. "Hey, there's no need to act like that! It was a simple question."
His companion for the moment sighed. "Look, Sokka. You're a funny guy. But sometimes you can get a little... too amusing. As in you end up being the only one amused. But, you know, most of the time I enjoy listening and watching what you do, especially since it tends to get to Katara most of the time." This input did not seem to help much with whatever the problem was here. "Sokka, what is this really about?"
The water tribe descendant ran his hand over his face, moaning. "That's just what this is about, man. Yesterday-"
"-during the mayhem-"
"During that talk I was trying to have with Aang, I was just trying to be a good brother to him, you know? Give him some words of wisdom that might actually turn out to be good advice in the future. I mean, he is going to marry Katara soon - well, was..."
Zuko's face took on a shocked expression as he uttered "What?"
"Nothing, nothingatall, but anyway, it got way out of hand, and now I feel that it's all my fault, even though I admit that I had put the blame on Katara before."
Zuko sighed, and then slowly sat up from the table. "Sokka... don't be too hard on yourself. I mean, you were just being you, and there's no way that this could have been prevented. It's already happened, and your sister is a hormonal basketcase at times. You should know that better than anyone else here in this shop. But whatever is going on, I suggest that you try to fix it, and soon. Think of this all like... like an orange sun. As the day goes on, it turns a deeper sort of red, and the sky gets all purple-like. Like a bruised sky. So as the sun sets within that sky, the day gets cooler and... wait, that's not... Well, do you get what I'm trying to say?"
Zuko turned to Sokka, but all he found was an empty chair. He shrugged as he tried to fix the phrase in his head while picking his rag back up, left to himself and deep in thought.
***
So there it is. Please leave a review so I can get all of your input. It would be much appreciated :) And hopefully you will all like the twist that's to come soon...