Smellerbee sat in the hospital, staring at the blood on her hands. It had dried into brownish lines in the creases of her palm, and buried itself under her fingernails, and stained her skin a horrid shade of pink that reminded her of Jet's heaving chest. She supposed she could pull her legs up onto the waiting room chair, wrap her arms around them and proceed to sob like an idiot, but she thought better of it. There were more important things to deal with. Yes, it was a tragedy, but Jet was breathing. And that was a start, right?
No. No, because he would probably never wake up, and that was as good as dead.
Smellerbee wondered if Jet would rather have died than lived on a machine, and then she cursed herself. Why the heck was she getting all deep and thoughtful now? She'd never been like this before; and she had reason to have been. Her life had never really been easy, but she'd always found a way to ignore it and get on with stuff. And now she was sitting here pondering. She stuck her tongue out at the thought. Smellerbee would die before she went all touchy-feely like that Marina girl.
Seriously; what was with that chick? I mean, there were feelings and there were feelings, but that girl just had too many of them! She was giggly, and serious, and grumpy, and then she was annoying, and coy, and ridiculously shy when it came to boys (that one was really irritating). The girl went through more mood swings than a pregnant woman on antidepressants, mescaline, ecstasy and hormone replacement pills - and Smellerbee regretted to be able say she had seen such a thing. Except her mother hadn't been pregnant. If she had said that aloud, she'd be looking around to be sure nobody had heard.
But in all honesty, it was a little jarring - all this with Jet. He never got hurt, at least not seriously. He was always the okay one. Then again, Smellerbee mused, they were all pretty okay. Not by any kind of reason or logic, they just always managed to cope.
Smellerbee fidgeted in her seat for a moment, and then lifted a hand to smack herself on the forehead. Stupid weird feelings. This was all Longshot's fault; he seemed to kickstart a lot of touchy-feeliness in her lately. It was just his way to sit and think deep thoughts and stare into space like he was Einstein inside his own head, not letting anyone in, and he made Smellerbee have to think deep thoughts just to figure out what the hell he was thinking!
Why couldn't he talk like regular guys? That wouldn't drive her nearly as crazy as he did now. Even though she did kind of like being the one who understood him the best. Well … not understand understand, but she could convey to others what he wanted to say, so she was kind of like …
"Kind of stupid!" Smellerbee cursed under her breath, irritated with all this ponderous, thoughtful … mush! Ugh! Why was she acting like this when Jet was, for all intents and purposes, in a coma? She could've picked a better time to pine over her idiotic, stupid, silent, pondery crush of a kind-of best friend … thing … "Shit," she hung her head, and her shoulders jumped with a humorless kind of laugh.
Smellerbee heard footsteps coming closer to her; two people. She looked up and saw Longshot and Bei Fong coming at an ambling pace, Longshot with a limp he was trying to hide, and the blind girl with a stiffness to the swing of her arms that Smellerbee found suspicious. The female freedom fighter sat up in her seat and shot a look in the direction of the one who would notice it.
"It safe for you to come out like this?" Smellerbee asked quietly, her voice a low rasp.
Toph nodded and sat down on Smellerbee's left hand side, rolling one shoulder to loosen it up. Longshot sat down on a seat across from them, leaning forward intently. The blind earthbender stared forward sightlessly, one foot tapping the floor, just once, and taking in the information the vibration fed back. "So?" Toph blinked slowly, biting off the yawn at the back of her throat, "How's Jet, then?"
"Alive. Barely."
Toph took a while to answer, seeming to think this over. "Huh," she exhaled, and then grimaced. "What happened?"
Smellerbee shook her head. "Not really sure - I wasn't there. Things just … went downhill."
Toph laughed dryly. "Yeah," she murmured. "They do that. What about the others? They okay?" she asked tentatively, not wanting to sound too concerned.
"For the most part. Marina got a pretty bad burn, but Scorsese took her to his house to fix it up - apparently he has some special burn salve stuff, for all the use he put it to," she scoffed darkly, and she caught the slightest of apprehensive scrunches in Toph's features. "Tyson's fine, though. Since that's what you really wanted to know," she finished, not even looking up at the earthbender.
She expected Toph to get all defensive, but instead she smiled; Smellerbee didn't see it, but sensed it in her words. "Good," she rolled her shoulder again, and winced slightly, "I still haven't gotten my chance to beat him."
"Even though you haven't actually gone about doing it," Smellerbee pointed out, leaning back in her seat.
Toph paused, scowled and sat back too. "I'll get around to it."
"Mm-hmm."
"Are you done yet?" Katara arched a brow at Zuko, who was still fussing over her arm where they sat in his room. He'd spent the last few minutes basically basting her arm in his special burn-salve, which now Katara realized smelled really nice, but that was beside the point, and now he was wrapping it up again, even though it probably didn't need wrapping. Katara was actually under the impression that wrapping it was a bad idea; she thought fresh air might be good for a burn. Zuko vehemently disagreed, of course, and he knew best.
Zuko tied off the bandaging at her forearm and nodded affirmatively. His makeshift wrapping earlier in the night was in the bin somewhere. "Done," he announced calmly, from his spot knelt on the floor in front of her, where she sat on the bed, leant forward with her injured right arm extended for him. He watched as she slowly moved her arm back to her side, careful not to move too quickly, and Zuko couldn't help but frown. "It'll get better, but it's going to hurt for a while. It might scar, just a little bit."
Katara raised a hand and rubbed her brow, looking up to meet his gaze. "It's okay. It could've been worse, right?" she tried an optimistic smile on, but it played out rather weakly on her face. Zuko thought she looked tired, and it quickly brought out the exhaustion in his own muscles.
"Right," Zuko agreed, his shoulders slumping. He set out to step toward the bed, but halfway into the step, changed his mind so he fell into it, face-first. He heard Katara laughing, muffled through where the sheets climbed up around his ears. His arms spread on it and he meant to say something funny to lighten the mood, but he could do nothing but take in the tingling sensation that simply relaxing sent across his body. What came out was a drawn out, "Ahhh."
Katara placed a hand on his back, sending another tingle of happiness through him. "Sleepy?" she murmured endearingly with another yawn, and then chuckled, once. "Ooph; I could hit the sack myself," and she suddenly became aware of how wonderfully soft the bed was under her, half considering falling back onto it.
Zuko stayed plastered to his bed for a moment, before groaning and rolling himself onto his back. "Once I fall asleep, I'll never be able to wake up," he stated rather plainly. "Even if I wanted to."
"Sounds like fun," the corners of Katara's mouth tilted up. "I might join you," she glanced to the bed and really, really considered it. Oh, how it would feel to just … lean back … and …
Zuko found himself smiling slightly. "Why don't you stay?" he suggested mildly. "It's late to go home now, and I'm going to need someone to peel my ass out of bed tomorrow."
Katara blinked at him, taking in information. The bed was calling her, in the back of her head. She made a little whine of protest, as though arguing with herself, and then groaned aloud, before dropping back to the bed. A similar 'ahhhh' noise escaped her. "Sure," she answered nonchalantly, shutting her eyes slowly. "I'm staying here."
Zuko's smile grew a little wider, and he rolled back toward her, ready to tell her to get up so he could pull back the sheets, but then his mind crossed the subject of Aidan, and the smile dropped. Aidan had always been one to lead and destroy. It just wasn't fitting with his character to join someone else's army and fight for them. In reality, it had been only hours ago, but it felt like days had passed with how crazy the whole thing had turned out. Zuko reached out and tentatively laid his palm on Katara's wrapped elbow. He did it slowly enough that it didn't hurt her; he knew just how painful it had to be. His brows came down and he averted his eyes.
Katara caught the change in his demeanor and propped herself on her elbows. "What's wrong?" she asked groggily.
Zuko shook his head and exhaled. "Aidan," he answered simply. Of course, the first thing that came to heart at the thought was anger; he wanted to fucking rip off Aidan'shead, but he found himself turned around thinking about it. His thumb ran over the bandaging on Katara's elbow, smoothly and softly.
Katara looked at him for a moment, and then looked away, thoughtful. "Yeah," she agreed solemnly, dropping back to the bed. "Asshole," she murmured irritably, and then felt rather like a bitch for it. But why should she? He'd completely betrayed her - either that or he was just a huge liar, getting her to open her arms to him and then (literally) burn her!
Zuko sat up, carefully moving his hand from Katara's arm to be sure he didn't nudge it or hurt it in any way, shape or form. He supposed he'd better stop worrying about it. He glanced back at her as he reached down and tugged off his socks, tossing them across the room in little black balls. "Come on," he spoke up. "It's getting late."
Katara nodded and sat up too, tugging off her own socks - their shoes were somewhere by Zuko's bedroom door. She glanced down at her tight shirt and grimaced, forcing herself to get up from her seat. "Hey, do you have like, an outgrown t-shirt, or something?" she drew up her shoulders to stretch them.
Zuko strolled over to his drawer unit and opened the second-to-top drawer, pulling out a plain, loose red t-shirt of his. He balled it up and tossed it to her. "That should do the trick. Bathroom's just through-," Zuko glanced back to her, to see her quickly shedding her shirt to put on the one he'd given her. He gave a light chuckle, looking back to the drawer unit, closing the drawer and opening the one under it, to find a pair of tracksuit trousers that would do for pajamas.
He didn't usually wear pajamas - he tended to just pull off his jeans and hop into bed in his underwear and a t-shirt to save trouble - but he supposed that would be asking for trouble with Katara here. Zuko quickly switched from his jeans to his pajama trousers - since Katara didn't mind changing with him in the room, why should he? - and them turned to the bed, to see Katara climbing in already, having shed her jeans as well, wearing only her underwear and his shirt. Zuko beamed, despite the night's events.
It wasn't like they hadn't had sleepovers before, of course. Katara had spent more time in his bed, ironically, than even Mai. But not since their relationship had become romantic. Admittedly, they had spent nights together in her bed, but Zuko couldn't help but feel happy at seeing her in his. It was possessive and random, but it still made him smile.
Katara scooted over so she wasn't on his side of the bed, already knowing which one it was, and then rolled onto her side to face him. Before she could tell him to get his ass in bed with her, Zuko was already on it, climbing in next to her and reaching for the lamp on the bedside table. The light went off, the room went dark, and the only thing Zuko could see for a moment was the numbers on the digital alarm clock beside the lamp. Just past three in the morning.
Oh well. Zuko had gone to sleep later than this before, and still been up with the sun.
Katara lay on her left side, with her injured arm laid over her waist, her eyes fixed on him in the dark. Zuko could tell, just by the silence she employed, and so he rolled onto his back and raised his arm for her to get under it. Happy with this, Katara snuggled herself into him and the two proceeded to drop off like pebbles into water.
When Zuko's alarm went off the next morning, he almost missed that overly cheery radio announcer that had screamed him out of bed every morning for the last three years. What he woke up to was instead the dull tones of a weather announcement in Chinese, or something. He didn't really need to listen to it; he could see by the window that it was a sunny day and it might occasionally rain later on, judging by the scattered clouds at the corners of the sky.
He was extremely tired - to the point that he closed his eyes again and considered going back to sleep, which was very unlike him. He felt a dull hangover at the center of his head, but it was nothing he hadn't ignored in the past. He lay in consciousness with his eyes closed for a moment before he blinked them open and realized with a bit of surprise that he had had no nightmares last night. A grin played on his face. All that trudging along on crack pills had been for nothing, he told himself in a scolding manner. 'I am a fucking idiot and I will listen to Katara more often' he vowed mentally.
His morning was made considerably better by the aforementioned being snuggled up to him, one leg draped over both of his and her injured arm draped over his chest, hand holding onto the loose bit of cloth between the sleeve and body of his shirt. "Oh, shit, can we sleep a little longer?" she grumbled, scooting up a little more to him until her forehead was against his cheek. She tensed slightly, seeming to realize her own hangover.
Zuko rolled his head aside to kiss her on the forehead. "Morning," he whispered tenderly, and made his brain wake up and become aware of the hand he had around her back so he could trace circles on it with his palm.
Katara half chuckled and half whimpered in protest. "Don't do that, you're making me tired," she tilted her head up and found the nearest point of his face - his chin - and put a kiss there. She propped her head onto his shoulder, and eventually, a grin found its way to her face too.
And then dropped, almost the exact same moment reality flooded Zuko's mind. Aidan. Jet. Toph.
Zuko hated how you woke up having forgotten the terrible shit from the days before, only for it to whack you in the face at the breakfast table. Katara's grip on him tightened a little bit. It comforted them both. "We'd better go to school," Zuko swallowed, staring dully at the ceiling, and still tracing those circles on her back.
Katara slowly slid her injured arm back to her own body, to be sure she didn't hurt it. She almost wanted to say 'oh, Sokka will have brought my uniform to school for me' and then she remembered that Sokka was gone too. Katara brows came together and she almost wanted to cry. What came out was the kind of whimper that coincides with a lump in the back of your throat.
Zuko kissed her forehead again, and squeezed her closer to him.
"Dear Zuko and Katara.
"Sokka seems to think you are having a steamy affair now that he's not there to keep an eye on you. I guess I'm writing to make sure he doesn't. We miss you, and want to know what's going on. How are things going? The Cookie is kicking now, and it's waking me up at night, but I don't mind. Sokka put the crib back together, even though we both doubt we'll be here for the birth.
"I think he just feels better with the crib already put together. Prepared. I can't blame him; nobody was prepared for the Dai Li taking over.
"Sokka wanted me to ask if you know anything about Toph yet. I had a whole bunch of things to ask you, but most of them have gone out of my mind now.
"Write back soon. Lots of love, Suki."
There was another letter that had been sent with it - from Sokka to Hakoda - that Katara intended to deliver straight after school. For now, Katara settled herself with this letter. She thought of hiding it in her locker, but knew that if the Dai Li searched it, they'd have solid proof she'd at the very least helped hide Sokka and Suki. And Zuko's name was on the letter too.
Zuko, of course, was standing beside her, having handed her the letter. The messenger bird had delivered the letters to his uncle's house, and Zuko had dropped by on his bike that morning to pick them up. He'd already read the letter, it having been partially addressed to him. He took in the mild smile on Katara's face, and it did something to lift his own mood, but there was an air of seriousness that took away from anything happy nowadays.
There were two Dai Li agents at either end of the hallway. It probably wasn't smart to read the letter in school, but they hadn't had time otherwise, and Zuko had expected Katara to want the letter as soon as possible. And she had. His secret girlfriend slipped the letter into her school bad with her left hand, careful not to move the right one too much. The uniform jacket had long sleeves, long enough to hide all her bandages and then some, but that didn't help when it came to the pain.
"What class do you have now?" Zuko asked, adjusting his own rucksack on his shoulder so he could reach in and check his new planner.
Katara glanced to the timetable she'd glued to the inside of her locker door. "Uh … Science," she answered lamely. "You?"
Zuko pulled his mouth to one side as he ran his eyes over the schedule. "Math," he replied, looking back up. "I'll see you on first break," he suggested with a brief smile, slipping his planner back into his rucksack and pulling it over his shoulder.
"Sounds like a plan. Library?" Katara tugged the strap on her shoulder bag to make it more comfortable on her bad shoulder, winced and then forced a smile. The words 'I love you' sprang to her lips, but there were people around, and agents, and she had to hold it back. Katara tried to convey it with her eyes.
Zuko smiled the same kind of smile, patted her on the shoulder and walked around her to head to his homeroom at the other end of the school. Katara couldn't help but glance back at him to check out the goods as she shut her locker and walked away. When she finally approached her homeroom class, Lydia was standing outside, her arms crossed over her chest.
Lydia looked up and stepped toward Katara upon seeing her, and Katara guessed the blonde had been waiting for her. "Stop whatever it is you lot have been doing," she hissed, one hand coming and grabbing Katara's elbow.
Katara blinked thoughtfully. They had invited Lydia to join the rebellion; she hadn't replied. "Huh? Wha- …" she paused, confused, drew a breath to ask why, before Lydia interrupted with an answer.
"You're going to get everyone killed, and I don't want that to happen," Lydia raised her other hand and poked Katara in the chest.
Katara furrowed her brow, snatched her arm out of Lydia's grasp and batted the blonde's hand away from her. She couldn't resist but roll her eyes at the Londoner. "Look, we invited you to join, you didn't want to join, you didn't, and that was all fine. But if you don't want anything to do with us, don't come around and tell us to stop. We won't stop. We can't. I don't know what you know about America, since you're new here," Katara hated sounding so bitchy, but she had to get this across, "but we don't simply give up here."
Lydia screwed up her face and raised a fist threateningly. "Don't try my patience, Marina. I'm dead serious here!" she seethed.
Katara narrowed her eyes. "Me. Too." She grit her teeth.
"Hey!" a voice barked across the hallway. Both girls looked and saw a Dai Li agent who had been coming up the stairwell; it didn't look like he'd caught on to anything. "Shouldn't you two be in homeroom now?" the agent held his arms behind his back and tilted his head back, gazing at then authoritatively.
The two exchanged dark glances and then turned into homeroom. Katara wondered just why Lydia was so dead-set against the rebellion; surely she wasn't so fucking thick as to want to live in a communist world, right? Jeez. Then again, Lydia had always been a stubborn pain in the ass, and maybe she just wanted to get into a fight with Katara so things could go back to normal. Katara kind of supposed she could understand that.
She'd give anything right now to yell at crappy old Donovan instead of staring at scary Dai Li agents.
Katara sat herself down in homeroom and dropped her chin to her palm, irritated and tense, and mildly hung-over.
Poppy Bei Fong gripped the edge of the desk with shapely, delicate hands, her eyes wide and staring into an abyss of wordless shock. Her baby; her helpless little baby, attacking Dai Li agents? No. No, Toph wasn't stupid; she had to know what the Dai Li wanted. They wanted to share their way of life with the world; they Bei Fongs had done their utmost best to teach Toph the way their culture worked, and now … to hear that Toph would attack her own kind …
Lao kept one hand on the back of his wife's seat, the other on her shoulder, and his eyes pointed at his cousin, who stood on the other side of the desk once owned by the chief of police in Dahlia Coast. "Details," he began solemnly, "I want details. Tell me where she was seen; what she was doing to make you believe-," but he was cut off abruptly.
Captain Chang-Ming interjected reasonably and calmly. "Your daughter was first spotted nearly a week ago. It seemed she broke cover to test her capabilities against our forces; she attacked with earthbending and to avoid injuring her, our agents were forced to retreat. It would seem there is a Dai Li traitor, someone who taught her to bend, blind or not. We are working to find the traitor.
"More recently, she was seen last night distracting our agents so that rebel raiders could escape with their wounded. She and a masked archer took down nearly sixty of our agents. My superiors are not happy, Lao. I cannot continue to tell my troops not to attack their opponent for fear of hurting her."
Lao grit his teeth. Toph - that ungrateful little brat. He didn't even have the words to express how angry he was. "Then next time your troops spot her … I want them to … to take her down," he stood straighter, removing his hands from the chair and his wife and holding them behind his back.
Poppy swirled in her seat and grasped his clothes. "No!" she exclaimed, clenching on his tunic. "Lao, no! You can't!" she insisted desperately. Her baby! Oh, Jesus, this had to be a misunderstanding! Toph was tiny and fragile and blind! She couldn't have been the bender who'd attacked their armies; she just couldn't.
Lao ignored his wife and glared into his cousin's eyes. "I want her stopped. I brought her into this world and I will have her taken out of it just as easily. Take her," Lao leant forward and jabbed a finger down on the desk. "Dead or alive," he narrowed his eyes. The noise that came from his wife was inhuman, almost a shriek, mostly an aquatic kind of moan.
Chang-Ming bowed and thumped his fist against his chest three times. "It will be done."
Katara couldn't help but feel guilty at the dark glare Jin Territa gave her across her science classroom. It didn't take much to guess she would no longer be attending their rebel meetings. They were too dangerous now, according to pretty much everyone. Katara grumbled to herself as she stepped out of the class. If people weren't prepared to take risks, then they shouldn't have joined the rebellion in the first place.
'Wow, Katara. That's not dark or bitchy at all,' drawled the sarcastic devil on Katara's left shoulder. Katara imagined that if the long-absent angel on her right were present, the two halves of her conscience would be sitting on the same bandwagon right now.
Katara tried to push off the irritation she felt, but it wasn't easy. Hopefully seeing Zuko would calm her down. It usually did. She marched herself to the library, where she spotted Zuko sitting against a desk with an Asian looking boy, slight in build, other than some muscle along his shoulders and upper arms. Zuko looked as though he was trying to end the conversation, but the boy continued eagerly.
Katara remembered Zuko taking her to get a look at him, and instantly recognized him as Corporal Su's son, Tao. She wondered if she should go in to save him from the conversation, but then wondered if Zuko didn't want her to get too close to the kid; after all, he was Dai Li, when it came down to it. They were sure of that, at least. Still, Katara mused, as she glanced around at the nearby agents, it would look weird if she lingered here for too long, waiting. She didn't want to tip them off that they knew Tao was a spy.
The Painted Lady stepped into the library and slowly approached Zuko, opening her shoulder bag to give herself a reason to steal Zuko away from Tao. Zuko seemed to tense the moment he saw her approaching, and looked as though he wanted her to get away, but it was too late.
"Katara," Zuko began awkwardly, swallowing and standing straighter as his words with Tao ceased to be.
Katara smiled at him for a moment. "Hey, you said you were going to help me with my Math homework, remember? Figured you'd be here," she spoke up calmly and innocently, giving him a back-story to stick to with Tao. He blinked at her and then smiled briefly.
Zuko nodded. "Yeah, I did," he agreed, and then looked to Tao, who he now realized was staring at Katara. Zuko's good brow came down, hard, and he cleared his throat, snapping the other boy out of his daze. "Sorry, Tao, I promised Katara I would help her with her-,"
Tao suddenly smiled - Zuko hadn't seen such a look on the boy's face - at Katara, his gray eyes brightening. "Katara Marina," he greeted, seeming to recognize her from somewhere. "Forgive me for, my, ah, forwardness … but I heard what you did with that crazy guy with the bomb. That's amazing."
Katara blinked at him for a moment and then suddenly smiled. "Oh, uh … thanks!" she chirped, raising a hand to the back of her head. "I mean, I guess someone had to do it, right?"
Tao smiled a little wider, raised a hand and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Indeed," he agreed, nodding. "You were so incredibly brave. I really must commend you," he stated formally, bowing his head slightly. Katara guessed he was being silly - Zuko guessed he had been raised to bow like this - and giggled.
Katara ruffled her hair thoughtfully. "Thanks, again. It's nice to hear someone actually knows what I did," she admitted, and felt a blush cross her cheeks.
Zuko wanted to puke, and nudged Katara irritably, his gaze turning back to Tao. "Anyway, Tao, we'd better get working," he forced a friendly look. Not only was this kid a Dai Li spy from New Jersey, but a freaking charmer too. And Zuko would have to be blind not to know this guy was already ... interested ... in Katara. 'I heard you did this' was most likely code for 'I asked around about you'. Either the guy really was attracted to Katara, or his superiors had told him to watch her. Both scenarios were bad. "See you again," Zuko added amiably.
Tao continued to smile at Katara for a moment, and Zuko really wanted to punch that smile off his face, but they had more important things to worry about. Zuko and Katara both stood in awkward silence as Tao smiled and waved and passed them. As soon as he saw Tao disappear out the door, a breath escaped Zuko. Katara arched a brow at her secret boyfriend.
"He's not that bad," she nudged him.
Zuko stared at her as though he wanted to burn a hole through the smile Tao had left on her face. "He was flirting with you," he pointed out darkly. "I thought we'd already established I was the jealous type," he dropped his voice to a whisper to remind her of that little detail. The ghost of a smirk crossed his face.
Katara's mild, polite smile disappeared and she suddenly grinned like an idiot, looking as though she wanted to grab his arm and hug it. "Have I ever mentioned how much I love that about you?" she replied, her voice also a whisper, but so casual that if anyone heard it, they wouldn't think anything of it. Katara drew a breath and then gestured out of the library. "Come on, then. We'd better get out of here; too many people around."
Zuko agreed wordlessly, and the two stepped out of the library, continuing down the hallway for a short while until Zuko recognized where they were. He had been in this hallway when Aidan had come back from prison. He glanced out the upper floor window - the same one he'd threatened to throw Aidan through. A hand came up and pinched the bridge of his nose. How could he not have seen that coming? Aidan was mad about world destruction.
Of course he'd be on the 'communist-America' bandwagon.
He turned his mind to the letter from Suki. He supposed they ought to figure out what they planned to tell her and Sokka about Toph. That they hadn't seen or heard from her, and that it looked like she really was dead. After everything they had done to save Toph from the CIA, she had died at the hands of the Dai Li. There was a kick in the teeth for you. He grunted, not wanting to think about that just yet.
Kelly drummed the pads of her fingers on the steering wheel. This was stupid. So fucking, fucking stupid. Why was she doing this?
Because of Katara. Katara had needed this, and she had wanted to help Katara.
Kelly willed herself to get the fuck out of the car, but she was parked in front of the old practice where she and Kya had worked together, unable to move from the driver's seat. She had wanted to leave this town the second Hakoda had expressed feelings for her, but this had held her. She knew she had wanted to help Katara, and she had promised to, and she never broke her promises.
She reached out for the door handle and tugged it down with a hollow click. The door popped open next to her, and Kelly reached across herself to unbuckle her seatbelt. Kelly jangled her keys in her hand, swiveled in her seat and stepped out onto the curb. There had to be something in the old practice to help Katara find Kya's killers. As an accomplished psychiatrist, Kelly wondered if she should really be helping a fifteen-year-old girl find certain people only to slaughter them in cold blood.
But these were the men who'd murdered Kya. They deserved what was coming to them. Right?
Kelly had to shuffle through her keys in search before she found her key to the practice and unlocked the door. She glanced up the street; there were cars swishing past on the road, and she saw an agent at either end of the street, keeping watch. She hadn't done anything wrong, she reminded herself. They weren't about to attack her.
The door creaked open, and dust scattered after years of stillness. Kelly ducked into the darkness of the powerless practice.
There were murmurs of hesitation that lunch hour in the underground gymnasium. Rebels with second thoughts filled the space with quiet mutters of discontent; of fear and wariness. Aang was disheartened to see that Jin didn't show up, but he hadn't expected her to after Jet's wounds. Smellerbee and Longshot were also absent, but the Duke was present, his face set hard in determination.
Aang could practically read his thoughts on his features. He wanted to get the Dai Li back for what they'd done to Jet. The Avatar didn't know if this was bad or good.
Slowly, Aang pushed some tables together and leapt up with airbending, clearing his throat to gain the attention of the rebels. He searched the room for Katara and Zuko, but they too were absent; they usually weren't, so he assumed they were missing only because they were being careful not to lead any agents to the hidden meeting place.
Aang held one hand high over his head, the plans acquired in the raid held in it. "I want everyone to gather around!" he called across the gym, his voice more powerful than usual; Jet was always the one to put a firm hold on the meetings, but someone had to do it in his absence. Jet was a born leader, Aang mused to himself. The rebels turned their gazes to him, but otherwise remained unmoved. Toph would've smacked every single one of them for the looks they were giving him right now.
Aang couldn't help but furrow his brow, irritated.
"Listen up!" he pointed his other hand into the crowd. "If you guys think we're giving up because our first raid went bad, then you're not cut out for this!" he yelled at them sternly. "Yes, Jet got hurt, and Yes, we nearly didn't make it out. But if we let that stop us, then last night was for nothing! This is bigger than any single one of us! Bigger than me! Bigger than Jet! And Jet went in knowing that."
The crowd turned more to face him, more perceptible to his words.
"There are others caught up in this war!" Aang explained, his hands coming to his sides and his eyes running over his rebels. "Families; mothers and fathers and children who can't fight for themselves. We're not fighting just for our own futures here. We're fighting for the way of life we had before!"
Some drew nearer to Aang.
"We're fighting for the hot coffee you dunk your donuts in on a Saturday morning at the coffee shop on third street! For the moment where everyone sings 'take me out to the ball park' at a baseball game!" he raised his fist up and then threw it down to point into the faces of his peers. "For your right to love someone!" he added in seriously, having heard all about the dating ban.
One boy cheered. Another joined in behind him.
"We're fighting for the hangover you have on New Years' Day! For the sprinkles in your ice-cream soda! For the homework that bitch Donovan gives you that you never plan to do!" Aang found a grin wriggling its way onto his face.
The cheers grew, and the crowd assembled around him, neat and packed and inspired.
"For the notes you pass around the classroom! The spring break surfing competition! The Blue Spirit! The Painted Lady! What are we fighting for?" Aang shouted out, straining his words with every emotion he had left in his body after this crazy month, and in some corner of his mind, both feared and hoped that the agents above would hear him.
"Dahlia Coast!" the room roared.
"Why aren't we going to the others?" Zuko murmured, as Katara pulled him into a classroom he could only assume, and hope, was empty. The door clicked shut behind them and he scanned his eyes around the dimly lit room. There were no agents, no students, no 'educators'. They were alone. That fact alone brought a stream of giddiness into Zuko's stomach.
Katara smirked at him, catching wind of the little smile playing on his face. She allowed him to think of whatever it was in his mind in the moment, for a few seconds before she shot it down. "We need to write a letter back to Suki and Sokka," she told him quietly, and checked the windows to be sure nobody outside would hear. The door was windowless. If an agent passed the room, and they were quiet enough, they wouldn't get caught.
Zuko watched her approach a desk and pull out a chair. She flipped open her shoulder bag and pulled out the letter, putting it on the surface of the desk and drawing out one of her school books to pull some paper out of. She tore out some pages, set them on the desk, drew a pen from the bottom of the bag, and put the book back in. Her bag slumped to the floor when she was done with it.
Katara began to write. "I'm telling them about the raid," she began, eyes focused on the paper as she wrote. "And I'll tell them we haven't heard from Toph."
Zuko nodded and pulled up a seat next to her with an exhale. "Right. And your Waterbending training; you should tell them about that too."
"Right. What about you? I thought you were training with your uncle. Pakku said something about it."
Zuko furrowed his brow. "Yeah, I know. I keep telling myself I'm gonna do it, but a part of me is averse to the whole 'shoot-fire-out-of-my-hands' thing," he tried on a joke for size, but when he looked up to Katara, she saw her face looking only concerned. He breathed a sigh. "It's going to be gone soon, anyway, right? The bending? So, why put time and effort into it?"
Katara stared at him for a moment. "Aang said it himself, though," she started, slowly, "We'll need benders to take down the Dai Li. Isn't it worth it just to take oout the Dai Li?"
Zuko dropped an elbow on the table and looked down. "I was just thinking about it. What …" Zuko breathed out and ran his eyes over his own hands. "What if there could be bending … but no Dai Li?" he suggested, looking up to her again, to see a thoughtful, pensive expression on her face.
Katara opened her mouth to protest - bending was dangerous, and that was that - but then she stopped and shut her eyes, thinking. It sounded nice and all, but still. It was like giving every other bucktoothed hick, psycho rapist, crazy serial killer and nutcase in the world super powers and letting them have a field day! They needed to get rid of bending completely.
A world of benders was only safe, ironically, ruled by the Dai Li. Nobody would go against them, bending or not.
So it was a choice between life the way it had been and life under the Dai Li. Katara knew her choice already, but by the hopeful way Zuko was looking at her, felt she shouldn't say anything on the matter. She just pulled a face and changed the subject. "You know, Lydia talked to me earlier."
Zuko was quiet for a moment, catching her attempt to steer the conversation elsewhere. By that alone, he could tell she didn't agree with him. He breathed a sigh and switched back to the subject at hand. "So I guess I should learn firebending, then, huh?" he asked plainly, almost spitting his words, "Just to lose it all once everything's done and dusted?" he added distastefully.
Katara glared at him. "Zuko, be reasonable," she began calmly, trying to piece together her words. She understood he was thinking about it, and it wasn't up to her to change his mind, but he was already tense, for some reason. She didn't want to push any berserk buttons. "Bending … it's not something people are ready for. People don't get the whole 'with great power comes great responsibility' thing like you and me and Aang," she tried tentatively.
Zuko suddenly got up, and Katara was sure she saw his shoulders tensing up. What was up with him? It was as if something had just crossed his mind and just taken a crap on their mood. "You're probably right," he murmured, moving his thumbs to tuck into jeans' pockets, and then realizing his uniform trousers didn't have pockets. Katara heard him grunt under his breath. "It seems like a waste," he pointed out dully, turning his back to her and pacing slowly.
The Marina girl lowered her eyes and mulled this over. She considered the fact that if Aang had his way, bending would disappear and her Waterbending with it. She winced inwardly. Her element seemed almost a part of her now. Losing it would be like … like losing a limb, she supposed. It was so deeply intertwined with her personality and her inner thoughts now.
"It's going to hurt," she spoke up thoughtfully, eyes downcast. "To lose it."
Zuko glanced back to her and caught the solemn look on her face. It was solemn, but serene, and almost accepting. Zuko frowned, hard. Why should they lose their bending now? From what Aang had said, it seemed like Bending had always been, and that it had somehow been deactivated in the first place, about a thousand years ago; probably after Aang's time. It was all well and good for Aang to say how dangerous it was, when he'd lived in a time where it had been everything.
It was genetic. Something inside their own minds and bodies, and for someone to take it away seemed more outrageous than the Dai Li and the bomb giving it to them. Zuko raised a hand in front of him and focused on the light of the sun outside. His irritation flared up in him, and a spark lit at his fingertip, before a flame came to life in his palm. His brows came down even harder, and he wanted to kill the flame, but it only grew.
'Calm down; Just calm down.' He told himself, and drew a breath. The flame died as he told it to, but only just.
Katara was looking up at him again - he could feel her gaze on his back, and he turned to look at her. She quickly looked back down to her paper and continued writing, as though she had been thinking something she felt guilty for thinking. Zuko approached her again and put his hands on the table. "Katara. What if we could keep our bending?"
Katara tried to keep her eyes down.
"Katara. Listen to me."
She paused with the pen in her fingers and looked up again, her brows down but her eyes receptive.
Zuko smiled briefly at the thoughts skittering across his mind, and the open look on her face. "Think about it," he blinked optimistically, "Can you imagine all the possibilities of a world with bending?" he zeroed his focus in on her blue eyes, his gaze unrelenting. "Katara; look me in the eye right now and tell me you don't feel empowered by your Waterbending. Tell me you don't mind having to lose it, and we can completely forget this conversation."
Katara opened her mouth to protest, but paused, sighing. "Zuko, you heard Aang. I know there are a lot of possibilities, but I'm telling you right now that there are more bad things that could happen than good," she tried to reason with him. "I love waterbending. But sometimes … you just have to give up something you love for what you believe in."
Zuko stared at her for a moment, looking confused. He looked hurt for a moment, and then his good brow came down, hard. It would seem the two had extremely opposing views on bending, and while he didn't like being at odds like this with her, he thought she had a point. You had to make a stand for what you believed in; and Zuko believed his bending was a part of him now, and he didn't want to delve deeper into it without knowing it was going to stay. It would hurt.
But he couldn't say that. He shut his eyes, loosened his expression, and sighed through his nose, looking for words. "I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, huh?" he scoffed, standing straight and removing his hands from the table, moving out of that looming position he'd just held over her.
Katara went back to writing her letter. As much as he knew she needed to write the letter, he wanted to talk to her about bending. To ask her what it felt like when her element shifted to her command. He wanted to convince her that there was a way they could keep their bending, but even he didn't know that there was. He just hoped.
Katara left the school frustrated after her last lesson. Zuko had offered to give her a ride home on the bike, but she told him she had some errand to run for Aang. This got a little grunt of irritation from him, but she tried to ignore it. Katara wondered if this had spurred out of the disaster last night; maybe he was confused because he'd seen Aidan firebending, and she'd been hurt, and Jet was probably going to die. Maybe it would pass. Maybe he'd change his mind and realize that he was being crazy.
Jeez. She hadn't wanted to be one of those girlfriends. She didn't want to be the type that crushed dreams and stuff. He wanted to keep his bending. What was so wrong about that?
Bah! Everything was wrong with it! The only reason she had learnt Waterbending was to fight fire with fire against the Dai Li. Bending against bending. It was the only way to beat them. When everything was over, she could go back to normal. Ha. Yeah, right.
"Miss Marina?" someone spoke up from behind, and Katara instantly gasped and turned on her heel, ready to proclaim her innocence.
"I wasn't-!" Katara exclaimed as she turned, stopping. When she saw the Tao boy behind her, she frowned, let her shoulders droop and sighed heavily. Katara was glad not to see an agent, but someone in a uniform. Just a student. She didn't think he was a Dai Li spy; maybe he was a Dai Li agents' son, but that didn't make him a spy. If Hakoda was a secret agent and moved around the country and had to go from school to school, she'd probably be irritated with people thinking she was a spy.
Or something like that that actually made sense.
"Oh. Sorry. I thought you were … um … you know."
Tao blinked at her, pushed his glasses further up his nose with an index finger, and smiled briefly. "Sorry about that, Miss Marina. I just … saw you walking alone and I thought someone ought to …" he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Walk with you. For … safety purposes," he added. At this point, Katara did a quick once-over of him. He wasn't unattractive. Slightly taller than her, and a year older, and he had that whole 'quiet and sensitive' thing going for him too.
Katara blinked at him for a moment, and she could have laughed. For one, she was the Painted Lady. Tao didn't know that, and she was glad he didn't, but she was the Painted Lady and most people couldn't hurt her if they tried. Secondly, she was a waterbender; and a damn fine one, if she said so herself. Again, not that she wanted anyone to know that. But it was somewhat charming just that he thought she was all delicate and girly and all that shit the Dai Li wanted girls to be.
Katara sighed and smiled. "Well, come on then. I'm just headed to Vinny's ice cream. You know the place?"
Tao nodded and smiled too, approaching and taking her side. "I do, Miss Marina. It's quaint and lively. A perfect choice for an after-school snack, if I may say so," he pointed out approvingly.
Katara found herself grinning, adjusting her bag on her injured shoulder. "It's Katara. I get the whole politeness thing, but I don't tend to go by my last name," she told him calmly. "And yeah, Vinny's is a great place for after-school get-togethers," she added, and then her smile faltered reminiscently.
Tao's face softened somewhat. "Of course, Katara," he nodded amicably, trying her name on his tongue. "I find the caramel sundaes there to be rather fantastic."
Katara laughed, despite the bad mood Zuko had put her in.
Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz.
The Painted Lady suddenly frowned and smacked a hand to her bag as they walked, feeling her phone vibrating inside it. She shot Tao an apologetic look, because she thought it might be considered rude to answer one's cell phone in this situation, and flipped open her bag. She didn't worry about the letters; she'd given both to Zuko to take to his uncle's messenger birds. Katara phone slid out into her hand and she gazed at the screen, disinterested at first, hoping it wasn't Zuko.
'TOPH BEI FONG. ANSWER. REJECT.'
She blinked, incredulous. Perhaps she had answered the letter too soon. She looked to Tao. "Sorry, I have to take this call!" she blurted suddenly, thwapped her thumb into the green light on the screen and brought the phone up to her ear. "Hello?" she asked suddenly. Tao stood near - too near for comfort - and waited. She wanted to say her friend's name.
But maybe it was just a kid who'd found Toph's phone, fucking around. The idea hurt. And Toph was blind now, so she probably couldn't use it. Oh, Jesus, Toph was really and truly dead.
There was a clatter on the other end of the line. Katara's heart leapt into her throat and she couldn't hold it back. "Toph? Toph are you there?" she found herself asking desperately. "Toph?" she shouted into the phone.
"Katara!" the phone sputtered reluctantly, crackling with dystopian chaos on the other end. Toph. Oh, fucking hell, Toph! She was alive, thank the fucking heavens! Katara wanted to slap her for scaring everyone half to death, but then the blind bandit shouted on the other end of the line. "Get off me! Fuck you! You'll never take me alive!"
Katara felt her face fall, and her eyes grew salty. "T-Toph?" she asked, this time her voice wavering. Tao stared at her, and Katara was glad he didn't understand.
"I'm alright! I'm blind and I'm an earthbender- Agh! -but … I'm alright, okay Katara? You can hear me right?"
The older girl struggled to take this in. She answered immediately. "I can hear you!" she replied.
"Good-," Toph began to say, and then there was a heavy 'whump' of a noise, and Katara assumed the blind bandit was down on the ground. She sounded breathless and exhausted. The phone must have clattered to the floor near her. "Agh, shit!" Toph was gasping in pain. "You bastards! Get off! Get-!"
'BEEEEEEEEEEEEE'
Katara waited for more. She waited for some long, long seconds, and then her phone ended the call for her. She stared into the middle distance, slowly pulled her phone from her ear, and then moved her staring gaze to the phone. "Oh fuck," Katara whispered to herself. She looked to Tao, who looked as though he was waiting for an explanation.
"What was that?" he asked slowly.
Katara tossed the phone back into her bag and started to run away; to find Aang, to find someone; anyone. "I have to go! I'm sorry!"
A/N: WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME.
Okay, so the last chapter was WAY too wordy for my regular writing style, and this chapter has kind of gone the other way, but I'm finding my style again, kay? And I've taken wayyy too long to write this. It's because of Makorra; I find myself writing oneshots I never actually post.
I think. Not sure.
In ... other news ... *pathetic whimper* ... I have lambs. In my room. Two of them. *Head on keyboard*. Seriously. I know how long it's been since I posted a new chapter by how long I've had them - nearly a month.
This time they're not orphans, but their mother just rejected them. I had Toots first, since she was the runt, and the first rejected, and when we went up a few days later, her twin brother (now named Tony) had also been rejected. And now they're in the back yard in the day and in my room in the night. Yes; they have their food in a baby bottle.
Also, Korra is in less than an hour goddammit and I'll be out of the house when it gets on the web. More random facts about my life? Sure, why not?
Last night I went to the opera, checked the LOK tumblr at my grandmother's house and freaked out when I saw that Zuko's alive (*cough*and Zutara is still technically possible*cough*)! Grandma thinks I'm weird. Also, my horse got taken away. I had her on loan and the bitch who loaned her to us sold her without telling us. She took her away. :'(.
Yeah. I'm gonna need lotsa therapy.
Next chapter, I hope to get back to my regular style; btw, tell me if I'm getting better. Cause I don't friggin know. REVIEW!
Chapter title lyrics are from The Killers' 'Human'.
(Also, the ATLA fic page is like, deserted now that everyone's moved to LOK. Wtf?)
