Okay guys, thank you all so much for the reviews! And if I seemed at all (excuse my language) bitchy in any of my answers to your reviews, I'm really sorry! Things have just been pissing me off lately and now, I feel like I don't deserve all you of you being so nice to me. I'm sorry again; will you still read my stories? Please? Please with earnestness from when I first started to write this?!
"SOKKA!" Aang bent down and pulled his friend up and hugged him tightly. "I was so worried about you!"
"AOW! Aang! Good to see you too but I can't breath you're squishing my lungs!" Sokka said pushing the airbender away.
"Sorry. Where's Katara and Zuko? Are they here? Is Katara okay? Are they still with Azula? How'd you guys escape? Is Katara okay?" the little avatar questioned excitedly.
"Aang! Calm down! Katara and Zuko are alright! They're asleep in a cave not far from here. I just left cuz I had a sudden call to nature then some stupid animal stole my boomerang and ran al the way down here and up a tree!" Sokka shook his fist at the big green eyes staring down at him, then the next thing he knew he had a shrieking Momo screeching hitting him repeatedly on the head with the handle of the boomerang.
"Haha! I think Momo missed you Sokka! Hey, what're we waiting for c'mon let's go get Katara which way is the cave how far away is it are you sure they were sleeping how close was Zuko to-," he grabbed hold of Sokka sleeve and started to pull him into the forest when he was stopped by a-,
"Snoozles! You're alive!" He was then pummeled by a little grinning earthbender and once again he couldn't breath.
"Again with the lung squishing!" he said squirming out of Toph's iron grasp.
Toph laughed good-naturedly and punched him in the arm. "Hey, where are Sugar Queen and Scar Face?"
"Ow!" he rubbed his arm. "They're fine; I left them in the cave a little way away from here."
"Well come on! We have to go get them!" Aang grabbed Sokka by the sleeve again and started pulling him into the forest.
"It's okay Aang they're safe. We can go back and get them in the morning when the storm is over; it seems to have gotten worse since I left." As if on cue, the rain intensified and the lightning flashed even more dangerously.
"We can't leave them up there alone, won't they worry about you?"
"Aang it's too dangerous to go back up there right now, the best thing to do is wait until morning! They're fine Aang! They both really powerful benders they can take care of themselves!"
Before the upset Avatar could protest any more Toph stomped a bigger tent out of the ground and ushered them in.
"What about Iroh? Is he okay?" Sokka asked noticing the old firebender was not with them.
"He's fine; he's sharing a tent with Appa, it's warmer with the big fluffy monster radiating heat like ten pot belly stoves," said Toph shaking her hair out. It poofed out in a giant frizzball and she sat down grinning. "So Snoozles, how'd you guys escape?"
Sokka began his narration on how they woke up in the cell and how Katara had been injured (Aang had plenty of questions about that much to Toph's annoyance), about Kim Lian, how she he gave them the potion to help them escape, and about Jet and how he stayed behind for a chance of redemption.
"I don't know what happened to Lian or to Jet, or if they're even alive anymore." Sokka put his face in his hands and sighed. The other two were silent for a heavy moment, and the only sound was that of the storm outside.
After a while, Aang stood up, "I'm going to get Katara." He didn't say anything about Zuko.
"No Aang, it's much too dangerous and there's still way too much at stake to risk losing you again," said Sokka standing up.
"We can't just leave her there alone!" he protested grabbing his glider.
Sokka stood in the doorway. "I'm not gonna let you go out there. And she's not alone, she's with Zuko."
"And you trust him!? Don't you remember all the times he tried to kill us? He's not a good guy!" the boy said angrily trying to push past him.
"You wouldn't know that! Who's spent almost two months with the guy in the first place? You don't know him Aang! He's changed I know he has!" Oh my God I'm defending Zuko! Has the world gone mad?!
"How do you know?" Aang demanded.
"He's saved my life plenty of times and you know that!"
"I don't care! He hasn't changed he's not capable of change! If he had the chance he would turn on us again I know it!" The poor little Avatar was getting so mad and so worked up he was shaking.
"He had been given that chance, remember? He could've turned on us then and there but he didn't because he changed!" Sokka was getting more and more agitated as well.
Aang grit his teeth then stood solidly before Sokka. "I'm going whether you like it or not."
The older boy crossed his arms. "I don't like it. And you're not going unless you can move me."
Aang stomped his foot and Sokka was neck high in the ground. "Aang! She's fine! You don't have to save her from anything or anyone!"
But the airbender ignored him and stepped out into the storm.
"Aang! Aang!" he saw Toph sitting there staring at him with cloudy green eyes. "Why aren't you stopping him?!" he demanded.
Toph pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "What do I care?"
"He's your friend!" Sokka shrieked.
"So what? It's not like I can change his mind. He doesn't listen to reason when it comes to Katara," She said boredly.
"What are you talking about?"
"Isn't it obvious? He's totally in love with her," she kicked up a ball of dirt and threw it out the opening of the tent.
"What?! That's crazy talk!" Sokka protested.
"Is it really? Think about it Snoozles." She patted his head then got up and stood in the corner of the tent and stomped up two more walls to conceal her. "Good night."
"Hey! What about me! Are you just gonna leave me in the ground like this!? Hey! Toooooph!" he wined. From behind her walls, she smashed the ground with her fist and Sokka popped out.
"Thanks."
A draft of wind blew in through the cave waking the sleeping waterbender. Katara's eyes opened slowly. She yawned then sat up and rubbed her eyes and blinked. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, the noticed the fire had reduced itself to coals. She looked around the small cave and she saw one figure slowly rise and fall in steady breathing motion, the other was no where to be seen.
Lightning flashed and thunder boomed, the rain fell mercilessly blinding him and yet he continued the climb. He would not leave Katara alone and cold in a mountain cave with that monster.
"Zuko! Sokka's not here! Zuko wake up! Sokka's gone!" She shook the sleeping firebender vigorously until he started groaning.
"Katara do you really have to wake me up now I just got to sleep," he mumbled turning onto his other side.
"Zuko! My brother's missing!"
"Maybe that's a good thing," he murmured into his arm.
"Zuko!" she gasped and smacked the side of his head.
"Ow!" Zuko sat up and rubbed his head. "I was kidding!" Katara crossed her arms and huffed. "Okay I'm sorry. But there's really bad storm out, he probably just left to pee or something, I'm sure he's fine."
"But what if something happened to him? Like he got struck by lightning or-," She stood up and began naming a list of possibilities that might have happened to him and Zuko watched her with an eyebrow raised and an amused expression on his face.
"Zuko!" she shrieked when she saw his face. "Aren't you the least bit concerned?"
He shrugged. "More amused. I think you worry too much."
"Well excuse me for caring a bit about my brother!"
"Katara, I'm sure he's fine. He can take care of himself." He leaned against the wall of the cave and watched her pace then he chuckled softly.
"What's so funny?" she demanded stopping in front of him.
"You look like your brother did when you were in the sick ward. Only, you're way cuter than him," he said grinning.
She sighed and dropped down in front of him. "Why are you so charming?"
He ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged. "I dunno; I can't help it. I'm probably the single most charming guy you'll meet." he finished with a huge grin and she couldn't help but laugh.
"I guess he should be fine. Maybe he found some other cave to stay in so that he won't have to risk getting hurt while coming back up here," she sat against the wall next to him and closed her eyes. "I wish this storm would end; it's so cold."
Zuko looked at her then took her into his arms and radiated heat off of himself to her.
"Thanks," she said into his arm.
"No problem."
She closed her eyes and sank deeper into Zuko's embrace and felt him stroke her hair until she fell asleep.
"AAAAAAA!!" Lightning struck a nearby tree and a large branch dropped into the heartsick Avatar's path. He fell backwards and tripped over large rock and he hit the ground hard scrapping his elbows drawing sticky blood. He gritted his teeth and got up then continued to climb the mountain.
Finally, he saw up ahead a faint orange glow, which he was sure was a fire from Katara's cave. He quickened his pace despite his aching legs, bleeding cuts, and throbbing bruises.
"Katara! Katara!" He ran as fast as his legs would permit him but his vision was blurred by tears and rain, his ears were deafened by thunder and his own screams, his pain was numbed by the rain and his will to see the one he loved; so excited and worked up was he to see her again, he forgot to think of what he had feared until he saw it.
There he stood, a few feet from the entrance to the cave, there he saw her smiling softly in his arms, there he saw him stroking her hair, there he felt his heart break and shatter into pieces small enough to fit through the eye of a needle, there he felt himself get hit with the awful truth that he knew was bound to happen but refused to see it, there he collapsed to his knees as the tears poured from his eyes and he sobbed like a babe who'd just witnessed it's mother murdered, there he passed out under the trees and in the storm that washed the shattered pieces of his heart away.
Okay, um, yeah this is really sad, and I want to cry and slap myself for breaking poor Aang's heart. (Smack!) Ow! That was weirdly involuntary!
REVIEW! I'm gonna ask for 155 this time! Can I please have them? :)