-18 million years later-
Sorry you guys. We've both been busy and this has kinda fallen to the side. We are gonna try to work on this more though.
"It's sooo hoooot." Azula's face was contorted as it laid on Sokka's sweaty shoulder, making her expression twisted and strange.
"Perhaps if you weren't on me we wouldn't be so hot." He snapped.
Azula just groaned, "I don't like your tone."
"Well I don't like your attitude!"
"Will you both cut it out?" Suki growled, laying on the glass coffee table in front of the sofa where they were sitting, "It's too hot to listen to you to bicker."
"Well I don't have another idea other than to bicker so just STAY OUT OF IT!" Azula yelled.
Suki turned her head to them, a frown on her face, "I hate the both of you." She hissed.
The door swung open, Zuko walking through the door. "Zuko's home!" Suki chirped, hopping up. He smiled a bit when he saw her standing there in a pair of shorts and a sports bra.
"Still no electricity?"
"None." Sokka groaned.
Zuko nodded, sitting his bag down and unbuttoning his shirt, reveling his under shirt. "Half the city is out, they don't have any idea when it will be back on either." He was talking just above a whisper, his eyes down. He said nothing else as he went to his bedroom, Suki following him.
"Was it nice and cool for you at work?" She asked once they were in their room, the door closed behind them. She could tell that something was wrong from the way that he was standing, his back hunched over a bit.
"Yeah, it was. " He took his button down shirt off, hanging it up in the closet before taking off his under shirt and throwing it in the hamper.
She sat on the dresser, her legs pressed together in front of her, "It's the first time I've ever been jealous of your job." She giggled, tucking some hair behind her ears.
"Nothing to be jealous of." He laughed a little bit, undoing his pants and belt, letting them both fall to the floor. "I didn't do so well today."
"Oh?"
"Yeah." he stripped his boxers off, saying nothing else about it as he stood in the bedroom naked.
"I see." She smiled a bit, "Tomorrow is another day, right?" She tried to sound cheerful, which made him smile in thanks. Zuko walked over to her, his hands going to her knees and pulling them apart. She licked her lips as he placed himself between her thighs, a frown on his face. "Are you ok?"
He said nothing, just wrapping his arms around her waist. She didn't even care about the heat from him making her hotter than she already was, she just wanted to hold him. "Talk to me..." She whispered into his cheek, a frown on her face.
Zuko shook his head, his face in her neck. Suki frowned heavily, her fingers gently clawing at her boyfriend's back.
"Zuko..." She pulled away from him, lifting his chin up to meet her gaze, "We agreed that we would start talking to one another more."
"I don't want to argue." He sighed, shaking his head.
"We don't have to argue, we can just talk."
"But it will end in an argument." He kissed her on the cheek, "It always does anymore."
Suki shook her head, looking away. She knew he was right. Since their blow up a few weeks ago even a simple conversation would result in an argument of some sort. They would always make up shortly after, but the turmoil was still there. She felt like something had been broken between them.
"Are we ok?" Suki whispered, her hands going to her boyfriend's face.
"Of course we are.' His eye brows gathered, "We are just going though a rough patch, that's all. People go through them all the time."
"But we've never had one."
"I know."
"And I'm worried..."
"Well you have no reason to be." He snapped, "None." Suki looked into his gold eyes, a frown on her face. "I'm not leaving you, and you're not leaving me right?"
"Never."
"So we have nothing to worry about." He said most assuredly, "We love one another and that is all that matters." He held her chin firmly, looking into her eyes.
Suki just nodded, forcing a smile. She knew in her heard that that was not all that mattered, but did not want to say anything of the sort. She just laid her head on his shoulder, a frown on her face.
"We have to figure something out." Azula snapped at Sokka, a frown on her face. "I can't handle this."
"You could take off your clothes again." He smirked, "You seemed to be a bit cooler when you were naked."
"I can't with Zuko home." She growled. She was laying on the island in the kitchen, her body spead out on the counter. "This is not matching my expectations!" She groaned, her eyes clenching tight.
"Yelling is not going to fit anything." He had taken his soft cast off his leg, laying it on the glass coffee table. It looked weird sitting out in the open, the pins sticking out of his skin. "So simmer down."
"Don't tell me what to do!" She snapped.
"I will do whatever I want to!" He yelled back, a heavy from on his face.
"FUCK YOU SOKKA!"
Nether of them said anything for a second, but sitting in place with frowns on their faces.
"I'm sorry." She finally wined, "It's just so hot and I don't know how to act."
"I'm sorry too 'Zula,"
She rolled off the counter and walked over to the sofa, leaning over the back and wrapping her arms around his neck. "I love you."
He groaned heavily and pulled away from her, "It's too damn hot too hug." He wined.
Azula stood up and looked down at him with a frown, "Well I did not want to hug anyways, you jerk."
"Yeah you did." He hissed, "But I don't want you to touch me right now!"
"I don't want to touch you anyways!"
"Well good!"
Azula heard Zuko and Suki's door open and saw her brother walking out in nothing but a pair of basketball shorts. She looked at him with a heavy frown, "What the fuck do you want?!"
Zuko just shook his head, going to the kitchen and getting the stove top kettle out. He put water in it as Azula walked over to him.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"You know for someone who was an english major you have a very small vocabulary." He huffed.
"FUCK YOU ZUKO!"
"Don't talk to him like that." Suki hissed, having walked into the main room. "He is making us tea."
Zuko set the open kettle on the stove, his eyes focusing on the water.
"Why the hell would you make tea, it's too hot to move, let alone drink tea." The female fire bender asked.
"Hot tea cools you down." He mumbled.
"That idea is DUMB!" Sokka called from the sofa.
"I don't see you coming up with anything!" Zuko retorted.
Sokka snarled and looked over his shoulder at his friend, "You are a jackass!"
Zuko just shook his head, his eyes focused on the water. Suki had gotten out four cups and the tea bags, getting ready for the hot water. "I think it will help." She insisted.
"You're a fucking liar." Azula hissed.
Suki just looked at her with a frown, "Well you're a bitch."
"Would you both cut it out?" Zuko hissed, finally getting the water to boil.
"Aren't you going to stand up for your girl." Azula snickerd, "Way to be a man."
"Don't talk to him like that!" Suki yelled at her again as Zuko's text tone went off.
"I mean it you two, cut it out." He groaned, pulling his cell out of his poket.
Kenton – 5:02 pm
Are you coming over?
Zuko texted back as Suki and Azula conited to yell at one another.
Zuko – 5:03 pm
Coming where?
Kenton – 5:03 pm
To the house?
Sokka had joined in at this point in time, the three of them yelling about what they needed to do to get cool. Zuko was trying to ignore them, his attention on the phone.
Zuko – 5:05 pm
Do you have power?
Kenton – 5:06 pm
Yeah, but we figured that you guys would wanna swim.
Zuko – 5:06 pm
Swim?
Keanton – 5:07
In the pool?
Zuko's eyes widened as he read the words. He quickly ran to the bedroom, leaving them alone to argue in the great room. He called Kenton's cell phone, which was answered with a simple greeting.
"You guys have a pool!?" Zuko hissed.
"Ummm, yeah?"
"When the fuck did you get that?!"
"A-about a month ago. We told Azula about it."
"Az-" Zuko shook his head, his jaw dropping.
"She didn't tell you?"
Zuko shook his head, squinting his eyes shut, "No, she left that part out."
"Well you guys are welcome to come over, you can even spend the night if you like so you can sleep some place cool."
"That would be alright?"
"Yeah, we have the two extra rooms that you are welcome to."
Zuko looked out into the great room at the still bickering inhabitants. Suki's face was getting redder as she yelled at Azula, the tips of her auburn hair frizzing in the heat.
"We'll be over in an hour."
"See you then!"
Zuko hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket, walking into the kitchen. Even Sokka was arguing now, standing uneasily on the one foot.
"We are fucking hot!" Sokka yelled at Suki.
"Well sorry for you!" She snapped back, "But we are all hot! Not just you, not just Azula, ALL OF US!"
"Sokka is still delicate! He can't be in this kinda heat!"
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT!?"
"I have an idea." Zuko chimed in, his gold eyes looking at his sister intently. "Let's go swimming."
"They closed the pool in the building since there's no power." Suki told her boyfriend.
"No... I'm talking about the other one."
"What other pool?" Suki asked, her eye brow raised.
"Lu Ten and Kenton's pool." He hissed in his sister's direction.
"Oh, that pool?" Azula rolled her eyes.
"So you did know!"
"Oh course I knew. I knew I was not going to swim so i did not feel the need to divulge."
Zuko sighed, shaking his head as Suki and Sokka both turned to Azula's, their faces blazing with anger.
"WHAT!?" Sokka screamed, "We have a pool to USE and you didn't tell US!?"
Suki rushed to Azula, her hands going for her neck. Zuko wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her back with a heavy frown. "Let me go Zuko!"
"How about we just go get ready to go swimming." He mumbled, "That is all I wanna do right now."
"I will deal with you later." Suki hissed, going to her room and changing.
Sokka shook his head as well hobbing on his crutches into the bedroom.
"I don't even think that a pool will help." Azula sneard to her brother.
Zuko rolled his eyes heavily, shaking his head as he walked into the bedroom.
Zuko rose out of the water, just enough so that his eyes could lock on his girlfriend floating on a large red inflatable. Suki's eyes were closed, her hands running along the top of the water. His lips curled into a smile under the water, his hands going under the raft.
Before she even knew that there was a hand beneath her he lad lifted her up, throwing her off. Suki shrieked as her boyfriend dunked her into the pool. He laughed in return as she came above water, pushing wet hair back. "Jerk." She snapped.
"You two need to cut it out. Sokka is too fragile for you to be doing that stuff!" Azula called out from the side of the pool, her feet in the water.
"I'm ok." Sokka laughed, treading water in the shallow end of the pool. It was actually helping him with his leg. "Really I should have started swimming long ago."
"I would think that it would help with your leg." Suki was on Zuko's back, holding him around the neck as they swam.
"It is." Sokka smiled at them, "I wish I would have known about this months ago." He said it in general, but it was most noticeably directed at Azula.
"I don't wanna hear your shit." Azula snapped. Zuko laughed, linking his arms behind her knees and dunking them both under the water.
Sokka watched them with a frown, finding himself a bit jealous, "Do you wanna hang on my back in the water?"
"You know I hate swimming." She groaned. Zuko and Suki came up above water, her kicking her off him as she swam away, both of them laughing. Azula looked over at them, frowning a bit.
"Come on, it will be fun." He went over to her, taking her in into his and trying to coax her off the edge.
"Why are you afraid of swimming again?" Suki asked as she swam easily in the deep end.
"Katara almost drown her when we were kids." Zuko said.
Suki could not help but laugh as she spit a mouthful of water at him, "Sounds like Katara."
"There is nothing funny about it!" Azula snapped, pulling away from her boyfriend. "I was only four!"
"Lu Ten saved her." Zuko added, trying to grab Suki's feet under the water as she swam away from him.
"He was the hero for the day."
"Well he is here if you need saved." Suki giggled, kicking at Zuko.
"No." She said, pulling her feet out of the water.
"Come on, Azula." Sokka sighed, "Can't we swim together?"
"I said no. I'm gonna go in the air, it's pointless to sit out here in the heat" she snapped, walking back into the house.
Sokka frowned as he watched her.
"I can ride on your back if you like." Zuko said to his friend with a smile.
"I hate you Zuko." Sokka rolled his eyes, swimming over to the edge of the pool to Azula. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." She hissed, "I just wanna go inside."
"Come on..." Sokka frowned, "I want you to swim with me for a bit."
"You know that I hate swimming." She looked down on him in the pool, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Don't think of it as swimming, think about it as helping me get better. You can ride on my back while I walk in the water."
"Why do you need me?" She frowned heavily,
"So It can be added weight. You will help me get stronger."
"You can walk around just fine without me."
"But it will help if you do it with me."
"I don't want to Sokka." She sighed.
"Please?" He looked up at her with wide eyes, his lips shaking.
"Puppy dog eyes don't work on me." He kept looking up at her with the wide eyes. "I mean it."
He threw in a whine, reaching up and petting her ankle. "Pllleeaassseee?" She mumbled something, rolling her eyes. "What?"
"FINE!"
With his help she made her want into the water, latching onto his back. "Ok, lets do this."
Sokka smiled, his arms and legs letting him move around the pool as he dragged her with him. She was shaking at first, nervous at being in the water, but then relaxed on him.
"You still don't trust me?"
"Not when it comes to swimming, no."
"Come on 'Zula."
"Just keep walking." She said, trying her best to relaz.
Zuko and Suki were not far away, both of them floating on the same inflatable, facing away from one that, with feet laying next to heads. Their finger tips grazing over skin lazily.
"We should get a pool at the house." He mumbled.
"It's dangerous for kids though." She sighed, "And why get one when we can just swim here?"
"Valid point." He laughed, "Plus it would throw off our savings."
"How much are we at now?"
It was the money they had been setting aside for a house. They wanted to get one as soon as possible but didn't have enough just yet, which is why they moved into the apartment. "It's half of what we need for the house."
"I wish we could do it now."
"Well..." He frowned, "We can't, so it's pointless to think about it."
Suki shook her head, "Yeah." She whispered, rolling off the inflatable and into the water.
"You are so much of a better cook than Suki is." Azula told Kenton with a smile. Suki just sighed, looking down at the chicken and vegetables that they were having for dinner.
"I don't think your cooking is that bad." Lu Ten told Suki with a smile, "I love your tacos."
"That corn salsa is fucking amazing." Azula said with wide eyes.
"So see." Lu Ten said with a smile, "Cooking is hard too, I've never been great at it."
"Not at all." Kenton laughed, "We don't talk about the gravy incident."
Lu Ten rolled his eyes, "I tried, ok?"
"I'm sure it was not that bad." Suki said with a soft smile, looking over at Zuko who was eating his dinner silently.
"It was fucking horrible." Azula clarified with a smirk.
"How the hell do you even remember that? It was 12 years ago!"
"You never forget that kinda thing." She joked.
"Any gravy is good gravy." Sokka smiled, "That has always been the way I felt."
"You didn't have this stuff." Kenton scoffed with a laugh.
"I'm kinda curious now." Sokka mumbled.
"I will make breakfast then." Lu Ten smiled.
Suki could not help but smile at the conversation. She loved spending time with Lu Ten and Kenton. They were such a cute pair, always had been. However she felt like she could not enjoy the moment due to her boyfriend sitting next to her. He was hardly talking and not smiling. He was just keeping to himself, a frown on his face.
"You know you can be happy." Suki told Zuko with a soft giggle.
He looked at her with a soft blush, a hurt look on his face. She knew how this was gonna end.
"Really Zuko, don't be so serious." Kenton smiled, "You are in the AC after all."
"Zuzu is always angry these days." Azula scoffed, "I think he likes it."
"And they call you a masochist." Sokka laughed, nudging his girlfriend.
"I'm just tired." He mumbled, looking down at his food.
Suki could not ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach, wanting to go back home to their hot apartment rather than sitting here.
Kenton went upstairs to make sure that his guests were being taken care of. He was slightly worried about Zuko and Suki, and just wanted to make sure they were ok.
He went to Sokka and Azula's door first, knocking before he let himself in.
"You know we could have been naked in here." Sokka snapped, laying shirtless in the bed.
"You both know there is no hetrosexual mating allowed in this house." Kenton said with a smirk.
"If I didn't know any better I would say that you are just jealous."
"Sokka, I see more vaginas in one day than you have your entire life. So trust me if anyone should be jealous it's you."
"But I only wanna see one vagina!" He pointed to Azula who was standing at the foot of the bed.
"Well you can, just not tonight." he smiled, "I will make breakfast in the morning." He smiled at them before leaving, both of them telling him good night.
Kenton went to Zuko and Suki's door, his hand reaching up the knock on it but he froze before he got there, listening to the voices on the other side of the door.
"I didn't man anything by it!" There were both talking in loud whispers, their voices strained.
"You knew that I was having a bad day!"
"I was just trying to be playful, Zuko."
"Well you got me made fun of!"
"They are your family, they were not making fun of you!"
"Azula fucking was!"
Suki just groaned loudly, "She makes fun of you all the time, why is it my fault now?!"
"Cause you set me up for it!"
"Just... Stop." Kenton heard footsteps jumping away from the door and into a blind spot. The door swung open, Suki running out of it and to the bathroom across the hall. He could hear her sobbing as she did so.
Kenton quickly made his way to the stairwell, hiding half way down just in time to the door to swing open again, Zuko walking out and into the bathroom. He heard Suki crying as she said something to him before the door was closed, but he could not make out what it was.
Half of him wanted to go to the door and listen more, but he knew it was too dangerous. He simple made his way to his bedroom as fast as possible, closing the door behind him quickly.
"I'm glad to see you too, but I don't wanna have sex while the kids are here." Kenton turned to his husband, his eyes wide. "What happened?"
"Zuko and Suki were arguing."
"Arguing?"
"Yeah. He was upset with her about what happened at dinner."
"What happened at dinner?"
Kenton shrugged, talking off his shirt, "I have no idea. He was just upset and she ran into the bathroom crying."
"Damn him." Lu Ten got into bed, running his fingers though his short hair. "I thought he had gotten better."
"You wanted him to get better..."
"Same thing."
Kenton laid in bed next to his husband, laying on his side, "I mean... couples go though bad and good times. They are strong, we should not worry about it."
"Well that is gonna make me worry about it even more."
Kenton laughed, leaning over and kissing Lu Ten on the lips quickly, "Sleep. Things will blow over by morning."
"We are talking about Zuko here... since when do things blow over?"
Kenton laughed at the comment, "Whatever."