Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph, and I all sat down on the stoop of the Fire Lord's beach house as we watched Aang perform a fire bending form. All of us were in our regular clothing, except Suki, (She had nothing other than what she was wearing now and her prison uniform... Not something you want to get back into), Katara, and me, since we were walking around town before. The rest of us had our Fire Nation disguises stowed away in the house. Zuko stood a couple yards away from Aang with his arms crossed, critiquing what he was doing.

He furrowed his brow. "More ferocious! Imagine striking through your opponent's heart!"

Aang groaned, turning around at him as he got frustrated. "I'm trying!"

Zuko ignored his whines. "Now let me hear you roar like a tigerdillo!"

Aang turned around and let out a lifeless fire roar.

"That sounded pathetic... I said roar!" Zuko demanded.

Since Aang was getting more frustrated than he already was, he let out a fire roar that made Momo run behind Zuko.

"Who wants a nice cool glass of watermelon juice?" Katara asked, holding up two carved watermelons with bamboo straws.

Aang bolted up and turned around. "Oo! Oo! Me! Me! Me!"

Before he could go anywhere, Zuko grabbed him by his shirt. Aang still tried to run, but Zuko picked him up off the ground.

"Hey, your lesson's not over yet! Get back here!"

"C'mon, Zuko just take a break. What's the big deal?" Suki asked.

Sokka was next to her, indulging in the watermelon juice.

"No, he still has to-" Zuko began, I interrupted him.

"Zuko..." I said, giving him a look.

He snarled back at me a little, dropping Aang. "Fine..."

Aang immediately ran over to Katara, taking the juice from her. Sokka snickered a little and then made a noise and gesture as if he was cracking a whip. Suki gave him the same look I had just given Zuko.

"What?" Sokka asked.

Her look hardened and she slapped him in the back of the head.

"You're whipped too! Don't you ever think otherwise!" Suki yelled at him.

I laughed.

"I am not whipped! And if you want to lounge around like a bunch of snailsloths all day then go ahead!" Zuko said before walking away.

I sighed.

"I don't understand how you stand to be with him sometimes... Most of the time..." Suki said.

"I don't get it either." Toph chimed in.

I laughed. "You get used to the anger after a while. That's nothing compared to how he used to be on a normal basis."

"That's true..." Katara said.

"Maybe Zuko's right though, sitting around the house has made us pret-ty lazy, but I know just the thing to change that..." Sokka said.

He ripped off his clothes to reveal his swimming undergarments.

"BEACH PARTY!" He yelled.

All of us smiled and immediately got ready to hit up the beach. This place was an island that people came to for its beaches... Why not enjoy them while we were here? Right as everyone was about to head out, I decided to check up on Zuko.

"I'll meet you guys down there, alright!" I called, waving as I ran towards the tropical forest that surrounded the beach house.

"Okay!" yelled Katara, waving back to me.

I found Zuko sitting down at the base of a coconut tree, not too far from the house. Though it was quite a hassle to get there, especially in beach clothing. I stumbled out of the thorn bushes, "ow"ing and almost falling flat on my face. I sighed as I sat down next to him, and took some of the branches stuck in my hair and the thorns stuck in my legs out.

"Talk to me." I said after I quickly finished.

"What is there to talk about?" Zuko spat back.

He hadn't even looked at me. He was just sitting there with his arms crossed and an angry look on his face, staring at the great big nothing that was in front of him.

I sighed. "Zuko, you shouldn't be the one getting aggravated about this. Aang is the one who has to take down your father. You can't blame him if he needs to take a break sometimes. He's still a little kid. You're pushing him a little too much."

"What do you want me to do? The comet is in three days and look at him! He's a mess! His firebending is like how mine was when I was twelve!"

"Zuko... He is twelve... And you're exaggerating. Like I said, he's still a little kid. Overload him and he'll just explode on you. He's already got a lot on his hands as it is. Don't you think he knows he's under pressure? Especially after the first failed invasion..." I said.

"I guess..." Zuko said, his voice a little softer.

I turned his head towards me, but he didn't look at me and his arms were still crossed.

"Stop pouting and look at me." I said calmly.

He looked. "I am not pouting!"

"Yes you are. You know you are... Everything's going to be fine. Things will work themselves out. Relax a little." I said.

I kissed him on the lips and then got up to leave for the beach.


"YAHOO!" I yelled as I dove off of a cliff.

"I give that... Hmm... A six." Sokka said.

"A SIX? Sokka, that was definitely an eight at the least! Let me see you do better than that!" I yelled back at him.

"I will!" Sokka said, swimming back to the beach.

He climbed to the top of the cliff and then pointed at me.

"I'll show you what an eight looks li-AHHHH!" Sokka screamed as a gust of wind caught him off guard and knocked him off of the cliff.

He belly flopped on the water.

"Sokka!" Katara and I yelled.

He lifted up his head as the rest of his body started to sink.

"I'm okay... I think..." He said.

I started laughing hysterically along with everyone else. "I give that a ten on the belly flop scale! That was perfect!"

Sokka floated past me on his back. His entire front was bright red.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up..." He said.

He screamed like a girl as a huge wave sent him tumbling to shore, right at Suki's feet.

"Nice one..." she said as she took some seaweed off of his face.

I looked at Katara as she did a flip in the water over my head.

"Hey, Katara! Check this out!" I said.

My eyes, face tattoos and the tattoo of the crocodile flashed on me. I rose up on top of a spirit croc as if it was a surf board. I turned my hands so my palms were facing up and then made one big circle with each arm at the same time, thrusting them back with a little force. The croc sped off, skidding across the water using soul fire. When I caught up to her, I made the crocodile stop using soul fire and just rode off the waves she was waterbending. Both of us made a weaving pattern as we surfed.

"Oh, well aren't you guys just perfect!" we heard Sokka yell.

"Don't get jealous just cuz you can't do it!" Toph said.

"You know what, just cuz you guys can surf and I can't doesn't mean I can't do something that you can't do!" Sokka yelled.

"Wait, I wanna watch this..." I said.

"Me too." Katara agreed.

We stopped next to each other and sat down on our "boards" as we watched Sokka go in and out of the water, carrying buckets or water, seaweed and shells.

"Check out my Appa sand sculpture!" Aang yelled.

All of us looked, even Appa, who was right next to it. It was huge, but not as big as the real Appa of course. Toph walked up to Aang.

"Not bad, baldy, but I've been working on my sand bending. Your gonna love this." Toph said, cracking her knuckles in front of Aang.

She turned around and with one movement of her arms made a detailed sand sculpture of the entire city of Ba Sing Se.

"Woah... Wow! You even made a little Earth King and Bosco!" Aang exclaimed.

Both of them walked up to Sokka.

"Try and top that, Sokka." Toph said triumphantly.

Sokka smiled in front of his blob and said "Tada!"

"Is that a... blubbering blob monster?" asked Aang.

Sokka stamped his foot. "No! It's Suki!"

All of us started laughing.

"Suki, we'll all understand if you break up with him over this." Toph said.

I didn't notice Katara had moved, so when she started surfing again, I was caught with the wave. I spat out water when it passed, resting my arms on my spirit croc while the rest of my body was in the water. I heard her laughing as she went back up to me.

"Are you okay?" she laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... I'll get you back for that one!" I replied.

"Not on my watch!" Katara said, speeding off and hitting me in the face with some more water.

I got up and started chasing her, mimicking the tricks she was doing in the water. I turned around when I heard Aang yell and saw an explosion from the corner of my eye.

"Katara!" I called.

She looked at the shore and both of us went to it as quick as possible, right up to Suki, Sokka, and Toph.

"What happened?" Katara asked.

"Zuko's gone crazy!" Sokka answered, throwing some sand up in the air.

He bent down and started trying to fix the sculpture. In my opinion, it looked better as a pile of sand...

"I made a sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it!... Oh, and he's attacking Aang." he finished.

Katara looked at me. "I thought you said you talked to him!"

"I did! He seemed like he was fine when I left! I don't know what goes through that mind of his when he's by himself!" I yelled.

"Let's go!" Toph yelled.

Suki grabbed Sokka as we all ran for Aang and Zuko. I went a different direction as we chased them back to the house. Right as I stopped in front of it, there was a huge blast of air and Zuko came flying out of it... Guess who he landed on... I groaned.

"Owch..." I said.

He stayed there for a couple seconds. When he tried to get up, I pulled him back down by his shirt.

"I thought we had this sorted, Zuko..." I said.

Zuko sat up. I followed him.

"I needed to teach him a lesson. He's relaxing too much! You're relaxing too much! I understand that he needs a little break, but spending half of the day at the beach?"

"What's wrong with you? You could've hurt Aang!" Katara said.

The group had caught up to me. Uh oh... Shouldn't have yelled at him.

Zuko stood up and faced Katara. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with all of you! How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's Comet is only three days away!... Why're you all looking at me like I'm crazy?"

I stood up and brushed myself off, rubbing my back a little.

"About Sozin's Comet... I was actually going to wait to fight the Fire Lord until after it came." Aang said.

"After?" Zuko asked, confused.

"I'm not ready, I need more time to master firebending." Aang said.

"And frankly, your earthbending could still use some work, too." Toph added.

"So... You all knew Aang was gonna wait?" Zuko asked.

"Honestly, if Aang tries to fight the Fire Lord right now he's gonna lose... No offense." Sokka answered.

"The whole point of fighting the Fire Lord before the comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the war, but they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se. Things can't get any worse..." Katara added.

"You're wrong... It's about to get worse than you can even imagine. The day before the eclipse, my father asked me to attend an important war meeting. It was what I dreamed about and wanted for so many years." Zuko said.

He sat down on a rock next to him and continued to explain what had happened in the war meeting; A horrible plan, suggested by none other than Azula, to burn the Earth Kingdom... So this was why he had been stressing so much for Aang to train from the moment he woke to the moment he slept.

"My father had finally accepted me back. I wanted to speak out against his horrifying plan, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't. My whole life I struggled to gain his love and acceptance, but once I had it, I realized I lost myself getting there. I'd forgotten who I was..." Zuko concluded.

Katara fell to her knees. "I can't believe this..."

"I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but... His plan is just pure evil." Sokka said, his arm around Suki as she shook her head.

"What am I gonna do?" Aang asked.

Zuko walked up to him. "I know you're scared, and I know you're not ready to save the world, but if you don't defeat the Fire Lord before the comet comes, there won't be a world to save anymore..."

"Why didn't you tell me about your dad's crazy plan sooner?" Aang protested, walking away from us a little.

"I didn't think I had to! I assumed you were still going to fight him before the comet! No one told me you decided to wait!"

Aang put his hands on his head and dropped to his knees. "This is bad... This is really, really bad."

I walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked back up at me.

"I told you before, I know you'll find a way. You just have to have faith in yourself." I said, trying to comfort him.

"Aang, you don't have to do this alone." Katara said from behind me.

"Yeah, if we all fight the Fire Lord together, we got a shot at taking him down!" Toph added.

"Alright! Team Avatar is back! Air! Water! Earth! Fire! Spirit!" Sokka said.

He lifted up some palm leaves, giving one to Suki and extending the other in his own hand. "Fan and Sword!"

Aang stood up with determination.

"Fighting the Fire Lord is gonna be the hardest thing we've ever done together... but I wouldn't want to do it any other way." Aang said, smiling at the end of his sentence.

Katara walked up to him first, followed by everyone else except Zuko. I was pulled into their little group hug.

"Get over here, Zuko! Being part of the group also means being part of group hugs." Katara said.

I laughed as Zuko made a face. He reluctantly walked over next to me and joined the hug. All of us looked up as we heard Appa roar and saw him fly in. He landed in front of us, hugging all of us with his paws and knocking us down at the same time.