Ch 36 the awakening
Aang opened his eyes and grabbed his stomach, groaning in pain.
"Where am I?" he muttered.
Turning his head, he saw the flag of the fire nation, and realized he had been captured.
"Oh no!" He said, and quickly stood up, looking for his staff.
"Calm down." Lin said, pulling him back to the bed.
"Lin, what's going on?" Aang asked.
"Here's what happened. We fled the city, stole a fire nation cruiser, and we're sailing west. We've past the serpents pass, just so you know." Lin said.
Aang didn't pay attention, and passed out.
"Figure that would happen." Lin muttered.
Morning came, and Aang woke again.
"Where is everyone else?" Aang asked.
"They're on deck. You should rest." Lin said.
"How long was I out?" Aang asked.
"A few weeks. You grew some hair." Lin said.
"I have hair?" Aang asked, grabbing the top of his head.
"Yeah. You do." Lin said.
"Feel like I need a bath." Aang said.
"I'll help you with it." Lin said.
"I'm fine." Aang said, standing up with his staff. He could barely walk when his weak body collapsed.
"You're not going anywhere. I said I'll help." Lin said, picking Aang bridal style.
Lin took Aang to the bathtub and started the water and heater by turning the dials via metalbending, and began to strip Aang of his clothes.
"Hey. A little privacy." Aang said.
"Aang, you can barely stand, let alone take your clothes off." Lin said, then realized the implications of what she said.
"No-one must know about this." Lin said.
"They won't." Aang said.
Lin gently put Aang inside the warming water, and Aang gritted his teeth, as the water stung against his wounds.
"That stings." Aang said.
"That's good. You're still alive." Lin said, as she grabbed a bar of soap and a sponge.
"Are you going to wash me?" Aang asked.
"Quiet, dear." Lin said, lathered the sponge with soap and began to wash Aang from head to toe.
"Thanks, for everything." Aang said.
"Don't mention it." Lin said, she turned the water temp higher, and continued to wash Aang.
"You can take a bath if you want." Aang said.
Lin raised an eyebrow at that.
"I'm going to hell in a basket for this." She said, as she took her armor and clothes off.
Getting into the water, she positioned Aang to sit on her, their bodies flush with each other. As Lin continued to wash Aang clean, and Aang bended the water to clean Lin.
"Lets knock out two birds with one stone." Aang said.
For the moment, it was just the two of them. No war, no running from the fire nation. Just the two taking a bath and washing each other. Aang faced Lin and held her close.
"You're going to say something, say it." Lin said, seeing Aang's mouth open.
"I love you." Aang said.
Now Lin's jaw dropped. For a second she didn't know what to say.
"I love you too." Lin said, and Aang kissed her.
"I think we're done with the bath." Aang said.
"We are." Lin said, climbing out and putting on a bath robe.
When she was done, she carried Aang to the bed and put him down on the bed.
"How badly was I hurt?" Aang asked.
"You were killed. But Katara brought you back using the spirit water from the oasis." Lin said.
"Damn." Aang said, gripping his side in pain.
"Hold on. There's some medicine here used to treat intense burns. Odd that it's on a fire nation ship." Lin said, grabbing a large jug of a thick liquid. Coating her fingers in the liquid, she had Aang turn on his stomach and began to rub the liquid on his back.
"Wow. That really hits the spot." Aang said.
"I think that's enough. Anything you need from me?" Lin asked.
"Yeah. Now this will be a strange question, but here me out." Aang said.
"Sure thing." Lin said. They were in the cesspools of hell. Nothing could make it worse.
"Can I lick your feet?" Aang asked, and Lin laughed uncontrollably.
"Damn. You know how to break the tension." Lin said.
"Why would you ask that?" Lin asked.
"Okay. Remember when we got the posters for Appa?" Aang asked.
"Yeah. I remember." Lin said, sitting next to Aang.
"Well, I saw Momo licking Toph's feet, and I wondered how would yours taste like." Aang said.
Lin stopped laughing when she saw that Aang was serious about this.
"Are you serious?" Lin asked.
"Yeah." Aang said.
"Okay." Lin said, shrugging her shoulders. She took her shoes off and locked the door with metal-bending she hoped that would stop Toph. She did not want anyone to come in.
Lin straddled Aang and put her bare feet next to Aang's mouth. Aang wasted no time in running his tongue across the bottom of her feet, alternating between the left and right feet. Lin lay on her back between Aang's legs and kept her breathing calm. For some reason, it felt really good when Aang ran his tongue across her feet.
"Hey, if the two of you are done giving each other foot jobs, we need to talk about the current plan." Toph said, banging on the door.
"Well, fuck." Lin said.
"We can continue later." Aang said.
On deck, they talked about the current plan.
"Hello, Avatar. I'm Hakoda. Katara and Sokka's father." Hakoda said, shaking his hand.
"Nice to meet you." Aang said.
"Without the earth king's armies, we'll have to revise the invasion plan." Hakoda said.
"How?" Aang asked, taking a swig from a canteen. Lin had her eyes wide open in shock. She pitied the fool who was the next person to drink the water.
"We're planning a smaller invasion. Just a ragtag team of our friends and allies from around the Earth Kingdom. We already ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke." Sokka said, taking the water bottle and started to drink it.
Sokka then spat out the water.
"This taste terrible! Like someone dipped their feet into it." Sokka said.
"And how would you know what feet taste like?" Toph asked.
"I'm just guessing." Sokka said.
"Tell him about the secret we have." Lin said.
"Oh, right. The world thinks you're dead." Sokka said.
Aang did not take the news well.
"What?! The world thinks I'm dead?!" He asked.
"Yeah. And that means the fire nation won't be going after us, and won't be expecting you when the invasion happens." Sokka said.
"This is so messed up." Aang said.
A horn was heard, and a fire nation ship moved to intercept them. Aang opened his glider, wanting to fight.
"Are you stupid? You can't even open your glider without pain. You're not going to fight them at all." Lin said taking the glider away from Aang.
"Lin's right. We'll take care of this." Sokka said.
Aang grudgingly agreed to hide with everyone else, and watched as Hakoda and Bato tried to bluff their way past the captain of the incoming ship.
"It seems to be working." Lin said, as the captain and his two guards walked away from Hakoda.
"…I think this is a captured ship. Just stay quiet until we're safely across the ramp. Then we'll sink this ship!" the enemy captain said.
"They know!" Toph shouted. She metalbends the bridge off the ships and dumps the crew into the water.
Lin run forward, and using her metalbending, controls the ballista anti-ship weapons and fires them at the enemy warship. The sharp projectiles tear into the hull of the enemy ship and pierce the vulnerable underside, letting water flow in.
Katara than bends a mountain of water between both warships and pushes their pursuers away.
"They won't be able to follow us for far." Lin said, as she climbed to a ballista and aimed it at the enemy ship.
"What makes you say that?" Katara asked.
"Because look at the end of the arrow. When it goes thru the hull of an enemy ship, the tip opens up." Lin said, opening the arrow.
"And these things are retractable so…" Katara said.
"So a bigger hull is left after the arrow is pulled back. And the fire nation doesn't have waterbenders, and I fired the two ballista's as close as possible. They're in trouble now." Lin said.
Lin's words were proven right, as the enemy ship began to capsize.
"Thank god you're with us." Katara said.
"Indeed." Lin said.
The ship docked at a town and everyone went into town for some food.
"Hey, Aang. We're going into town for some dinner." Toph said.
"Well, I am pretty hungry. Maybe dinner's a good idea." Aang said.
"Here, tie this around your head. It'll cover your arrow." Sokka said, holding a red headband.
"I'm not going out if I can't wear my arrow proudly." Aang said.
"Aang, be reasonable." Sokka said.
"You guys go ahead without us. We'll catch up." Katara said.
Lin, Toph, and Sokka walked to the deck when Toph spoke.
"Hey, Lin. It must have felt good to have Aang worship your feet." Toph said.
"What are you talking about?" Sokka asked.
"Sokka, you want to know why the water tasted horrible?" Toph asked.
"Yeah. Why?" Sokka asked.
"Aang was licking his girlfriend's feet. From what I could tell, the two were enjoying it when I interrupted." Toph said.
"Aang drank the canteen and I…" Sokka said, when he realized what happened.
"AGHHH!" Sokka screamed, and grabbed a thick iron brush and began to scrape away his taste buds.
"Sokka, you're tearing your tongue to pieces." Lin said.
"That's because the water had your feet in it. Oh, gross!" Sokka said, still scraping away with the thick iron brush.
Coming back to the ship, Katara went into Aang's room and saw that it was empty.
"Oh no." She said, dropping the tray of food and running out to see her dad.
Lin went to the bow of the ship and looked at the dark clouds, noticing a full moon.
"Second time, you dumbass. You'll get yourself killed doing this." Lin said.
"So baldy has left." Toph said, approaching Lin.
"Yep. Second time. He's in no condition to go out by himself. He won't last long by himself out there." Lin said.
They found Aang washed up on the crescent island; the same island that Aang first meet Roku at. Lin wondered what would have happened if the volcano erupted. She didn't dwell on it, and walked to Aang.
"Good to see you're not dead." Lin said, smiling at him.