It took several days for Appa to come back, though only Zuko was with him. Everyone rushed forwards thinking that something was wrong, but he assured us that Katara was fine and that she'd actually spared the life of the man who killed her mother after they'd eventually tracked him down. "She chose not to do it and let him go. He was kind of pitiful, actually. A real loser of a guy." Zuko frowned as Aang visibly relaxed, dropping to the ground with a sigh.
"That's great! I'm so glad she chose to forgive him."
"Hold up Aang." I said as I held out my hand, Toph standing beside me. "Just because Katara let the man live doesn't necessarily mean she's forgiven him."
"Yeah, if I had been in Katara's shoes, I would have squished his head with a rock, so he got off lucky." Toph agreed before I shook my head.
"First thing's first, where is Katara?"
"She's at my family house on Ember Island, she wanted somewhere to sit and think for a while so I left her there. It's perfectly safe, it's not like anybody uses that house anymore. We can be there in a couple of hours." Zuko said and Sokka immediately ordered everyone to pack up and move out, rushing around like a lunatic.
"Ember Island?" I quirked an eyebrow, recognising the place by its name. "That's where only the really rich and noble families go for vacations. I've never been there so this could be interesting."
"By the sounds of it, it has a beach so I'm all for it." Toph announced, raising her hand to signal she voted to go. Ruffling her hair lightly I then walked over to Zuko, worried about how Katara was doing.
"She's okay. At least, as okay as she can be. Considering." He answered before I could even ask so I closed my mouth and nodded, exhaling softly.
"Thank you. She needed this." Wanting to reward him for his good work, I gave Zuko a gentle kiss on the cheek and I saw his ears and cheeks turn red as he jolted, going all rigid like a beanpole which made me laugh and muss up his hair. "You did good work, Zuko. Keep it up." Flicking out my hand I walked back to Toph and she smirked, having seen everything with her feet so I bumped her shoulder, telling her not to say a word which of course only made her grin more.
We got to Ember Island where Aang immediately sought out Katara, finding her at the end of a pier by the port with her feet in the water, thinking pensively. "Katara! Are you okay?" I hung back as Aang and Zuko went to talk to her, wanting to give her some space as too many people might make her feel overcrowded. Instead I helped the others unpack, unsaddling Appa and moving our supplies indoors as Sokka excitedly ran through the house and chose the grandest room available with the biggest bed.
"I call this room!" He yelled, jumping on it only to make layers of dust billow upwards, covering him a musty grey coating as he coughed and spluttered.
"You realise that's probably the Fire Lord's bed right there." Toph said to him as she, Suki and I followed him, Sokka lounging quite happily as he fiddled with a finger in his ear.
"And now it's mine. Hey he's not using it, so why not?" Unable to fault his logic, I coughed as the dust started to reach us before going over to throw open the windows.
"Well whoever's bed it is, it's dusty and the sheets need cleaning, so if you want it then strip it down so I can wash it. Everybody do the same with any beds you find, curtains too. This place seriously needs a spring clean." Unwilling to hide out in a house full of dust, we got to work throwing open the windows and tossing the linen out into the hall to be collected and taken to the washroom. With fresh air now circulating, everything felt a lot nicer already.
With everybody now busy doing their own chores, Katara had the time to come and find me. She looked meek and confused, entering the wash room where I was circling the water with a bunch of sheets inside to wash them through when I looked up to see her. "Rough day, huh?" I asked casually, dusting off my hands before I lifted them towards her. "Need a hug?"
"Yeah." Drifting into my arms, Katara hugged me as I hugged her back, holding her as much as she needed. "I couldn't do it."
"I heard."
"I wanted to do it."
"I know."
"But I couldn't."
"That's okay."
"I don't forgive him. I'll never forgive him for as long as I live!"
"That's okay too." I told her honestly, stepping back so we could see each other's faces and I tilted her head to see her eyes swimming with fresh falling tears. "It's okay Katara. You found the monster who took your mother away, and you faced him. Now it's time to close that door. Let the anger flow down the river, and allow yourself to remember your mother without sadness, but with love. Live every day of your life thinking of her and making her proud, that's how she'll live on inside your heart instead of letting yourself be weighed down with grief." Katara started to cry, curling her fingers into my arms to grip on tightly.
"I miss her, I miss her so much! I want my mom, I want to see her so bad!" Embracing her again I let Katara cry every last tear she had against me, sitting with her until she was thoroughly exhausted, but calmer. She even fell asleep against me so I picked her up and carried her upstairs, quickly taking her somewhere to rest and had Momo stay with her, stroking his head as he chittered then curled up beside her and purred to keep her company.
"Good Momo." I praised him, patting his ears before leaving Katara to sleep. Knowing her she probably didn't sleep the entire time she was tracking that guy down, she must be exhausted. I returned to cleaning the sheets, making them smell fresh and hung them out on a line before bending the water out so that they wouldn't crinkle, Suki and Aang helping me to make up the beds that were available in the house. There were four total, but since there were seven of us, that meant three needed places to sleep.
Toph said she preferred sleeping outside in the dirt, Suki blushingly said she would share with Sokka so I smirked mischievously and told her not to break anything, which only made her blush all the more. Not quite getting the joke, Toph frowned and asked what I meant so I just brushed it off as being mean. Katara was already sleeping in one bed, and I said that Aang should have one of the last beds since he needed to rest well to train hard during the day. That left one more bed and two people left, myself and Zuko. He insisted I took the bed and I didn't argue all that much, though I made sure that Zuko found somewhere comfortable to sleep, which ended up being a couch. It was the size of a bed anyway so it hardly made a difference, but at least we were now all settled.
We all just turned in early the first night, with clean rooms and fresh linen on the beds, waking up all feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Breakfast was easy, consisting mostly of fresh fruit and a couple of other light things to eat since it was already really hot out and it wasn't exactly the type of weather you'd want to eat heavy, stodgy foods in. Katara looked much better when she came down, yawning with a stretch and greeting everyone with a good morning so I smiled and tossed her a mango, recalling that she didn't like papaya. "Breakfast is served."
"Great! I'm starving." After breakfast, Toph, Katara and I went to watch Zuko and Aang train whilst Suki and Sokka went into town to check the place out. It was so blissfully warm that even under shade I was in blissful comfort, napping as Toph did the same, snoozing with her head resting against my stomach for a pillow as I leaned back against a rock on the steps. "Doesn't it seem kinda weird that we're hiding from the Fire Lord in his own house?" Katara said after the boys had finished their frolicking around with their fire bending.
"I told you, my Father hasn't come here since our family was actually happy, and that was a long time ago. This is the last place anyone would think to look for us."
"Jeez, you make it sound so miserable here Zuko, lighten up." I said to him sleepily as I hid my mouth with my hand as I yawned. "You've got us now so what does it matter if you have a psycho father and crazy, murderous little sister?" Clearly I didn't help as Zuko shot me a glare. Thankfully I was saved by Sokka and Suki returning from town, Sokka calling out to us excitedly.
"You guys are not going to believe this. There's a play about us!"
"We were just in town and we found this poster." Suki said as Sokka unravelled it, all of us waking up and looking to check it out, Toph sitting up with interest so I quietly described what the poster looked like, though it seemed like they'd put Zuko's scar on the wrong side of his face.
"What? How is that possible?"
"Listen to this." Turning the poster around in order to read the credentials, we all gathered around to listen. "The Boy in the Iceberg is a new production from acclaimed playwright Pu On Tim who scoured the globe gathering information on the Avatar from the icy South Pole to the heart of Ba Sing Se. His sources including singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war and a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage." He finished, making me arch an eyebrow in amusement.
"Do I want to ask about the cabbage merchant?"
"Probably not." Accepting Sokka's answer, Suki continued to read the small print at the bottom of the page.
"Brought to you by the critically acclaimed Ember Island Players."
"Ugh. My mother used to take us to see them. They butchered 'Love Amongst The Dragons' every year." Zuko complained, already heavily against the idea of going to see this play, but his reaction only made me want to see it all the more.
"I definitely want to go!" I beamed though Katara was hesitant, looking at her brother.
"Sokka, do you really think it's a good idea for us to attend a play about ourselves?"
"Come on, a day at the theatre? This is the kind of wacky time wasting nonsense I've been missing." Grinning at us all, it didn't take more than that to persuade most of the group to go, so those who were unwilling ended up coming along anyway. Aang and Zuko needed to cover up the most since they were the most distinguishable, and I decided it would be safer to be a little more discreet as there were probably still wanted posters of me up all over the place from when I'd become a fugitive alongside Iroh and Zuko after Azul nearly tricked them into becoming prisoners way back when.
I donned my usual attire and added cloak with a hood just like Zuko, making me grin at him as we headed outside. "We match." I teased, pulling on his cheek before dancing off cheerfully, excited to be going to a play. It was fairly crowded in the theatre but we were able to get good seats on the second floor. I'd gone with Sokka to stock up on snacks, returning with our arms full and taking seats behind the front row where Toph, Katara, Zuko and Aang sat. "Why are we sitting in the nose bleed section? My feet can't see a thing from up here." Toph complained as the lights started to dim so Katara promised that she'd describe what was happening. We should have probably thought about Toph's feet when buying the tickets. Oops.
The curtain raised up to reveal a setting of the South Pole, a canoe holding two actors who had to be Katara and Sokka as they padded through waves. I giggled in anticipation, eating a few of my snacks and settling down just as the actress of Katara's character began to talk. "Sokka, my only brother. We constantly roam these icy South Pole seas and yet never do we find anything fulfilling."
"All I want is a full feeling in my stomach, I'm starving!" The actor of Sokka answered, making the rest of the audience laugh and I couldn't help but giggle too, though Katara and Sokka didn't seem all that impressed. The acting was terrible and they completely butchered Katara's character, the actress portraying her as some bemoaning, dramatic maiden whilst all Sokka did was talk about how hungry his was. At least that part of his character was right, I was almost in stitches by how ridiculous it all was.
"This is pathetic. My jokes are way funnier than this!" Sokka complained, clearly unhappy that his character was being ripped off.
"I think he's got you pegged." Toph told him, making Sokka slump all the more. Back on stage, the actress of Katara was delivering a speech on how we shouldn't give up hope, crying fake tears with terrible conviction.
"Well, that's just silly. I don't sound like that." Katara protested, though Toph and I were thoroughly enjoying every aspect of this as we giggled, clutching our stomachs as she grinned at Katara.
"Oh man, this writer's a genius." Acting wise, it only seemed to get worse from there, but that in itself made it comedy gold, especially when Aang's character showed up and turned out to be a girl, which made Aang's jaw drop as blanched from the realisation.
"Wait, is that a woman playing me?"
"What's the matter Aang? I think you look great out there. Who knew you had such a feminie side to you?" I teased him, leaning over and ruffling his hat so that it was all squished and he hat to straighten it out with an impetuous pout. The audience, Toph and I included, found the whole thing hilarious as the actress playing Aang played a trick on the actor Sokka about a plate of meaty dumplings, and the sheer stupidity made it impossible not to laugh.
"I don't do that. That's not what I'm like! And I'm not a woman!"
"Oh, they nailed you, twinkle-toes." Toph assured him, making Aang sulk. Now Zuko and Iroh's characters were entering the stage so I excitedly leaned forwards and put my hand on Zuko's shoulder, gripping it tightly in anticipation as I watched the stage over his shoulder, his head turning to look at me. Uncle Iroh was probably the most accurate of all the actors we'd seen thus far, with a rotund belly, though they should have replaced the cake prop with tea or at least something like duck. He loves duck.
"Prince Zuko, you must try this cake."
"I don't have time to stuff my face. I must capture the Avatar to regain my honour!" Snorting with laughter, I clapped my hand against Zuko's back at the hilarious accuracy of it all.
"Well, while you do that, maybe I'll capture another slice." Zuko was just as unimpressed as the others we'd seen appear so far, folding his arms as he glowered at the stage.
"They make me totally stiff and humourless."
"Actually, I think that actor's pretty spot on." Katara said as Zuko finally shoved my hand away from him, already fed up of my laughter as I struggled to keep it quiet.
"How could you say that?" Just as Zuko spoke, the Iroh actor on stage suggested that he and Zuko's actor go get massages and forget about capturing the Avatar, to which the actor turned around to the uncle with the exact same tone and intonation as Zuko used.
"How could you say that?!" I snorted again.
"Oh yeah, they totally got you all wrong Zuko." I said to him pointedly and Zuko could only slouch down in defeat. After that we met a puppet Momo from the Southern Air Temple and then Suki at Kyoshi Island. Her outfit looked a little much, but I grinned when Sokka came on stage wearing the same dress and headgear, sticking his butt out to the audience and asking if the dress made his butt looked big. I swear I'm going to tear a muscle or something with how much I'm laughing.
"I don't see why you're so happy. They totally boycotted your character." Zuko said to me stiffly, still annoyed about his representation. "You're not even in the play."
"And that's fine by me. All I'd be doing anyway is lazing around drinking tea with your uncle. At least I can't be embarrassed by a terrible actress completely massacring my character." I flicked him in the head before resuming watching the show, leaning my arms across the back of his seat so that I was closer, Zuko's head right next to me as he looked at me quickly then pointedly ignored me. We watched the guys meet King Bumi in Omashu and the riddles Aang had to work out in order to leave, then moved onto the pirate scene. That one I particularly enjoyed, having been part of those events myself and pointing when it started. "The pirates are here!"
From an observer's point of view I was quite impressed with how many of the actual events the producer managed to include in the play, though the accuracy of most was a little off the mark in most cases, too many to even count. When the intermission came after the portrayal of the failed invasion of the north with the actress Aang wearing a blue Ocean Spirit costume and stomping on miniature ships to defeat the fleet, everybody save for myself, Toph and maybe Suki were thoroughly displeased with what they had seen.
"I need some air." Katara decided, getting up and walking out first with Aang, Sokka and Zuko quickly following.
"What's got their panties all twisted?" Toph questioned, not understanding how they couldn't see the whole thing as just one big joke so I shrugged.
"Some people don't appreciate good theatre like we do Toph. Come on, let's go get some air too." Heading outside to where everyone was sitting on the balcony, everybody else looked thoroughly miserable.
"So far, this intermission is the best part of the play." Zuko announced in annoyance as we stepped out, a cookie in my hand.
"Apparently, the playwright thinks I'm an idiot who tells bad jokes about meat all the time." Sokka ranted, digging his hand into a bag and pulling out a strip of meat as he said it, making Suki smirk with amusement at her boyfriend.
"Yeah, you tell bad jokes about plenty of other topics." Missing the punch line of Suki's joke on Sokka, he turned around quickly after chewing the meat thoroughly.
"I know!"
"At least this Sokka actor kinda looks like you. That woman playing the Avatar doesn't resemble me at all." Aang said, though he was in complete denial over the fact since Aang's actress actually did look a fair bit like him. Just…more womanly and with makeup.
"I don't know, you are more in touch with your feminine side than most guys." Shooting Toph an annoyed look at her comment, he huffed.
"Relax, Aang. They're not accurate portrayals. It's not like I'm a preachy cry baby who can't resist giving overemotional speeches about hope all the time." Everybody gave Katara critical looks, making her blink in confusion as she couldn't work out what it meant. "What?"
"Yeah. That's not you at all." Aang sat back down with a drone of sarcasm in his voice so Toph tried to take the lead with blunt honesty.
"Listen friends. It's obvious that the playwright did his research. I know it must hurt but what you're seeing up there on that stage is the truth." Maybe a little bit too honest, Toph.
"They're exaggerated for comedic effect." I explained to everyone, tired of seeing their miserable expressions. "It happens all the time in theatre and shows. Nobody wants to sit and watch a play where actors just talk at each other all the time and occasionally see a fight scene. People want to laugh, so that's what this is all about. You can't take it too seriously. I mean, I don't even have a character!" Shrugging my hands in a carefree manner, everyone looked at me. "Besides, the guy who wrote the play has never met us. How could he possibly know what we're really like?" This seemed to work, and everybody at least agreed to go back in and see the end of the play, though they were sceptical at best.
