A/N: Hi guys, this is my next chapter, hope you enjoy!
Next Day…
As soon as the Head Council man calls the general meeting to a close, I'm standing before anyone else and quickly making my way out of the room. As I stride further away from the area I hear the rapid pattern of someone running after me, before I think to panic though, I visualise the person with my seismic sense, relieving me to know it's only Zuko, which brings my feet to a sudden halt, I spin around to face him. He soon reaches me and begins a conversation.
"Aang you look awful!" I frown at his choice of words, 'he was chasing after me to tell me that?'
"Thanks Zuko I really needed to hear that."
"Sorry but it's true, not to mention you were falling asleep in that meeting; something I'm seeing more and more often. What's happening?"
"Nothing has happened; I'm the same."
"No, you haven't been the same for the last three years now." I sigh heavily, rubbing my forehead in frustration.
"Zuko I told you numerous times to stop bringing this up. You've been badgering me about it non-stop!"
"That's only because you never tell me the truth!"
"How many times do I have to tell you I'm fine?!" I begin to holler, before realising that I'm attracting too much attention from a couple of the nobles, so I drop my voice to a hushed whisper. 'Can't Zuko leave me alone? I haven't told anyone about what's wrong for 3 years, does he really think he can get it out of me now?'
"Yeh right that's why you have big dark circles around your eyes."
"That's just for staying up late doing all those letters, signing documents and stuff."
"I highly doubt that you have to do that every day and long into the night, since I have to do the same thing." I see him smirk in a way to say that he's got me trapped, well I'm not giving in and I'm not an earthbender for nothing; I've gained their stubborn quality.
"I'm not having this conversation." I turn quickly on my heel giving Zuko my back and I'm about to sprint away from him until I feel a heavy hand clasped on my shoulder, I turn ever so slightly so that I may look at him in the eye.
"I just need to make sure you are ok Aang. You've withdrawn from all of your friends which isn't healthy." I snort at his use of the word 'friends'. I've disconnected myself from all of them ages ago, that isn't something that friendsdo. But my heart leaps for a moment at his concern, making me feel slightly guilty at not being able to tell him anything. But soon enough my thoughts return to that word and I can't help but to chuckle slightly with some malice being added in.
"Ha what friends? You mean the old gang who hates my guts."
"They don't hate you…" I cut through his sentence before he can continue because I know the truth, it's blatantly obvious.
"Sure, that's why Sokka casts me an evil glare whenever he sees me or ignores me entirely, or Toph who shoulders me roughly and earth bends the ground underneath me so that I may fall right on my face, or what about Katara? Who hasn't put one footstep in Republic City since its grand opening and lives all the way in the South Pole because she knows she won't ever bump into me. Yeh they don't hate me at all." I shrug his hand off my shoulder and stalk off without a backward glance, leaving Zuko standing alone shaking his head and absorbed into his own thoughts, 'I've got to do something, any moment now he'll collapse from whatever exhaustion he's exerting on himself.'
Zuko's POV:
Later that evening in Sokka's office…
"Hey Sokka." The water tribe councilman glances up at me from his piles of work with a grin.
"Oh hey your fiery majesty and how are we this fine day?" I scowl at him for the teasing but let the comment slide, for now. I have more pressing issues to deal with.
"Doing alright I suppose, would be better without the nickname though."
"Oh but it comes with the job!" I simply shake my head at his enthusiasm.
"Anyway I want to ask you a couple of things, if that's alright?"
"Sure fire away! Ha get it? Because you are a firebender and they…"
"ALRIGHT, alright!" I clutch at the bridge of my nose with irritation, 'this probably was a bad idea.'
"Ok, ok I was just joking around, no need to blow a gasket." He defends with his hands out in front of him.
"Anyway… I was wondering firstly whether all the peace treaties are being upheld, particularly in the Southern Water Tribe? I want to make sure they are receiving the supplies they need with no problems."
"All peace treaties are smoothing down nicely, looks like after three years people seem to be ready to move on. Southern Water Tribe are doing great! With all the help we've been receiving we are well on our way to become like our sister tribe in no time. Well there have been a couple of times when we didn't receive the required equipment, but we sorted it out."
"Hmm interesting, I'll check on that later then. But glad to hear everything is going straight forward."
"Yep. Now what's the second thing? I've got to get these papers done in two days from now. Not that I don't enjoy chatting with my good old fire friend but you know deadlines."
"Yeh I know what you mean. Well what I wanted to ask you was a favour really."
"Concerning…?" I take a deep breath preparing for the uproar that is certainly about to occur, 'well no going back now.'
"Aang." I see his grin drop immediately, his eyes harden and his face blank of any emotions for several seconds until…
"WHAT?!"
"Sokka let me explain!"
"NO! I told you before that I'm not going to speak about HIM ever again and you agreed!"
"Please Sokka…"
"Nope I'm not hearing another word. I'm going to ask you kindly to leave my office now before I get out my trusty boomerang."
"Can't you listen for a…" Sokka reaches for his drawer and pulling out his beloved weapon he points it at me.
"OUT!"
"There's something wrong with Aang." I calmly state in a hope that he will take my words in consideration. I watch as he pauses in mid-action of swinging the boomerang, his facial expression for once is impossible to read. But I do take notice that he's thinking my statement over in his head.
"I told you not to mention his name."
"I know, I know, but this is urgent." Sokka slowly sets his boomerang down out in front of him. He leans back on his chair, closing his eyes for a moment and rubbing his face as if he's tired from the whole conversation already. He eventually opens his eyes, looking directly at me, piercing me with his clear blue eyed gaze.
"I'm only asking because you are my friend and you're worried, but other than that I would have kicked you out by now… so what is it you have to say?" The councilman asks taking on a hard edge tone.
"Aang…"
"The Avatar."
"Whatever! I feel like there's something up with him. He hasn't been the same since the end of the war."
"I don't think any of us are."
"What I mean is, he's exhausted all the time to the point that he's falling asleep in important meetings…"
"So what if he's tired?"
"Can you please let me finish?!" I growl at him for his consistent intrusion. He gives me a curt nod and so I do. "I also realised that his movements tend to be jerky at times, his body rigid, so unlike the posture of an Airbender. I've caught him a good number of times wincing as if the action pained him. One time while we were walking in the palace gardens the wind was so strong it pulled back some of his robes and I saw a massive bruise on his forearm. What do you make of all this?"
"He could have just bumped into something." Sokka responds with a lack of interest and absent from all concern.
"No, because when I questioned him about it he refused to say anything, acting all uncomfortable and not offering any explanations. There has to be something wrong." Sokka frowns for a moment at my words, before speaking.
"I'm not sure." He settles on saying.
"Come on Sokka, you and Katara know him the best. You must have some idea."
"I might have thought I knew him back then, but three years changes a person, that's if I ever knew him at all in the start. At the moment I don't know him at all and I prefer it to stay that way…" My shoulders slump slightly at his answer, I look at the floor in frustration, 'this isn't going as I planned at all.' Sokka seems to have pity on me because I hear him clear his throat and attempts to be more helpful, for my sake. "…All I can say is that sleep deprivation that he has is most likely due to nightmares." I glance up at him again, his expression still stony but neutral, so I question further in the hope that I'll retrieve more information.
"Nightmares?"
"Yeh he used to get plenty of those when we were traveling."
"Any idea what about?" Sokka shrugs at me.
"Not really, he usually confined to Katara about this stuff. Hmm well I do remember he had a nightmare about failing in the invasion and er guilt about the Air Nomads."
"But he can't be having nightmares for three years straight! That's pretty much impossible."
"After what I've experienced in my life, anything is possible."
"I wonder what about?"
"How should I know?!"
"Don't you care what's going on with him?"
"As far as I'm concerned I stopped caring a long time ago, like three years ago in fact."
"Now you are just lying to yourself."
"How would you know? He's just a selfish bald monk that doesn't care about anyone. He ran away from all of us when we tried to talk to him. He called us his acquaintances for goodness sake! How dare he? He told the public we were only people who helped to bring about the end of the war and nothing more, he actually said that. He never cared about us so no I do not care about him and I intend to keep it that way!"
"But…"
"I've put up with this conversation long enough. Now can you escort yourself out please?" Sokka hisses between his teeth, taking on the mask of coldness, sending me a slight chill down my spine at his unusual manner, but I press on not intending to give up any time soon. So I say the one thing in my mind that I'm sure will drag his attention, I hope.
"I think someone's hurting him."
"Don't try to guilt trip me!"
"Please Sokka I need your help." I plead to him, for probably the fourth time in my life, I Firelord Zuko am begging for help, help to save the Avatar from whatever he's going through, help to save Aang – our friend.
"What can I possibly do? I've already given you my time."
"Please can you interrogate him?" I see him physically reel back in shock.
"Have you lost your mind?!"
"No, I've asked him so many times over the years, I need your help."
"Usually I would be flattered that you need my help, but on this occasion I'm livid. You know how I feel about this!"
"What about if I can persuade Toph to join, will you come?" And right then, in this thickly tense atmosphere the unexpected happens… Sokka bursts into fits of laughter, clutching his belly tightly with tears streaming down his face. The longer he laughs the more it gets on my nerves.
"What's so funny?" I growl at him for the second time during our little meeting. Finally he stops his laughter and wipes the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand.
"You must be mad if you think you can persuade Toph! We are talking about the same Toph right? You know the Toph who dislikes Aang more than me and, as she likes to call herself, 'the greatest earthbender in the world.' You know earthbenders are famous for their stubborn nature and since she is the 'greatest of them all'then she has the most stubborn nature I've ever seen. You really are dreaming now."
"Hey I have my ways!"
"Oh yeh, like what?" As soon as he questions me, I pause to think about it, soon realising I have no idea how I'm going to persuade her, I unfortunately am forced to give Sokka a very lame response.
"Erm my charm." This leads to more sniggering from Sokka's side of the room. Finally he straightens himself out and stretches his hand out to shake.
"Alright you have a deal. If you can convince her to take part in this questioning thingy then I'll tag along too. And for your information I'm only doing this because I know there's no chance in heaven or earth she will agree." I stretch my own hand and clasps his in mine, shaking it.
"Fine, you'll see."
"Ha yeh we shall." At which he grins at me, knowing that I'm going to fail miserably. "When are you going to ask her?"
"Well in three days' time we are having a Complete Official Meeting Week. I'm sure you've heard about it right?" Sokka looks at me meekly while scratching the side of his face.
"Heh yeh of course, how can I have not heard of it?" He flicks his wrist in a confident manner.
"You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
"Err no clue…"
"SOKKA! Those are crucial!"
"Sorry, I haven't had the time to look at my mail, what with getting quite side-tracked with these papers and stuff…" He trails off at the look of my face, in exasperation I slap my forehead.
"All the nobles, world leaders and even the White Lotus will be there to discuss every pressing issue there is, from peace treaties and trading to discussing new agreements and affairs in the four nations!"
"More like three nations." Sokka mutters under his breath so quietly that I nearly miss it, nearly.
"No in the FOUR nations." I emphasise.
"I'm just saying that there is only one person in the fourth nation, it's pretty much ext…"
"Don't finish that sentence!" I lean forward towards Sokka so that I am merely inches away from his face. "You have just taken a step too far old friend." Sokka looks at me in shock at my sudden change in demeanour.
"Ok I'm sorry! I take it back ok?" I pull back from him and straighten myself out.
"You've become really cold towards Aang and I don't like it at all, you two used to be like brothers. I know it's partly my fault for driving him away with… well you know, and it's Aang's fault because he didn't and still doesn't want anything to do with us, even after I broke up with Katara. But to be honest I expected all of you to try harder especially with what you've been through with him, rather than just giving up after a couple of months. I mean true friends wouldn't stop trying till they succeed." After my long winded speech I finally take in a deep breath and gaze at Sokka's amazingly enough still neutral face which genuinely surprises me. Not once did he move to interrupt but he also didn't display any expression at my words, 'He may just be good at hiding his emotions, or maybe I simply don't know him well enough like I thought I did, unlike the others,' I message the temple of my head, before continuing. "Well I have my Firelord duties to attend to, thanks for sparing some of your time for me." I glance at Sokka one last time to see him now looking down at his boomerang in front of him, twiddling his thumb. Finally do I turn on my heel to leave, closing the door gently behind me, but just before it closes completely I hear a faint,
"Could I have tried harder?" But it's so faint that I'm unsure whether I imagined it or whether it's real. But either way I smile and walk towards my office, in the hope that I possibly hit a nerve.
A/N: I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and Please Review, tell me your thoughts. Thank you for reading
