They'd dropped Giman off as soon as they'd seen the start of the island chain that the Western Air Temple was hidden among. Suki couldn't say that she wasn't happy to see her go, but she realised that deep down she would miss her, in a way. Violent and unpredictable she may have been, but she'd been the only even pseudo-friendly face that she'd had for more than half a year. From the wink that she'd given Suki, though, she felt like she hadn't seen the last of the older woman.
It'd only been an hour since she left Sokka quiet in the cockpit, but she refused to let herself feel guilty about it. If he couldn't give her 100%, then he shouldn't try anything; it wasn't fair to either of them. Still, a part of her would always wonder what could have been. Speaking of which… She spied Zuko standing out near the gangway, tension radiating off of the stiff lines of his body. Reaching out, she gently touched his arm. "Hey there."
He instinctively flinched back, small flames forming around his fingertips before he took a deep breath and forcibly dampened them. "Suki. Hi. Didn't see you there." He blushed and averted his eyes. Embarrassed at his lack of control, maybe?
"Little twitchy, I see. It's okay." She tried to soothe his clearly tattered nerves, but he wasn't having any of it.
"Trust me, you haven't seen Katara on the warpath. She's… not my biggest fan right now. I get along well with Toph and Aang, and Sokka and I have come to an understanding. But she's the glue that keeps this bunch of children together."
"Children?" She raised an eyebrow, smirk on her face. "You can't be that much older than them."
He waved her off, unwilling to meet her eyes. "It's not their age. It's just… Well, you've met them. They're not like us. We were raised as soldiers, with the hard realities of life beaten into us." He indicated the air between them, and she had to wonder how literally he meant 'beat into him.' Her own training had been tough and often uncompromising, but the older warriors knew that trainees could only be pushed so far. From what she knew of Fire Lord Ozai and Zuko's own attitude, she doubted that either of them would care about such petty things like burnout.
"They're still innocent, they think that everyone can be saved. Sokka's got his moments, but he just as easily slides into acting like he's Aang's age at the sparking of a flame. Toph's solid despite her age, but she grew up more sheltered than I was, and that's saying something. As for the Avatar..." He blew out a breath of fire, and she recoiled instinctively before mentally chastising herself. Benders weren't very common on Kyoshi Island, and she'd had enough issues getting used to the casual way that earthbenders threw around their element on the way to Ba Sing Se. She wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to someone being that nonchalant about throwing around fire.
He grimaced. "Sorry. Wasn't thinking. Of course you'd be scared of fire." He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. "Aang… he's a kid. He's got the attention span of a butterfly-moth, and he's more naive than I was at half his age. Then again, he didn't grow up with Azula. I want to knock him out and sit on him for, oh, a decade or so, let him grow old enough to think before he does things. My father won't go easy on him just because he's young." Unconsciously, his hand brushed his scar. "If anyone can understand what he's capable of, it's me."
Suki took a step forward and bumped his hip with her own. "I haven't seen it, but I hear that the Avatar State is something to see. From what I hear, nothing can stop him when he's like that. He'll pull through, you'll see."
Zuko flinched and sighed. "Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure of that. You haven't seen the scar that Azula left on Aang when she took him out of the Avatar State with a lightning bolt. It's powerful, but when he's like that, it's not Aang who's in control, it's the Avatar. From what Uncle told me about the spirits, they don't exactly have the same priorities that we do."
"Wait, Azula took him down in the Avatar State?" She could feel shock and cold dread creep down her spine.
He laughed bitterly. "Yeah. And Dad taught her everything that she knows. He can throw around lightning a lot faster than she can." She didn't think that she wanted confirmation on how he knew that, but she had a bad feeling that she knew how. Personal experience.
"Just… wow."
"Yeah. So you can see why they need Katara. And she hates me. I can't entirely blame her, either. I sided against her under Ba Sing Se, when the Avatar got hurt." Before she could ask, he held up his hand. "No, I don't regret it. Azula got into my head, but in the end it was for the best. I got to see the Fire Nation from an outsider's perspective, I got to see what the war was doing to us. It's what cemented my decision to join the Avatar." Suki was quiet as she digested his confession.
"I can't say that I understand." She said slowly. "But I can give you the benefit of the doubt, considering that you've ended up on the right side of things."
He gave her a small, sincere smile. "That's more than I could hope for."
She was about to respond when she felt the balloon begin to drop, and looked around in a panic before Zuko grabbed her arm. "It's okay. We're just coming down for the final approach. You'll want to see this; the Western Air Temple is something that needs to be seen to be believed."
They descended through the pre-dawn mists, and she can't help the gasp that escapes from her lips. The pagoda-like structures looked vaguely similar to some of the higher class Earth buildings that she'd come across in her travels with the warriors on the way to Ba Sing Se, but none of those had been suspended upside down from a hollowed-out cliff. "What the…"
He smirked at the slack-jawed look that she just knew was plastered on her face. "What did I tell you? It's something that needs to be seen to be believed."
"Zuko! Zuko, we're here!" Sokka's voice rang out from around the corner, and Sokka followed it a second later, huge grin on his face as he slid around it, barely avoiding slamming into the far wall. "I want to…" His voice trailed off as he saw her standing beside Zuko, looking out at the temple a little closer than perhaps strictly necessary. "Suki, you're here." His face fell, and she winced. Damn.
"I wanted to see the temple as we came down, and I ran into Zuko." She shrugged and purposefully took a step back from the window, away from the warm firebender.
"I was just going to run a joke past Zuko for when we got back, try and break the ice and, you know, explain the giant war balloon." Some of his joviality had come back, but she could tell that it'd been forced for their benefit. She didn't mind; it let her pretend that she hadn't hurt him, at least for now.
"Sokka, you know that I don't joke." Why in Agni's name did you think that it would be a good idea to test your joke on me?" Zuko rasped out, having also subconsciously taken a step back from the window and her.
The other man raised his finger for a second before dropping it along with his head. "You know, that's a fair point. Guess that we're winging it, eh buddy?" Whatever response Zuko might have had was cut off as the zeppelin shuddered, coming to rest on the edge of the temple. She could hear another pair of footsteps coming down the hall from the cockpit, and familiar voices were yelling outside the balloon. Sokka grinned and elbowed Zuko in the side. "Showtime, hotman. Let's do this." Before she could react, Sokka kicked open the door and stepped out, giving Katara, Aang and Toph a wide grin.
"What are you doing in this thing? What happened to the war balloon?" Katara irately asked. Suki grimaced at the glare that she was shooting at Zuko. Guess that he really is a bad liar. Katara is pissed.
"Yeah… it kinda got destroyed." Zuko rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, and tried to avoid direct eye contact with the angry waterbender.
Aang, ever the peacekeeper, stepped between the groups. "Sounds like a crazy fishing trip."
"Did you at least get some good meat? I'm starving!" Toph piped up, and Suki couldn't help but smile. She'd liked the irritable little earthbender, despite their rocky meeting.
"I did." He took a deep breath, and held for a moment. She rolled her eyes. Always needs to be so theatrical, doesn't he? "The best meat of all. The meat of fatherhood and friendship."
Suki felt a hand push on her shoulder, and looked up to see Hakoda indicating with a head nod that they should head out. She could feel Chit Sang's footsteps immediately behind her. Probably a good idea. Big guy, obvious Fire Nation, and Katara doesn't exactly look rational right now. Better to get the introduction over with.
They disembarked, and before Hakoda and Suki could say anything, Chit Sang's voice boomed over their heads. "I'm new. What's up everyone?" Suki winced, waiting for Katara to explode, but instead water collected at her eyes and she threw herself into Hakoda's arms.
"Dad." Suki could barely hear her voice through Hakoda's chest, and he laughed. "Hi Snowflake. Miss me?" Katara hugged him tighter for a second before letting him go, eyes passing over the other two former prisoners. "How are you here? What's going on? Sokka, where did you go?"
"So, we didn't actually go on a fishing trip." Everyone ignored Toph's sarcastic comment of 'No kidding'. "We… kinda went to a Fire Nation prison?"
Zuko nodded, and she noticed that he didn't offer any more information. Tellingly, Hakoda and Chit Sang also stood silently by as Katara proceeded to grab Sokka by the arm and pull him into a group hug with her dad. She looked at Zuko, and he gave her a rueful smile and shrugged. Yeah, I don't get it either.
"Seriously, you guys didn't find any meat?" Toph cut through the heartfelt moment, and Zuko sighed before walking over to her and grabbing her arm after tousling her hair.
"Come on, Tulip, let them have their moment. I haven't kicked your ass for three whole days, and I don't want to fall out of practice." Suki smiled as Toph began screeching indignantly at him, but she willingly followed the older firebender away, which surprised her. She wouldn't have thought that anyone could convince Toph away from, well, anything, but apparently Zuko had managed it.
Gesturing at Chit Sang, she resolved to introduce him to Aang, and try to get the least awkward part of the introductions over with first.