Sorry for the late chapter, I'm just having so much on my plate at the moment, so please forgive me for my lateness
Anyways, here's chapter 12
I hope you enjoy it :)
The journey was long and tiring, but they finally made it to the firenation.
The prince and princess of the southern watertribe found guards surrounding the place as the firelord himself came to greet them, but he was alone, without any other familiar faces around, which disappointed Sokka and Katara, as they expected a certain someone to be preset to greet them, they knew he was in the firenation and Sokka requested for his presence, and yet he never came to greet them, they were upset but they still managed to form a smile at the firelord as they landed from the ship after saying their farewells to the sailors.
"Look, Katara.. it's the firelord himself who came to greet us."
Zuko chuckled at this, "It's good to see you again, my friends." He said, as he did the watertribe forearm handshake with Sokka, and hugged Katara.
"It's good to see you too, Zuko.." Katara responded, but she quirked an eyebrow when she noticed something odd, "Where's Mai?" She asked the firelord.
Zuko got flustered, he knew exactly where Mai was but he couldn't say what she was doing at the moment, "Mai is attending to some urgent matters at her household, she told me to greet you on her behalf as she wouldn't be able to attend the meetings, unfortunately." Zuko lied to the best of his abilities, he was so upset with himself as his lying skills really reminded him of Azula, maybe they weren't so different after all,
the saying should now be altered to "Zuko always lies", the firelord thought.
Katara and Sokka noticed Zuko's fidgeting, but they decided to let it slide, "That's unfortunate, I wish her the best." Katara said.
The firelord sighed with relief that they let him off the hawk, he didn't want to tell them that Mai is currently attending to his sister, who attempted to..
Zuko didn't want to even think about it for the moment so he decided to call on his representatives to start with business, "Sokka, Katara.. this is General Chu, the head of our newly appointed house of representatives."
It appears The Firelord didn't only come with guards however, he also brought members of his house of representatives, General Chu spoke up, "Welcome to Caldera City, my lord and lady, We hope the winds were too kind and that you had a pleasant journey, shall we go to the royal palace and start the meeting?" General Chu asked.
Sokka didn't pay attention to General Chu, instead he wrapped his arm around The Firelord's shoulder and looked at him with a smirk, "Come on now, Firelord Hot head.. we're so tired, I think it'd be courteous of you to guide us to the dining room to refill our stomachs, then you guide us to the bedroom to get some sleep, and then discuss whatever we're going to discuss on the morrow, sounds good to you?"
Zuko smiled back at Sokka, "I thought you might say that, I asked the servants to prepare a meal for the both of you right back at the palace, you are gonna love the food here."
Sokka's mouth drooled, "Yum."
Katara was disgusted by this, "Sokka, stop, you are embarrassing yourself."
Zuko however chuckled at his friend's antics, "How I've missed the both of you, let's go to the palace." And together with their escorts and the members of the house of representatives, they went back to the palace.
The Firelord carried on with his promise, and got Sokka and Katara to the dining room, Sokka's eyes widened at the sight of the meal they prepared for them, it was a table filled with only the best meat in the entire world, he hovered over to the table and started eating, without waiting for the firelord or Katara.
"Ugh, disgusting." Katara said.
"Must you ruin all the fun?" Sokka asked her, his mouth filled with chops of meat.
Zuko laughed again as he and Katara arrived at the table and took their seats, "You must be so tired."
Katara spoke up as Sokka was busy eating, "Yeah, the ship we took wasn't the best, it took us longer than it was supposed to be to come here, we never had these problems when we were flying on.." Katara trailed off, she couldn't continue the sentence as it reminded her of memories she wouldn't like to think over, as it took her some time to get over those thoughts.
"Yeah, I get what you are saying." Zuko said, as he started to fidget again, his anxiety prompted him to drink some water to calm his nerves, as he took the cup and started to drink,
Katara observed his mannerisms, she knew he was hiding something, and she knew exactly what it was, so she straightforwardly asked him the question, "Zuko, Where's Aang?"
The water that Zuko just chugged came back out again, as the straightforwardness of the question made him spit the water out, and on the receiving end was Sokka who got splashed with Zuko's water.
"EW." Sokka reacted.
"I'm sorry." Zuko said, as he took a nearby towel and threw it at Sokka to dry himself off.
Meanwhile, Katara wasn't having any of it, "I knew it! you were hiding something, We know he's here, Zuko.. he doesn't want to meet with us, does he?" Katara asked, her face filled with hurt as she knew it was the truth.
Zuko looked at her, he sympathized with the girl, he knew that despite everything that's happened between the couple, they still care for each other, especially on Katara's part, who expressed multiple times how she wants to just have a word with him again, It was Sokka's turn to speak,
"I know he's here.. and I'll go find him." He stood up all of a sudden.
As Zuko was about to stop him, someone stepped into the room which stopped Sokka in his tracks, and both Sokka, Katara and Zuko looked at him with shocked faces.
"No need.. I'm here." The person who stepped in said, he wasn't just any person, but the most identifiable person in the world, the arrow tattoo on his head didn't leave room for speculation, it was him, flesh and blood.
the words were stuck in Sokka's mouth, the shock made the master of talkativeness unable to find words to speak.
Katara was most astonished.
how he's grown.. she expressed internally, as she was amazed by how Aang looked now.
Katara left her side of the table to come by Aang's side, she observed him with her eyes, all the way until she got near him, he looked back at her with eyes that displayed genuine emotion, what shocked Katara the most was that he was looking Down on her now, he's become taller than her now, it's something that made her feel proud of him and how he's grown.
"Aang.." she merely said with her soft voice that Aang loved so much.
The Avatar couldn't take it anymore, his emotions got the better of him, so he couldn't help but grab her and pull her closer to hug her fiercely, Katara was shocked at first that he took the initiative, but she still hugged him back.
"I missed you so much." Aang said, his voice filled with genuine emotion.
Katara's eyes watered at that, "I missed you too." She responded back, her soft voice mirroring his in terms of sincerity. they both pulled back and looked at each other for a while, only for Aang to pull his arms fully and pull back, Katara was surprised at this as she thought he would keep her at arms' length for some time, but he just pulled back as soon as the hug was over, making it obvious to Katara that it was completely platonic.
Aang then cleared his throat and looked at Sokka as he spoke to him, "Hello, Sokka." He greeted the warrior. Sokka was still gawking at him, he then composed himself after he saw Aang regarding him with the greeting, Sokka extended his arm to give him the forearm shake, but Aang only smirked at him, and surprised him again with a hug of his own.
"I missed you, buddy." Aang said, as he was still hugging Sokka.
Sokka smiled and returned the hug, "I wasn't expecting it to go like this.. Umm, yeah, I've missed you too, Aang." Sokka stuttered as he said so, which made Aang chuckle when they broke up the hug, The Avatar understood how surprised the southern watertribe siblings were with his attitude, but the past couple of days taught the avatar to let go, and indeed he did.
Aang broke the hug and looked at Sokka and Katara with a smile, "You requested for my presence, here I am.. shall we begin with the meeting?" Aang said formally, assuming the business side of his character, something that surprised Katara and Sokka, prompting them to ask of the whereabouts of the fun loving boy they used to hang out with.
Sokka cleared his throat, "Zuko and I agreed to hold off the meeting until tomorrow, we've had a long journey, we need to rest." He said.
"Well, I shall see you tomorrow then." The Avatar said without a moment of hesitation, and with a nod he turned around to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" Katara asked, forcing the avatar to stop in his tracks and turn back to look at her.
"I'm going to my room." He simply said.
"Can't you stick around for a bit, please? we haven't even shared stories of what each of us had done in the past two years." Katara said, her eyes begging him to stay.
Aang felt weak, the look in his eyes melted him, but he knew that if he stayed he would feel even more weak as he wouldn't resist his longing for her,
"Unfortunately, I can't.. there will be plenty of time for that tomorrow, if you'll excuse me." Aang said with a fake smile, he then nodded and left the room.
Katara and Sokka were left speechless, how far has Aang come? if it were two years ago, he would be so eager to hear their stories, to have a cup of tea with them, to hug them even fiercer, especially Katara, it wasn't actually Sokka who requested for his presence, it was Katara, she wanted to mend their broken relationship, even if she knew for a fact it would never return to its former state, but she at least wanted to apologize for what they did to him, explain to him how it wasn't their choice,
how people in the southern watertribe wanted to take their father's claim, and so they had to get back to protect him, she felt responsible for everything that transpired between them, as she should have given him the full picture of what happened, yet she just took the easy way out of making him hate her, part of the reason for that was that not once in her life had she thought that Aang was capable of hate, but now that she sees him like this, she felt responsible for this new character of his.
Katara was on the verge of tears, Sokka came to her side and took her in his arms, her brother understood her and knew how much in pain she is, Zuko understood as well, but he just stood there unable to say words of comfort, as he partially blamed them for Aang's new character as well, but he also knew that there was nothing they could have done to make it better, so he just stood there looking at them in sympathy.
Meanwhile, the most devastated of the bunch was the person who just left the room, as soon as Aang left the room and went out of reach, he stuck his back to a wall and collapsed to the ground, he covered his ears with his palms which was something that he always does when he's overwhelmed. He's endured a lot in the past couple of days, starting with Azula, who almost took her own life, if it wasn't for him standing there to save her, and now this.
Azula.. Aang remembered.
The Avatar stood up immediately and made his way out of the firenation palace, he remembered that there was a princess that needs him back at Mai's mansion.
he remembered the vow he made to her, and so he was glad he never fell for Katara's charms.
*Flashback*
Did she just kiss me? How am I to feel about this? this is too much.
Aang thought after the whole ordeal at the ember island beach, he enjoyed the touch of her lips on his, he couldn't actually believe it, but he really enjoyed it, and he wasn't too blind to unsee it, he was fully aware of what he was doing, and he did it anyway.
Azula must be feeling terrible right now, she must feel rejected, I should tell her that it was me that doesn't trust this kind of affection anymore. Aang thought as he was facing the sea, he turned around to look for her, and she was no where to be found.
The Avatar panicked, he thought that she had run away, what would Zuko think of him? He took off searching for her, shouting her name everywhere, fortunately, they were standing on sand, so he decided to full her trails, her footprints were so heavy, meaning she was walking unsteadily,
was she really that devastated by what happened? Aang asked himself, internally punishing himself for his attitude towards her, how does he expect her to heal if he wasn't even making her feel loved and accepted?
What he found afterwards made him panic even more.
"No, Azula! Don't! AZULA!" He kept shouting her name as he saw her walking further into the sea, drowning herself.
without thinking, The Avatar took off after her, and with the use of waterbending, he helped himself arrive there faster, by the time he reached her, she was already sinking into the sea, so he took a deep breath and dived into the water.
He kept swimming into the sea until he finally reached her, he grabbed her and carried her out of there, coughing in the process.
by the time that happened, the princess was unconscious from all the water she had to breathe in.
Aang had no choice but to use her waterbending to get the water out of her lungs, he got all the water that was stuck in her chest, but that wasn't enough, she was still unconscious,
Aang gently tilted the princess's head back, he placed his hand on her forehead and pinched her nose with his index finger and thumb, he took a normal breath and then he pressed his mouth to hers to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,
he found no use doing that as she kept being unresponsive, he decided to stop and started to pump her chest instead, he placed the heel of his hand on the centre of her chest, then he placed the palm of his other hand on top and pressed down, gently at first, then roughly when she wasn't responding, he feared the worst and so tears were streaming out of his eyes,
"C'mon, don't die on me, please! I'm sorry." The Avatar said, as tears came flowing out of his eyes.
He kept pressing her chest while talking at the same time, "Please, Azula.. get up, Come on! you can do this, Princess! come on! come on! come on!" The Avatar shouted as he kept pumping her chest.
All of a sudden, the princess started to cough.
"Yeah!" The Avatar shouted joyfully, which was followed by a sigh of relief, "There you go."
Azula opened her eyes and looked at him, her eyes were full of sadness as she realized what she had done, "Oh Aang.." She whispered, and then she closed her eyes and fell unconscious again.
But At least Aang now understanding that this time, she just needed rest, she's alive, but she needs rest, and she needs a good explanation from him.
Aang decided to carry her home, when he arrived at the beach house, everyone panicked, Aang never told them what happened, he just told them that Azula almost drowned as they went out to a night swim.
Everyone bought it, except for Mai who was too smart to believe it, she knew how good of a swimmer Azula is, but she knew that Aang had his reasons for it, and so she decided to discuss it with him later.
but for now, she suggested that Azula be kept at her house for safety, so that she doesn't attact so much attention by keeping her at the royal palace, everyone agreed on it and so they took her unconscious body to Mai's house secretly, not even Mai's parents or brother knew of it. everything that transpired proved to Aang one thing.
that he's indeed in love with the firenation princess, and so he vowed to stay by her side until the end.
He finally decided to give love another chance, hopefully, it hits the mark this time.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter
don't forget to put your review so I can learn from your experiences,
and please have a good one :)