Sokka looked at Kyoto, and realized something. He felt a drawing to her…sort of a comfort from being around her. For him, it was hard to believe he was crying just an hour ago.

Katara looked at the ground, suddenly feeling ashamed. "I-I'm sorry. I should have known." Sokka nodded solemnly, and added. "Yeah, we shouldn't have intruded on you like this." he said as he touched the back of his neck.
Kyoto shook her head. "Its not your fault…its just hard to say." Aang stood
up. "Please.." he said, but couldn't finish his sentence. Kyoto blushed. "I'm the one who should be sorry. You came all this way to help…and here I am doing nothing but making it worse. I'll tell you..but its not pretty."
Aang, Katara and Sokka nodded, sitting down to listen. Kyoto wiped her eyes, and took a deep breath. "It all began when a younger firebender came and
attacked. I-it was quite an uproar. Everyone was so scared…" tears welled up
in her eyes as she swallowed. "He was looking for the Avatar…but as the Avatar
left, and saved us, drenching the village with water…the fire nation soon
left." Kyoto looked at the ground and began to cry softly.

Sokka badly wanted to come over, and put his arm around her, comfort her. Something. He didn't understand this feeling…not at all. Katara came over and sat next to Kyoto. "We were…" but she didn't finish. She realized what she wanted to say…she couldn't. Kyoto continued after a few minutes. "Everyone came out of hiding…we all thought we were safe. We thought it was all over. Things went back to normal for a few days. Almost…"

It was all so hard for her. Each word took so much effort to say. " Then, another fire nation ship arrived. But it wasn't the same one..this time a harsh man and his warriors stepped onto our land. We didn't want to be part of the war..we thought we could hide. We thought we were safe, enough." Aang covered his face with his hands, the guilt rushing back to him. He thought he was going to cry again, but Katara put an arm around him. She was always there for him when he needed it. Leaning against her, for once, the tears didn't come.

Kyoto continued, but her eyes were wet now, and her voice was shaky. "He tore the village apart, searching for the Avatar. Our warriors fought the best they could. Everyone tried to explain he already left, but the man in charge didn't believe us. He only left after almost all of us were dead, and everything was covered in flame. I didn't think I would survive, but I was lucky. My family, wasn't so lucky."

Then Kyoto began to cry, burying her face in her hands, shoulders shaking. Katara didn't know what to say. She just looked at Kyoto, full of sympathy. "Kyoto…I'm so sorry. We lost our mother to the fire nation too.." But Sokka, before he could think about it, did more then that. He put his hand on Kyoto's shoulder, and waited for her to feel better. She looked up, wiped her eyes, and blushed. She whispered "Thank you.." but didn't know what else to say. After she stopped crying, Katara said very seriously "What did the man look like?" Kyoto looked at the ground. With a weak smile, she said "Almost like a chimp. Sideburns, harsh expression, dark hair..tall. About 40 years old, I suppose."

Katara and Sokka exchanged expressions and nodded. "Zhao."

Author's Note: Thank you so much for the reviews! hugs readers What do you think?