Yay! I got reviews! I love you all! Ok, well, here's the next chapter…enjoy!
Her blue eyes met his smoldering gold ones for a moment before she returned the kiss. He pulled back, just for a moment, examining her face for signs that she was upset. Finding none, he kissed her again, exploring her mouth with his agile tongue, letting one of his hands drop off her shoulders to caress her wet, dark skin...
And unfortunately for both of their egos and dignities, that was when Iroh walked in.
Even worse, as neither of them had been planning to do anything other than laundry, the door had been wide open. As such, neither of them noticed Iroh's entrance.
He blinked for a moment, his eyes wrinkling around the corners as he hid a smile. Still they did not see him…after all, they were very busy. Nevertheless, Iroh had news to impart, and, more importantly, neither of them was using any kind of protection. Hence, Iroh felt it necessary to interrupt them, happy though he was that there was something to interrupt. Such being his intentions, he prepared to clear his throat loudly…
(A/N: You just know the situation's about to get worse…)
…as Aang came charging into the fray.
"Uncle Iroh, Uncle Iroh! The helmsman said to tell you he's – um, he's…." Aang, being an innocent, sheltered young monk, knew exactly what was going on. He just hadn't expected it. Iroh, from the look of pure and unholy (Alright, so it's an oxymoron, so what?) glee, hadn't really expected it either.
And from the shocked, horrified, and mortified expressions on the guilty couple's faces, neither Aang nor Iroh had been expected, either.
"Uhm…Uncle? When did you…that is…how long…?" Katara, falling into everyone else's habit of calling the great general "Uncle", stuttered as she tried to find out exactly how long they'd had an audience.
Iroh, still smiling to himself, raised both his hands in front of him as a reassurance.
"Don't worry, nephew, niece, I had only just walked in and was about to say something when Aang came looking for me. It seems, if you don't mind me giving you the news I cameto givein the first place, that we are very low on supplies, and at the same time, quite lost. Now," he said, turning brisklyto Aang, "What did the helmsman say?"
"Oh – he's sighted land, an island with a crescent shaped bay where we can park the boat – I mean, the ship. He also says that he recognizes it, although he doesn't know which island it is, and he was wondering if Zuko could come and see if he recognizes it too."
"Oh. Right. Sure, I'll go talk to him in a minute…" Zuko struggled to regain his mental balance. He sat down heavily on the edge of the bathtub, massaging his temples and trying to ignore the way the blood was still thrumming through his veins.
"Aang, why don't you go tell the helmsman that Zuko will be up there in a minute or two?" Katara said, tactfully getting rid of the young Avatar, "and I shouldn't have to tell you – "
"Not a word, I know, I remember from those times with Haru and Jet…" Aang laughed, remembering both of her little affairs and how much fun they'd had covering her tracks so that Sokka would never know. Still laughing, now at Zuko's confused and suspicious glance at Katara, Aang whipped out of the room and out of sight.
"…Haru and Jet?"
Katara flushed. This was not something she wanted to talk about!
"Uhm, yeah…Haru was an Earth-bender I met who was really nice and had gorgeous hair –" Katara blushed again – she hadn't meant to say that! "- but who was way to sappy and family oriented, in the end. (A/N: Sorry, I love Haru too, but...I mean...) Jet was a non-bending freedom fighter…you might have heard of the incident where a Earth Nation village inhabited by the Fire Nation was flooded when a dam upriver was destroyed? That was Jet. The only reason that the villagers (and the soldiers, I suppose) survived was because Aang, Sokka and I were able to distract Jet's fighters and warn the villagers…but we didn't know that Jet was so bad, at first, so…But anyway, that was over quickly, and it was years ago anyway," she finished hastily. Zuko looked somewhat mollified, as she'd explained both situations and the shortcomings of both of her former lovers.
"Anyway, I need to change clothes, and you need to put on a normal shirt and go talk to the helmsman. I'll meet you up there, okay?" Katara, walking out of Zuko's chambers in her soaked robes, hoped that Iroh had missed the stress she hadn't been able to resist putting on 'normal'.
She really should have known better. Iroh never missed anything.
"Normal shirt…?" Iroh inquired, looking at his flushing nephew. "What kind of un-normal shirts do you have?"
Zuko shot a glare at his uncle as he bent to retrieve one of his newly cleaned shirts, but indicated the other shirt, lying in a puddle in the corner where Zuko had thrown it.
"I had no other clean shirts after training…so while she did my laundry for me, I wore that." He thought fast, and added, "I think it was the fastest job of laundry I've ever seen."
Iroh, raising his eyebrows as he looked at the shirt, merely smiled and walked out, commenting over his shoulder,
"Once you've changed, do go and talk to the helmsman…we do need supplies -and a stop at the nearest washer-woman'splace -most of us don't have a handy water bending lover to doour laundryfor us…"
Zuko scowled at the none-to-subtle parting shot, sent a quick rush of flame after his retreating Uncle, and swiftly changed out of the dripping clothes, returned the now clean garments to his wardrobe, and hurried out the door.
When he arrived in the control room, where all the ship's functions were controlled, heimmediatelyturned on heel and left again. But since that wasn't reallyallowed, and he did need to speak to the helmsman, he gathered what courage and dignity he had and opened the door again. Aang was playing Pi-Sho with his uncle and laughing uproariously, Sokka and Katara were having a mock argument (loudly!) as the helmsman and various other crewmembers looked on and laughed along with Iroh and Aang.
"Oh, Great Agni…what did I ever do to deserve this…?" Just then, Momo, the inexplicably freakish, flying thing the Avatar had brought with him, flew over and landed on Zuko's head, and began to chatter in a remarkable imitation of Admiral Zhao. (A/N: I love Momo, don't get me wrong. That's Zuko's opinion, not mine.)
Zuko felt the urge to run to the nearest wall and bang his head against it until either it or his skull broke. Instead, following a second, more powerful desire forrevenge on the nearest and most vulnerable cause of his torment, he reached up and plucked the lemur-thing off of his head, walked around behind the arguing pair, and smoothly droppedMomo down Sokka's shirt.
There was a moment of profound silence as Zuko stood there, eyes closed, looking supremely dignified, as Sokka blinked at him in undignified shock – and then chaos broke loose again, as Momo began to screech and struggle, Sokka shrieked and ran around in circles, waving one arm in the air and trying to get the lemur out of his shirt with the other, and the crew and everyone else present (except Zuko, who was nevertheless doing the same mentally) broke into hysterical laughter and collapsed on the floor, unable to support themselves and laugh at the same time.
Zuko, still remaining piously straight backed and somber, eventually decided they'd all had enough and snagged Sokka's shirt as he ran by yet again, plucked the lemur from it, and tossed them both out the door.
The laughter slowly died away, and everyone wiped tears of laughter from their eyes as they weakly sat up. Zuko waited for everyone to recover, and for once, his patience paid off. Aang and Uncle quietly resumed their game, Katara came to stand by him (lean on him, more like, as she'd been laughing harder than all the rest), and the crew members dispersed back to whatever jobs they had around the ship. Finally the helmsman turned to Zuko, managing to suppress any lingering guffaws in favor of giving his Prince a serious report.
"Ah, thank you for coming, my lord. As the Avatar told you, we've sighted land…I believe I recognize it, perhaps as one of the places we pursued the Avatar to in the past. Have I permission to drop anchor there and resupply, or at least ask directions to a larger port?"
Zuko considered this, eying the island suspiciously as he pondered. He recognized it as well, as one of the places they'd attacked while the Avatar was in residence there. He knew that, if nothing else, they would not be welcomed…but perhaps…He explained his idea to the helmsman, falling into his "command" voice.
"Drop anchor somewhere far off land, and do not send any of the men on shore. As you thought, this is one of the towns we attacked, and I rather doubt we would be welcome. The Avatar, on the other hand, would surely be treated as an honored guest." He paused, still organizing his thoughts.
"So, if the Avatar will consent to going into town to speak to the headman, ask directions, and gather enough supplies for a few days travel, we need not go anywhere near the town. Aang, are you alright with the plan? We will, of course, provide themoney needed to buy so much in the way of food."
The Avatar nodded affirmatively, and went back to the game. Katara, staring curiously at the island, commented,
"Hey, wait a minute – Aang, isn't that Kyoshi Island?"
Startled, Aang used his air bending to get to his feet, and looked out in the direction Katara was pointing.
"Huh…you're right! See, there's that cool eel thing! Awesome!" Katara rolled her eyes. Zuko, behind her talking quietly with the helmsman, rolled his eyes too – he remembered that nasty eel…fire benders to not like getting wet, and Aang had used that "cool eel" to douse all the fires set by Zuko and his soldiers in the village, and had soaked Zuko and said soldiers in the process. Yuck! Cool eel, indeed.
"Right. That's a point to take into consideration – we should avoid that bay; it seems to be the giant eel thing's territory. This smaller bay on the outside of the crescent should do –" Zuko settled down to planning, and Katara and Aang went out on the deck of the boat to reminisce about their previous visits to Kyoshi Island.
"Haha, do you remember that stupid little marble trick I kept doing? Man, I thought it was so cool…" Aang laughed.
Katara laughed too, but she was remembering Aang's annoying fan club, not to mention to little attitude problem he'd developed because of them. Seeing Aang's glance for her silence, she commented, "Remember how Sokka went to challenge to girls, and they made him wear that dress? Now that was funny!"
Secure in the hilarity of their memories, the two laughed the evening away. Eventually, the bell rang for supper, and they went to wash up and change clothes.
Dinner was a happy, loud affair, with Aang, Katara, and the crew in general in a good mood. Sokka, the object of everyone's humor (for the story of Zuko's little trick had spread to even the lowest crewmembers, and everyone found it utterly brilliant), wasn't in such a good mood. As he usually did, in order to forget about something he didn't like, he thought about something he did like, a memory or a friend from the past. He was just in the middle of remembering their short encounter with Bato when Iroh stood up at the head of the table.
"In honor of the full moon tonight, and full stomachs tomorrow when the Avatar returns with our supplies, we have scheduled music night to be tonight, in the lower storage rooms…" a general cheer rang out (as well as a few groans, though far too few for Zuko's liking), but Sokka had stopped listening.
Full Moon…tonight he could talk to Yue again. Every full moon, Sokka found some way to be out in the open, away from his sister and Aang, when he could talk to his beloved. Every once in a while, she would talk back, in the form of some natural occurrence; occasionally when he asked her a question, a cloud passing in front of the moon's face was a no, or a fish jumping out of the water in the moon's reflection would be a yes. Of course, there were always times when she merely listened, letting him work his problems out under her comforting guidance and presence…especially when they were far from any real water source. Tonight, Sokka would sit out on deck and talk to her again. Music night was actually the best thing he could have wished for, because all the men attended, even if they were one of the few men who'd groaned. No one wanted to miss out on the potentially hilarious situations, even if some of the singing was painful to hear.
Katara, sitting between Aang and Zuko, had not missed her brother's silence throughout dinner, nor his reaction to the announcement of the full moon. She looked down at her hands, folded neatly in her lap.
Once, she had woken up on the night of a full moon, as Sokka crept off out of the campsite. She'd followed, curious and suspicious, and not a little bit worried that he was sleep walking and would get himself killed. He came to the bank of a large river, and followed it until he reached a natural pool, where the river widened as it went around a bend. There, with a clear view of the moon and it's reflection in the water, he'd begun to talk. Although Katara had stopped too far back to make out what he was saying, every so often, he'd pause on a note that sounded like a question. She'd been shocked when there was a response, however coincidental it had seemed – but when the same thing had happened three times in a row, she'd known that Yue was listening and responding to him. She wanted to doubt, to think that he'd merely gone out to think about her under all that remained of her, but there were only so many times a pearly white fish (odd in and of itself)could jump out of the water from directly under the reflection of the moon everytime he asked a question,and still be a coincidence.
Zuko tapped her arm, calling her back to the present.
"Are you going to go to music night?" he inquired, rather as though he was hoping she'd say no. Katara thought for a minute, and then shook her head.
He smiled in relief, and turned back to his uncle. Katara got the impression, just from that relief, that most of the men used Music Night as an excuse to drink. A lot.
Still, that wasn't why Katara had said no. Whether or not Sokka deserved alone time with his Yue, he wasn't really used to the motion of the boat, and she knew that at night – especially this night – he would be thinking only of his beloved, and not of staying safely on board the ship. She would go and sit in the control room and watch; from there she'd be able to see everything, but hear nothing, giving him the privacy he deserved, without endangering his life. She glanced at Sokka again; he was entirely lost in his thoughts. Her gaze traveled to Aang, who looked excited at the idea of going to music night, clearly unaware of the drinking involved.
Oh well, she sighed, He'd find out what happens when you drink at some point, might as well be tonight when there're people there to laugh at him…
Finally, she looked to Zuko, who, although he was listening to his Uncle, looked supremely bored. She agreed, actually. Everyone had finished eating at long last, and Iroh was closing up his speech (Katara wondered vaguely what he'd been talking about – whatever it was, the men all burst out laughing at random intervals and Katara was quite sure that she didn't want to know), and everyone stood up to return to whatever duties they needed to complete before Music Night began.
As she turned to go down the hallway to her room, Zuko caught her arm.
"Ah, Katara…since you're not going to music night, I was wondering…I mean…d'you want to…" he gave up trying to put his jumbled thoughts into words. Katara had understood, and appreciated the offer, but shook her head.
"No…I'm sorry – there's something I have to do tonight…you can come too…if you want. It's just…Sokka…he…" Katara didn't know how to explain that Sokka was going to be staying out all night to talk to his girlfriend and love of his life – the moon. Oh well, might as well just explain. "You remember, back at that huge battle at the Water Tribe city, how Zhao killed the moon? Well, you might not have seen it, but Sokka's girlfriend, Princess Yue?The Moon Spirit had saved her when she was just a baby, so she had part of the Moon in her. So when the Moon was killed, she was able to give her life to bring it back – or rather, to replace it; so now she is the moon, sort of…and so the only time Sokka can talk to her is on the full moon. So I'm going to watch and make sure he's okay from the control room…you do understand, don't you?"
Zuko blinked. After all, it was a lot to take in. Her brother was going out with the moon, and tonight was his night to talk to her, so Katara had to watch and make sure he was all right. Finally, he nodded.
"I'll come with you to the control room, and unlock it for you, and then I'll go to bed. My room's far enough from the storage rooms that I'll be able to sleep, but whenever you decide to go to bed…That is, your room is just above the room where they'll be singing, so…" Katara smiled at him, flattered that he'd offered – twice! – to allow her to stay with him. But she wouldn't be going to bed tonight, because Sokka wouldn't waste a single moment of the time when Yue was there for him.
Yay! Sokka and Yue get to talk in the next chapter, and then I can throw in some chaos when he sees Suki again! Sorry to be cutting off here, but it's seven pages, and I figure that's probably long enough. As for the whole "Katara-refusing-Zuko's-invitation," well, she can't always let Zuko come before her brother…and Sokka was supposed to be the main character, so...Oh, and at some point during all this, Katara, Aang, Sokka, Momo, and Appa became honored, beloved guests rather than amusing prisoners. Zuko probably just told his uncle to inform everyone that they'd been elevated in status. Maybe I'll put that in somewhere in the next chapter, but in the meantime, we'll just leave that as a discreet, unmentioned but upheld truth. Okay? Okay. sigh…I guessthe story'salmost become AU, because Zuko and Iroh are outcasts, are considered traitors, and are (or at least, probably will be) being chased by Azula, and yet, they have their ship, and their crew, and whatever. I guess that's just how it's worked out. Hmm, maybe I'll have them get shipwrecked – along with the whole crew – by Zula…Well, I dunno, but I'm open to suggestions! R&R! Cya next chapter! Oh andcredit goesto Brix for the idea of bringing Yue into the plot - I hope you don't mind that she's just as the Moon for now, but I do want to make it seem plausible...I'll see what else I can do. Thanks!