Hello, People of Fanfiction!
Sorry for the delay, I had a very busy month, I couldn't make time for writing fanfiction stories, hence, why this chapter was delayed.
But it's finally out, Chapter 13 of Second Chances.
I hope you enjoy it, and have a good read :)
After the disastrous reunion with the watertribe siblings was concluded, Aang made his way to Mai's house, to pay a visit to the ill firenation princess.
Aang arrived at Mai's door and knocked on the door, it was little Tom-Tom who opened the door for him.
"Avatar Aang!" The boy shouted as he jumped on Aang and hugged him.
Aang chuckled lightly at the little boy's antics, he's grown a bit now, he's no longer the small boy he returned to his family a while back, he's able to talk now, and he's best friends with Aang.
Aang carried the boy and spoke to him, "Hello, Tom.. How are you doing today?"
"I'm good.. How about you?" The boy asked with a voice filled with innocence.
"I'm fine, I'm fine.." Aang noticed the boy carrying a toy, he assumed Mai got it for him, as she's the only one taking care of little Tom in this house, "I see Mai got you a new toy, and she didn't get me any, I'm sad." Aang said, pursing his lips playfully.
"No, don't cry.. You can play with me if you like." Tom said, the boy showing genuine innocence that made Aang's heart flutter.
"I will play with you, but after I go see your sister, she wants to see me, we don't wanna make your sister mad now, do we?.. is she around?" Aang asked.
As the boy was about to answer, it was another voice who answered him from the side of the house, "She's here.. Watching you being silly." It was Mai, who decided to taking a jab at Aang playfully with a smirk of her own.
Aang stuck out his tongue playfully at her, "You're just jealous he likes me more.. isn't that right, Tom?" Aang asked the boy, who in return, nodded excitedly.
"We're friends." Tom responded.
Mai smiled at this, "Oh, is that right? Well, next time, you go ask him to buy you toys not me." Mai said.
Aang's facial expressions turned, "That's low." The Avatar mouthed to her so that Tom couldn't hear, Aang then turned to Tom, "Of course, I'll get you all the toys you want, but for the time being, I'll go talk to your sister in her room really quick, and then I'll come back to talk about it, ok?" Aang asked nicely of the boy, Tom-Tom nodded, and Aang placed him on the floor, "I won't be long." Aang promised the boy, and then he walked to Mai.
"Great, Now I'm in his debt forever." Aang joked, which made Mai's smile widen.
"That's what you get for teasing me." Mai said, which prompted Aang to chuckle, but then as the laughter subsided, he turned serious as he remembered the princess that was laying inside Mai's room.
"Is she alright?" The Avatar asked.
Mai's smile disappeared, "Physically, Yes." She responded.
Aang sighed, "Do you know when she might be waking up?"
"I'm not sure, Aang.. let's go inside." Mai invited the avatar to her room where Azula laid.
Mai entered first, and then Aang followed soon after, he looked at her as she laid peacefully on the bed, she looked like a sleeping angel, she looked so peaceful sleeping that Aang wondered if that's the same person he was fighting a couple of years ago, and wasn't on the same page with just less than two weeks ago.
"What happened between the both of you at the beach, Aang?" Mai started with the hard-hitting questions, immediately stopping Aang's train of thought and snapping him back to reality, he never wanted to discuss this topic with anyone, not ever, mainly because he doesn't want to remember it.
"I told you what happened at the beach, Mai."
"And you expected me to buy it? come on, you know me better than to insult my intelligence like that." Mai said.
Aang sighed again, "I'm not insulting your intelligence.. it's the truth."
"The truth?" Mai asked calmly, but her facial expressions turned to that of anger, "You're telling me that my best friend, or rather former best friend, who was the best swimmer at the firenation academy, who won third place at the firenation national swimming tournament when she was only twelve, and the most athletic person I've ever seen, almost drowned during a night swim? you should've thought of a better lie." Mai said, feeling betrayed.
"Yeah.. I should have." Aang said, fully exposing himself.
"So, you admit that it's a lie?" Mai asked.
Aang huffed, "Yes.. Are you happy now?" The Avatar said, and then he took a seat on the bed beside Azula, solely looking at her.
"Why did Azula wanna drown herself, Aang?" Mai asked, startling Aang again.
he knew he couldn't escape her interrogation, so he decided to just spill the beans and be done with it, "I'm not sure what happened, we were at the beach, we were discussing the matters with Sokka and Katara, then she kissed me, I rejected her kiss and turned around, one moment she was there, and the other she wasn't, next time I saw her, she was walking to the sea trying to drown herself, that's all I know."
Mai was shocked by this, "She kissed you?"
"Yes." Aang responded.
Mai stopped for a second before asking, "Why did you reject her?"
It was Aang's turn to stop this time, to this moment he didn't know why he rejected Azula's love, multiple times in fact, "I guess.. I'm not yet ready for this kind of relationship again." Aang confessed, finally understanding his feelings.
Mai couldn't believe what she was hearing, her expression turned to that of anger again, "You let a vulnerable girl, who's desperate for love, fall in love with you, and then you just abandoned her?"
Aang looked at Azula with shame on his face, he couldn't even deny Mai's allegations, "It's not up to me.. I just can't go through that pain again."
Mai looked at the avatar with disgust, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
Aang turned to her sharply, "Don't I look ashamed enough?" The Avatar asked her with pain in his eyes.
Mai sympathized with the poor boy, he really looked devastated, she kept looking at him, observing him, waiting for him to change his expression, but he just kept looking at her, with desperation in his eyes, Mai only groaned and turned her face away.
after a couple of minutes of silence and looking away from him, Mai decided to speak again, "I know I'm not the best person to defend her, but I also know how a woman feels at a moment like this.. it shouldn't have come to this but.. it's only reasonable that she almost did.. what she was trying to do." Mai said, she then turned around and looked at the avatar, "She was desperate for love.. you gave her that love, Aang.. but then you took it away from her, she had the whole world, she finally found something good to be infatuated by, and then you took it away, I hope that at the very least, the disaster you've comitted could give you the peace you were looking for."
Mai's words pierced through Aang's heart harder than any of her daggers could, "I'm never at peace." The Avatar stated sadly, his pensive eyes fixated at the ground.
With this, Mai decided to walk away but not without seizing the final word as she stood at the door, "I want you to take a good look at that fragile thing, take a good look at her, and decide for yourself if she deserves any of this, if you got to the conclusion that she does, take your glider and walk away as soon as the meetings are over, don't make her go through this again when she wakes up, don't even compensate for what you did, just take your glider and leave.. but if you don't come to that conclusion, if you decide to defeat your cowardice and give it another shot, then you are welcome to visit her at anytime.. I hope you choose the latter." Mai said, she then grabbed the door and closed it behind her as she stepped out.
Leaving the avatar to his thoughts.
Next Morning
The meeting was very long and boring, and with Katara and Sokka there, it was a lot longer for Aang.
But at least they got off on the right foot as the negotiations might have resulted in an alliance that might last for eternity between the firenation and the southern watertribe, Firelord Zuko agreed to offer the service of his mechanists to the southern watertribe, they are finally going to share their technology with the rest of the world, that includes the blueprints for their navy and air ships, in exchange for coal and other supplies that the southern watertribe agreed to export to the firenation, the world is finally finding peace and this is all thanks to Avatar Aang who can't find the same for himself.
Aang decided not to speak to anyone after the meeting was concluded and he just went straight to his room, Katara and Sokka didn't come after him, it was both fortunate and surprising at the same time, fortunate because he didn't want to speak to them at the moment, but surprising that they didn't attempt doing it, in fact, their behavior towards during the whole meeting him made Aang very skeptical and wary of them, they didn't spare him as much as a glance, he didn't know whether to be happy or sad about this, it's something that he wanted, but it's also something that he never expected not to find.
The Avatar decided to brush the thoughts aside, as he just wanted to go to his room and succumb to slumber. "Aang! Wait up." Aang heard the familiar voice of Ty Lee.
He turned around and greeted her, "Hello, Ty. How are you doing?"
The girl smiled cheerfully at him, "I'm great, How about you?"
Aang couldn't help but return the smile of the girl, "Not good but I'm coping."
"Actually that's what I wanted to talk to you about, I just wanted to say.. Don't be upset, None of what happened to Azula is your fault, you're a good man.. with a good heart, who does great things for people, I've seen it firsthand to speak."
Aang was very shocked by this, "What do you mean? Why would I be upset over what happened to Azula?" Aang tried to keep the lie, how could she have known? Did Mai tell her? The Avatar thought.
Ty Lee chuckled lightly, "I'm sure you thought I was too stupid to understand what happened between the both of you, you might be right, but I'm not that stupid when it comes to relationships." She said, good-naturedly.
"No.. I didn't mean-"
Ty Lee interrupted, "All I wanna say is.. whatever happened between the two of you, it's nothing a good conversation can't solve, I've never seen Azula care for someone as she does for you.. so, I'm highly positive that she would listen to whatever you have to say, speak to her when she wakes up, and hopefully you get out of this whole ordeal with something wholesome." The girl said cheerfully.
Aang was surprised by how sharp Ty Lee turned out to be, but he was very confused by her words, he didn't know whether to follow Mai's advice and keep away from Azula? or to follow Ty Lee's advice regardless of his feelings, so he decided to be frank with her,
"But.." The Avatar looked at the ground as he spoke, "what if my answer isn't the one she's looking for? Do you think I should talk to her still?"
Ty Lee looked at the ground and placed a finger on her chin appearing to be thinking about it, she then looked at Aang again, "You don't even know what's the answer she's looking for, Aang.. if there's anything I know about Azula is that she's unpredictable, maybe it's the conversation she's looking for, not necessarily the outcome, and with a few good words, both of you might get the best outcome, do you know what I mean?" Ty Lee finished with a question.
Aang grinned at this, she really did help him out, "I do.. You know, you are much smarter than you are given credit for."
Ty Lee chuckled at this, "Thanks, Aang.. you must be tired, you should go get some sleep."
"I will.. you have a good day." Aang said, as he turned around and left for his room.
The talk with Ty Lee was really helpful, and to think that the person who was least likely to help him provided the most help, talk about irony.
The Avatar arrived at his door and turned the knob, he found it lit up which was odd, when he took a look at his bed, he knew exactly why the room was lit up.
"You've kept us waiting way too long here, buddy." The familiar voice of Sokka startled the avatar.
But it wasn't just Sokka who was sitting on his bed, his sister was sitting right next to him, with the saddest eyes that Aang has ever seen.
"We need to talk, Aang." Katara said.
This is gonna be a long day. The Avatar said, as he closed the door behind him to finally have the long awaited conversation with the watertribe siblings.
Thanks for reading, and please don't forget to review :)