Hey so the person helping me with some of the technical aspects of this fic said Friday is a big Kataang day. There's a smut weekend and then a beloved story is having its last chapter. So I'm updating today instead so people can enjoy those great things and I can too! More notes at the bottom of the story.
The Myun-He Palace of Ice was neither an actual palace nor made of ice, but like many of the buildings located in the heart of downtown Republic City, the combination ice rink/entertainment center cut an impressive figure.
During the week, young children trooped in and out for skating lessons, companies occasionally rented the whole place out for parties or "team-building exercises," and movie studios blocked time to film it as a backdrop for romantic comedies and family shows. On the weekends, though, the Palace of Ice was became the city's hot spot – busier than even the most exclusive bars and clubs.
The Palace of Ice was partially modeled after the Visitor's Pavilion that Earth King Kuei had built at the end of the war right outside his Ba Sing Se palace, though without such whimsical touches as a fully furnished open-air suite, complete with a full working bathroom, just for Bosco – the tame bear that had been the eccentric monarch's closest companion for decades. But even without fancy reinforced toilets that could support a two-ton animal, the multi-level Palace of Ice had its own charms, inside and out.
The exterior was an architectural and engineering marvel. Special lights embedded in the outside walls cast a continuous blueish glow, which contrasted beautifully with the lacy snowflakes, hand-painted in iridescent silver, that accented the windows and doorframes, and diaphanous glass made the front door look as if it had been carved out of a block of ice.
The interior was even more arresting. The skating rink was of course the main attraction. Covering an entire city block, the ice was a flawlessly giant oval as smooth as cut glass that reflected the blueish tint from the outside lights and made it look otherworldly. Cushioned leather panel ringed the area, which made crashing into the sides not too horrible a prospect. An even more elegant touch than the leather was the enormous, clear glass bubble that encased the entire rink, with an unseen machine in the ceiling sending white snowflakes fluttering down on skaters. From the outside, it looked almost like a live-action snowglobe.
Despite its world famous ice rink, The Palace of Ice had plenty to offer those who weren't big on skating. Spread out over three floors were games and attractions all with winter or snowy themes. On the ground floor toward the back of the building was a minigolf course that replicated parts of the Northern Water Tribe's glittering capital, complete with canals that were water traps and overturned gondolas that were hazards.
On the second floor were more games where prizes could be won, including a designated area where anyone over age 18 could participate in a real snowball fight – as long as a personal-injury waiver was signed and they agreed to wear goggles. The last person standing won a gift certificate for a subsequent visit and a little plastic trophy shaped like a mound of snow.
The kid-friendly areas were on the third floor. There, youngsters could take part in a less-combative snowball fight – no paperwork or goggles required – or build castles out of fake blocks of ice. There was also perhaps the most popular attraction in the place – the "Penguin Run," where visitors could fling themselves atop a mechanical otterpenguin and coast down a slick hill into a pile of soft, artificial snow.
Snack bars serving quick bites and hot beverages were scattered on each level, but for more substantial appetites – not to mention wallets – on the very top floor of was "Deep Freeze," a restaurant perched on what looked like rows of icy stilts. The place could seat only about 20 people, so getting a reservation was nearly impossible, though there were always hopefuls who sat around manically refreshing the reservation app, praying for cancellations.
On a Saturday night, the place was, as usual, packed with families, serious athletes, tipsy college kids, loved-up couples, and shaky beginners holding on to the railings and looking with longing at a buffer area just feet away.
A pair of laughing skaters separated themselves from the pack and half-slid, half-stumbled toward said buffer, which was a transitional space with benches and a warren of cubbyholes where skaters could change into their skates and hit the ice, or when exiting the rink, could change back into their street shoes, deposit their skates in an assigned cubby, and roam the rest of the building.
The two hapless skaters reached the promised land right before they would have taken a dive, earning some sympathetic looks from couples going out on the ice and wondering if that was going to be their fate, soon.
At first glance, the pair catching their breath on a quiet bench as they changed back into regular shoes, weren't very distinguishable from any of the other young couples who were teasing each other, chasing each other around the ice, or skating hand in hand and staring lovingly into each other's eyes.
But if a person looked closer, they would have noticed that the tall man in the brown pants and orange jacket wore a blue cap that was the exact color of blue-arrow tattoos that peeked from beneath the cuffs of his jacket. The woman who collapsed next to him, red-cheeked and laughing, was pretty and petite with shiny, chin-length hair trapped beneath furry green earmuffs.
"I didn't think we were going to make it," the girl huffed as they stripped off their skates and collected their shoes from their assigned cubbyhole. "I felt my left foot starting to give way right at the end! You should have just let me go and saved yourself."
"No way I'd just leave you out there! Besides, I knew we'd be okay. And at least we didn't wipe out like those poor guys who slid on their faces the entire length of the rink."
While the Palace of Ice was chilly inside to give it that perpetual-winter feel, this young man never truly felt cold, and he'd worked up a sweat out on the ice, using his cap to mop the perspiration from his brow. Part of that was physical exertion, but part of it was due to having to guide and bolster his partner, who was not as proficient a skater as he, as they maneuvered around the ice. Not that he'd minded. For his money, there were definitely worse ways to spend a couple of hours than having a pretty girl pressed close with her arms around him.
"I think after that, we definitely earned some food. Lots of it," she said, shaking some of the snow from her hair. "Should we even try for Deep Freeze?"
"I put in our names on the standby list. It's not looking too good, but we can try. Want to make a backup plan just in case? How about Tui's Tower? There are some reservations open, still. Or we could go to Ba Sing Seitan – best vegetarian food in all of downtown! No pressure, or anything."
"Oooh, both of those are almost as fancy as Deep Freeze." She glanced down at herself in mild disapproval. "Not sure if I'm presentable for either of those places."
Swinging his legs round so that he could look at her unimpeded, the young man let his eyes wander appreciatively.
"You look plenty presentable, from where I'm sitting." A light flush crept up his neck. "You look really great, in fact."
The girl bent her head in an unsuccessful attempt to hide a smile.
"Toph told me you were a super-smooth charmer, but somehow, I had a little trouble believing it."
"Why? You don't think Toph has friends that are charm– oh wait … I guess I can see how you'd think that."
The woman laughed and playfully swatted his arm.
"She also said you two were like brother and sister the way you rag on each other. That I could believe."
"Well, I'd have to be the younger brother, because she always manages to get me." He smiled grimly. "I'm working on that. Don't tell her though, okay? I want it to be a surprise."
The woman laughed and touched his arm again, this time letting her hand linger.
"I'm having a wonderful time, Aang," she said softly, gently running her hand up and down his sleeve. "First dates have been really hit or miss for me lately, and this one has been pretty incredible. Even with the risk of me falling on my ass several times."
"I'm having fun, too, Suki," said Aang, feeling the warmth of her hand even through his jacket and enjoying it. "And … thanks for suggesting we do this, even though skating's not your strong suit. I haven't been here in ages. Though, I promise that for our next date, we'll do something that has, um … less potential of ending up in the hospital."
Green eyes sparkled at him. "There's going to be a next date?"
"I hope so," he said bashfully, wondering if he was being presumptuous. "Maybe I should've said I hope there's a chance of a next date."
"Well, from where I sit, I think the chances of that are very, very good."
Suki leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek, grinning slyly when Aang's entire face went bright pink.
"And maybe," she said in a low, rather sensuous voice, "your chances are very, very good of getting another one of those … or something similar … later. In a more private place."
Aang wasn't sure if Suki meant "private place" as in a more secluded area than the very crowded Palace of Ice, or "private place" as in ... whoo boy.
He found that he had to wipe the sweat off his forehead again.
Judging by the self-satisfied expression that flitted across her face, Suki was more than happy to let him meditate on the possibilities without further elaboration. Humming to herself, she stood and brushed more snow from her shoulders.
"I'm going to just head to the restroom for a few minutes. I think somehow, I knocked one of my contacts out of place." Suki blinked several times and pulled delicately at her eyelid. "We'll figure out dinner when I get back, okay?"
"Works for me!"
Aang's smile was dreamy as Suki walked off, her auburn hair glinting near-purple under the blue-toned lights. When she'd merged with the mass of humanity milling around, Aang stood, too, happier than he wanted to let on at being on firm ground. Suki hadn't ever done much skating in her life, and it showed, which was why he'd been mildly surprised that she'd wanted to come to the Palace of Ice. Aang had more experience with ice skating, but it had been a while. He wasn't as proficient as he had been when he was younger and a lot shorter. Being tall meant there was a longer distance to fall. Or something.
Deciding that Suki might enjoy a cup of hot chocolate while they decided where to go for dinner, Aang headed to one of the snack bars on the main concourse and got in line, letting his mind wander to the lovely woman with whom he was spending what so far was a fantastic evening.
Suki Yibiao had come into Aang's sphere as many things did those days – through an introduction by and with the blessing of his good friend Toph Beifong.
Suki had been part of the revolving door of eager, 20-something "personal assistants" Toph's mother went through like paper towels. Most of them kissed Poppy Beifong's ass, Toph once told Aang in disgust, letting her dump on them until she inevitably sent them fleeing in tears from the Beifong manor home.
But Suki had been different. A native of Kyoshi Island, she had a toughness that contrasted the pretty and "proper" outward appearance that Poppy Beifong insisted the female members of her staff cultivate. Suki was no meek wallflower and often pushed back on some of Poppy's more outrageous requests and refused to let the woman blame her for things that weren't her fault or for lapses that originated with Poppy or one of the older woman's snooty friends.
The turning point had come one morning when Poppy, insisting that Suki had spilled a bowl of congee on the kitchen floor, ordered her to scrub the entire area on hands and knees until the tiles shone like newly minted ban. Suki, deciding enough was enough, called Poppy a name that Toph claimed was Kyoshi Island slang for a certain part of female anatomy. On that note, Suki had walked out the door of the Beifong manor home, head held high, with Poppy not able to do anything except stare after her sputtering in impotent rage.
Toph said that she'd basically ignored most of the assistants her mother had dumped on, even while feeling a certain pity for them, but Suki's handling of her mother had been so impressive that Toph had decided to cultivate her friendship. She'd wrangled Suki's contact info from the agency that employed her, invited her to lunch, which Suki had accepted with an understandable wariness, and after announcing that her mother was very much indeed a ... whatever that Kyoshi Island word had been ... Toph said she and Suki became fast friends.
Aang had gotten this backstory a few weeks earlier when he'd stopped by Toph's apartment for to pick up leads for possible new clients. Aang had finished jogging up four flights of stairs to Toph's fifth-floor studio just in time to see a pretty redhead coming out of Toph's place with a bag of moonpeaches over her shoulder. They'd exchanged smiles as they'd passed in the hall. As he'd turned to watch her go, wondering if he should say something, the woman had glanced back at him before getting on the elevator, a gleam in her eyes that was part-inquisitive and part-invitation.
Aang wasn't in the habit of chasing girls, even though who showed interest – not because of some ridiculously toxic "bro" rule, but because he thought a strange guy sprinting after a woman he didn't know was just .. a bad look in general. But he'd been intrigued and wondered what her relationship was to Toph, thinking that his inquiries about the "girl with the moonpeaches" was casual enough not to set off any alarm bells.
But he hadn't been quite casual enough to knock Toph off the scent. After teasing him mercilessly about his "instant crush," Toph had obligingly given him the scoop on Suki, with the helpful additions that Suki, now working as a personal shopper for a few of the delivery services in Republic City, was very single, but that she wasn't going to just give her info out to random guys, not even to Aang. But Toph had called him the very next day to give him the happy news that she'd gotten in touch with Suki and she'd gotten a thumbs up from Suki after confirming that yes, the guy asking was in fact the tall dude with tattoos who'd been ogling her in the hallway the night before.
Aang hadn't thought he'd been ogling Suki as much as he'd been expressing silent, respectful appreciation of her loveliness, but he'd let it go.
He'd waited a day before texted Suki to formally introduce himself … spent the next two days exchanging a flurry of texts filled with jokes and playful innuendo … and asked her out the day after that. And now, their first official date was going better than he could have hoped.
Getting to the counter at last, Aang ordered two hot chocolates with marshmallows on the side – he didn't want to assume that Suki liked marshmallows – and made his way back to where he and Suki parted.
Though, before he was halfway there, nerves started to attack. How did he even know Suki liked hot chocolate? What if she hated it? Or was just allergic? She'd probably be too polite to just throw it out, if so, and they'd have to stand there with cups of hot chocolate, smiling awkwardly at each other.
He fretted up until the moment he spotted Suki standing near one of the five entry points to the rink. She was staring out at the ice watching the skaters and looking a little distracted. There was a small frown tugging at her lips.
"Suki?"
She whirled around, and a relieved smile erased the miniature frown.
"Oh there there you are! I thought maybe you'd decided on one last spin out there without me hanging on your neck."
"Hardly! Just figured I'd get us something to drink." He held out one of the cups. "It's hot chocolate. If you don't like that, I can go back and get tea or coffee, or something else."
Her face lit up. "Are you kidding? I love hot chocolate. Oh and you got marshmallows, too? Aang, you're amazing."
Aang beamed, but he noticed that while Suki sounded delighted about the drink, she still looked a little distracted.
"Is something wrong? Did you get to your contact lens okay?"
"Hmm? Oh yes, that was fine. Just needed a lot of lens solution and a little elbow grease."
Suki toyed a little with a marshmallow before taking a deep breath and looking up at him with a somewhat lopsided smile.
"But … um … there's sort of a situation."
Dread prickled along the entire length of Aang's body. He took a hasty sip of cocoa, regretting it almost immediately when the hot liquid burned his tongue.
"There's sort of a situation" wasn't great to hear in the best of circumstances, and could be fairly brutal during something like a date. Situations almost always turned out to be ludicrous and/or messy, and/or borderline illegal, and in some cases, a combination of the three. And in almost all cases, in the final reckoning, situations were easily avoidable. Those who became entangled in them just chose not to.
This all flashed through Aang's mind, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions. He really liked Suki, so perhaps this situation only loomed large to her because they were still getting to know each other.
He took another sip of his cocoa and tried to look unconcerned.
"A situation? What's up?"
Suki exhaled slowly. "Well, it's not that big a deal, actually. On the way to the ladies' room, I ran into my ex. He's here with his new girlfriend and with his sister and her date. He's never really been into this place, so I'm a little surprised to see him here."
Suki paused. Aang waited, casually taking another sip of his drink, discreetly blowing on it this time.
"We broke up last year. It wasn't a disaster or anything. We were friends before we were together and we're trying to get back to that, but … it really hasn't happened. Anyway, I haven't seen him in a while, so we chatted a little and I mentioned I was here with someone."
She stopped talking, and Aang held himself still, waiting. A few seconds passed where Suki just looked at him, saying nothing, and Aang looked back at her, having nothing to say.
"Um … okay." Aang regarded her over the rim of his cup. "And the situation is …?"
"That's it." Suki made a sweeping gesture with her free hand. "That's the situation."
Aang breathed a silent sigh of relief. Yes! He'd known not to panic. Panicking solved nothing, and as he'd suspected, this wasn't even a huge thing. It would have been weirder, in his estimation, if Suki hadn't mentioned anything about running into her ex-boyfriend. Aang liked honesty and transparency. Suki was impressing him more and more.
"You ran into your ex and you ... talked. And told him you were on a date with someone. Suki, that's not a situation." Aang was grinning. "For people our age, that's basically any Saturday night downtown!"
Suki chuckled. "Okay, fair point. I just thought you should know because we may run into them on our way out. They're getting their skates now, but they're thinking of playing a round of minigolf first. I don't want to blow by them without saying goodbye, but I also didn't want to be weird about it and not tell you who I was talking to."
"Is this the guy you told me about when we first started texting?" asked Aang as they headed toward the the minigolf course, which was adjacent to the Palace of Ice's main exit. "The last serious relationship you had … you dated for a couple of years?"
"That's him." Suki nodded. "It's funny to think about it now, but we actually broke up on the last day of a trip we'd taken to visit his family."
"Ouch." Aang gave her a sympathetic half-smile. "That had to be an uncomfortable ride home."
"Not really, because his sister was traveling back with us and she was sort of was a buffer, in a way. She and I are still pretty close, actually," said Suki. "It was a long ride home, though. We were coming all the way from the South Pole. Not including the layovers, that was 15 hours on a plane with almost nonexistent wi-fi."
Aang's steps slowed just a bit. Faint alarm bells were ringing at the base of his skull.
"The South Pole?"
"Mmm hmm. Sokka's a member of the Southern Water Tribe. This place actually reminds me a little of the South Pole, though I think the people who built it are Northerners."
Suddenly, Aang felt as if he were walking in quicksand, and the warning bells in his brain had turned into a full-fledged five-alarm klaxon complete with flashing lights.
"And the guy's name is … Sokka?" Aang's voice sounded like it was being strained through a sieve.
"Sokka, yes," said Suki absently. "His father's the Southern Water Tribe's Head Chieftain, so we got to stay in the new palace, which was pretty outstanding. So despite our breaking up, the trip definitely wasn't all bad."
Aang swallowed thickly. The cocoa that had tasted yummy only moments before now left a chalky aftertaste in his mouth. He wished he had some water to wash the nasty feeling away.
"Is his full name Sokka Taslak, by any chance?"
Suki stopped walking and turned her head toward him, a slightly disconcerted look on her face.
"Yeah, it is. How did you know that? Have you met him somewhere before?"
Before Aang could think of a response or formulate a plan of action – like maybe hiding in the men's room – a slightly bemused voice floated over his shoulder and froze him where he stood.
"No, but he's met me. Hi, Aang."
Hey so welcome new readers and welcome back to continuing readers! Thank you for all the reviews, follows and compliments on my name, and support. Aang really would hate any racist. It's canon.
Anyway, we're coming up to the meat of this adventure/mystery/romance. The funny thing is, I picked Suki for Aang's initial romance because they barely talk in the show and I figured it would be a couple no one would expect but my advisor said Suki/Aang actually has a decent-sized fanbase. For any fans of that pairing, sorry, please don't get too attached to them being together, because this is gonna be straight up Kataang. If you've seen basic romantic comedies or romantic thrillers when the main characters are with other people at the start, you probably know where this is going. I promise I'm not going to make Aang an asshole.
Any guesses on who Katara's with? You'll find out next chapter. If anybody gets it right, I will be amazed and impressed! I'll just say he is a canon character but not one we've seen a lot of. Second hint, no it's not who you think it is when I say that, haha.
See you next Friday. Oh and most of the DMs stopped, so thanks for that too!