Chapter 9: Ember Island

"Welcome to Ember Island!"

Jet could tell Azula's smile was forced as she greeted her friends to her family vacation home. It was finally summer break, and Azula and Zuko had invited everyone to vacation in Ember Island for a long weekend. Although all of their family's assets had been seized by the government, Ozai apparently had the foresight to put the vacation home in his ex-wife's name. The house, while dusty and in need of some maintenance, was luxurious. Nothing less for the once-elite Fire Nation family.

"This is your beach house?!" Ty Lee asked excitedly. "We get to stay here?!"

"Mmhmm."

"Holy cow! This is awesome!"

"There are three bedrooms – well four, but one of them is being used as storage – so Katara and Ty Lee will share one, Mai and I will share another, and the boys will take the master bedroom."

"Alright!" Sokka cheered. "Master bedroom for Master Sokka!" He eagerly carried his bags into the largest of the bedrooms.

Katara sighed and shook her head at her brother's comment. "Thank you, Azula and Zuko, for letting us stay here. It's very generous of you. Your family home is lovely."

"Yes… lovely," Zuko muttered.

"Please make yourselves at home," Azula said, giving her brother a look.

Everyone went to their respective rooms to unpack, except for Ty Lee, who emptied her suitcase onto the floor of her bedroom and quickly threw on her bikini.

"Ready to hit the beach!" she announced, proudly walking into the hallway as if she were on a fashion runway.

"Shouldn't we finish unpacking, Ty?" Katara asked.

"Oh, come on, we can unpack later! We're losing daylight over here."

"I hate to agree with Ty Lee, but she's right," Azula called from her room. "We probably only have about two or three hours of sunlight left. I'd like to get to the beach as soon as possible."

"Anyone else coming?" Ty Lee asked. "Mai?"

"I'm gonna sit this one out," Mai answered. "I'm not really a beach person. And besides, I'd like to cook dinner for everyone tonight – I need to get groceries."

"Oh, Mai, you don't have to do that!" Katara said, stepping out into the hall. "I can cook – "

"N-No, you should enjoy the beach," Jet cut in, seeing an opportunity to get some alone time with Mai. "I'll stay in and help with the cooking."

"Yes, that's a wonderful idea! Jet is a great cook," Azula added, clearly reading Jet's mind.

"Really?" Mai asked with disbelief. "You cook?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "When you have a series of shitty foster parents, you kinda learn to do everything on your own."

"You wanna marry me?" Ty Lee teased, but Jet ignored her.

Katara spoke up. "I really don't mind helping – "

"Katara, you were just telling us how much the ocean was calling to you on the way over here," Azula dismissed. "Please, come to the beach with us."

"Well, okay," she gave in. "But please let me help with the dishes at least."

Jet and Azula shared a smile.

"Okay great, who else is coming? Boys?" Ty Lee asked flirtatiously, stepping into the master bedroom. She gasped. "You're playing videogames?! On Ember Island?!"

"Sokka!" Katara said disapprovingly.

"What? It's summer break!"

"I'm not going to allow you to waste your vacation playing videogames."

"Ugh, fiiine," Sokka groaned, setting his control down. "Let me get changed and I'll be right out." It only took him five seconds before he was in his swimsuit and out the door. "You coming, Zuko?"

"Nah, I'm… tired from all the traveling."

"Umm." Sokka gave him a concerned look. "Okay."

Mai looked uncharacteristically worried too.

"I've got this," Azula whispered, walking into the master bedroom and closing the door behind her.

Everyone pushed their ears to the door, straining to listen to their conversation.

"What do you want?" Zuko huffed.

"Zuko." Azula sighed. "I know it must be difficult for you to be here."

"You have no idea how I feel."

"It's hard for me to be here too, you know."

"…It is?"

"Yeah. This house, it brings back… memories. When we were happy."

"…When we were a family…"

"I think it's those happy memories that make it all the more bittersweet. It's impossible not to think about what we could have had."

"…What we could have been."

"Exactly."

"Those summers we spent here seem so long ago. So much has changed…"

"Change isn't always bad, now is it?"

"How can you say that?" Zuko hissed. "After everything that's happened?"

"We're here now, aren't we? Together. With friends."

No response.

"Look, Zuko, I'm… I'm really sorry. And, well, you know how I feel about apologizing – "

"Sorry for what?" he demanded.

She sighed. "For the way I treated you when we were kids. I was cruel, but… I'm not Father. I'm trying to be better."

"I know… I can see that."

"You can?"

"Yeah. It's nice to see. And I… I'm sorry too."

"Huh?"

"When Father went to prison, I had Uncle, but you… you were left on your own. I should have reached out – "

"It's okay. I can take care of myself."

"I know, but you shouldn't have had to. I'm your older brother…"

"How about instead of dwelling on the past, we try to look forward to a better future, hm?"

"With us in each other's lives?"

"That goes without saying, dum-dum!"

He laughed. "I… I'd like that."

It was quiet for a moment. Jet speculated they were hugging or crying or something.

"Come down to the beach with me," Azula said. "Come on. This place is depressing."

The fire siblings opened the door, causing the snooping friend group to fall backwards over each other.

"Were you guys seriously just – " Azula scowled. "Boundaries, ugh!"

"Last one to the ocean is a rotten platypus-bear egg!" Ty Lee challenged, taking off into a sprint.

Katara and Azula raced after her; Sokka and Zuko took their time.

Azula and Ty Lee got to the ocean at the same time, but as soon as they dipped their feet in, they jumped back out. "Ahhh! Too cold, too cold!"

"I don't know," Katara said with a satisfied smile. "I think the water feels great." She waded without hesitation into the waves.

Azula and Ty Lee looked at each other. "Water Tribe."

The boys finally made it to the shore, where Sokka dramatically plopped down just where the wet sand met the dry sand. "Too. Hot." He feigned a cough. "Can't. Go. On."

"You'll cool off in the water!" Katara called.

Sokka pretended to drop dead, draping his arm over his forehead in a theatrical display.

Azula couldn't help but snicker. Sokka was so funny, one of the many things she liked about him. And boy did he look good without a shirt on.

Smirking, Ty Lee sat down by Sokka's feet and started burying his leg in the wet sand.

Azula clenched her jaw. Ty Lee was such a flirt. And she didn't even like men!

"H-Hey, what are you doing?!" Sokka questioned, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Dead men can't talk."

He started to get up.

"Azula, get his other leg! Zuko, hold his arms down!"

The fire siblings gave each other a nod and a smile and complied. Azula wouldn't waste any opportunity to get closer to her crush. She kneeled next to Sokka and started packing wet sand onto his leg.

"Help!" Sokka shouted in jest. "I'm being buried alive – ah, actually this feels kinda nice." He relaxed into it.

Katara came out of the ocean to help turn her brother into a living sand sculpture, and before long, all but Sokka's head was buried.

"Hm…" Ty Lee cocked her head to the side. "Just needs one final adjustment." She grabbed two fistfuls of wet sand and packed them onto Sokka's chest, creating sand boobs.

Katara and Azula snickered.

Sokka looked down at the new mounds on his chest and shrugged. "Eh. I can pull it off. I'd make a beautiful woman." He looked up at Zuko and batted his eyes. "Don't you think so?"

"Yeah," Zuko laughed. "Beautiful."

"I mean, I'd do me."

Katara made a gagging gesture.

Azula noticed some seaweed drifting in the waves and got an idea. "Sokka… so indecent," she teased with a mischievous smile. "Let me help you with that." She picked up the seaweed and started to form a bra.

"No, no, no!" Sokka objected. "Do not put that anywhere near me!"

Grinning, she began to lower the tangled green mess onto him.

"Okay, that's it!" He burst from under the sand and reared up like he was going to grab Azula. "Sand monster time!"

"Ahhh! Stay away from me!" she playfully shrieked, backing away from him.

"Arrrrr!" he growled, snatching her and hoisting her up over his shoulder.

"Put me down, put me down!" Of course she was just joking around with him, but as he started heading toward the ocean, her flailing became a bit more genuine. "Sokka, NOOOOOO! SOKKA! You'll pay for this! You'll be sorry – AHHHHH!"

He threw her into the water.

It may have been cold, uncomfortably so, but she barely noticed it with Sokka around. And he was, dare she say, flirting with her?!

"HAH!" Zuko taunted from the shoreline.

"Uh oh, looks like the firebender is all wet," Ty Lee teased.

Azula and Sokka looked at each other and smirked. Communicating telepathically, they both turned to their friends on the sand and started splashing them.

Zuko shielded his face while Ty Lee screamed. Katara had already been in the ocean so she didn't have a problem with it. The three of them joined Sokka and Azula in the water for a giant splash fight.

Azula couldn't remember a time she had been so happy, splashing around and laughing with her friends without a care in the world. If only Jet were there too… oh, and Mai of course! If only Jet and Mai were there too.

It took a little while for Mai to warm up, but as soon as the two were back from their grocery run, conversation flowed easily, just as if they were picking up from their forced rendezvous in the art studio. They were in the kitchen prepping for dinner. Mai was calling the shots with Jet acting as her sous-chef, a position he was happy to accept. They had caught up on the little things, how the past semester went, what classes they were planning to take in the fall, and reminisced about their wildly successful school-wide prank, laughing at the disappointed faces of the students who had shown up for free pizza and massages after finals only to find out that this event was made up. But then the conversation took a more serious turn.

"I'm worried about Zuko."

"How come?" Jet asked, chopping some peppers.

"It must be hard for him… being here. I know Azula already talked to him, but I can't imagine he'll enjoying sleeping in the master bedroom… where his parents once slept."

"Yeah… not to mention all the family portraits. They're everywhere."

"Yeah."

This may have been his best chance to find out how Mai felt about Zuko. He nervously gulped. "So… do you like him?"

"Zuko?"

"Yeah."

"No," she said reflexively. "Well, I don't know."

Oof.

"Everything's so confusing," she added.

"What, how you feel?"

"Just… everything." She sighed. "They say college is the time to figure out who you really are, but… given how repressed I grew up in the political spotlight, I have no idea who I am or what I want."

"You still have plenty of time to figure it out."

"Yeah, I guess." She started boiling some water for pasta. "So… do you like anyone?"

His stomach flipped. Should he tell her? Now didn't seem like a good time to tell her, not with her confused feelings. "What do you think?"

"I don't know. Ty Lee said you did, or at least, that's what your 'aura' was telling her."

"You don't really believe that stuff, do you?"

"No." She paused. "You didn't answer the question."

"What question?" he teased.

"Do you like someone or not?"

He shrugged. "I might."

"Really?" she asked, intrigued. "Who is it?"

"I don't know, Mai, that's a pretty big secret…" he teased.

"I won't tell anyone."

"How about this? I'll tell you if you tell me one of your secrets first."

"Secrets? Well, hmm… I…" She turned her back toward him as she started sautéing some onions. "I guess there's one… I've never told anyone before."

"Oh?" He was beyond curious but didn't want to put any pressure on her. "But you'd tell me? You don't have to…"

"I trust you."

He smiled.

"So, umm…" She turned back around to face him, but kept her eyes affixed to her feet. Her cheeks were flushed, though Jet couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or from cooking. "I think I…" She took a deep breath. "I think I might be gay."

The floor felt like it had just fallen from beneath Jet's feet. He froze.

"Wow, I've never said that out loud before."

"Mai, is… is this your way of coming out to me? 'Cause if it is, I'm… I'm really proud of you and completely supportive – "

"No." She shook her head. "I think I might be, but I'm not sure. I-I mean, I've only ever kissed one guy. It was okay. No fireworks or whatever you're supposed to feel."

He remembered Azula mentioning she had a boyfriend in high school.

"I've never kissed a girl before, and who knows, maybe I'd hate it if I did." She shrugged. "I think I'd have more clarity if I had some more… experience."

"Mai, if you wanted me to kiss you, you could have just asked," he blurted, playing it off like it was a joke.

She laughed. "I know you're kidding, but… I actually think that might be helpful?"

And suddenly all the butterflies were back in his stomach. "Uhhh, I-I'm always willing to help out a friend." A friend?! Why did he say that?! That was so fucking stupid.

"Really?" she asked, meeting his eyes.

"Y-Yeah." He took a few daring steps closer to her, his heart pounding. Slowly, he brushed some hair back behind her ear, closed his eyes, and started to lean in.

She closed her eyes and leaned in slightly, and then…

The front door flew open.

"What's for dinner?! I'm starving!" Sokka announced, marching into the house, with the rest of the group filing in behind him.

Jet and Mai quickly separated and went back to cooking. Jet could kill Sokka, he really could.

"Mmmmm, something smells delicious!"

"We're making stir fry," Mai shouted. "Should be ready in ten minutes."

Jet caught her eye and whispered, "To be continued?"

She smiled coyly and shrugged.