Greetings and welcome back to another chapter of A Walk Through Fire! This one is a bit shorter then the others but its still packed with love! I'm just gonna let y'all know now that the next few chapters are gonna start getting intense so be prepared! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Don't forget to favorite,follow, and review!
I still don't own Avatar the Last Airbender!
Azula was sitting in her tent. She knew that it was earlier in the morning; the sun hadn't risen yet but she knew that it would eventually and that they would have to continue their journey to the Stronghold.
Damnit Mai, she thought. You just had to say something. You couldn't just leave me alone about my stupid feelings.
Sighing to herself, Azula got out of her tent and saw that it was still very dark outside. She saw that Aang's tent wasn't pitched yet.
That's odd, why isn't his tent pitched? Wait, WHERE IS HE?
Azula wasn't an idiot. She had kidnapped him, and she also knew that he technically wasn't supposed to leave her presence. She had him with people who she thought could look after him when she can't, hence the training with Ty Lee and Mai, or being in his room with them while she was running Ba Sing Se. Right now, however, they were in a wide open area; an area perfect to run away.
Shit, did he run away? she thought. He couldn't leave. He just couldn't leave me, right? Azula looked around at the rest of the camp. Think: where did he say he was going? Last time he left, he left footprints.
She looked on the ground and found a set of footprints. Oh thank Agni, she thought as she followed the footprints towards a small lake where she found her crush laying on the ground unconscious, but seemingly uninjured.
What the fuck happened here?!
Earlier that Evening
Aang was confused. He never really was able to think about how he got kidnapped. All he remembered was being in the Avatar State and then he just woke up in chains. He knew that Azula had a master plan for kidnapping him, but he didn't know what it was. Honestly, he didn't know anything. He didn't know why he was there, how he got into this situation; heck, he didn't even know the gravity of the situation.
"I just had to get kidnapped," he said aloud to himself. "I just had to abandon my friends. I just wasn't powerful enough." He continued to mumble to himself as he walked towards the river that he had found. He stopped in front of it and fell to his knees. "Why me? Why did it have to be me?!"
"What do you mean, Aang?"
Aang looked up with tears in his eyes to see a shimmering vision of Avatar Roku in the water in front of him. Roku looked at the young Avatar with concern.
"Roku?" Aang said, staring at his previous life and smiling softly. "What are you doing here? I didn't know Firebenders liked standing on water."
Roku chuckled at the boy's response and walked over to where he was on the riverbank. "Yes, well, this Firebender has mellowed with age and was quite fond of a heated pool back in his day."
Aang relaxed a bit and smiled while he whipped the tears that were staining his cheeks. He looked at his previous incarnation and smiled. "So why are you here Roku? You usually don't appear unless you have something important to tell me."
Roku sighed and looked at Aang. "Yes," he answered. "I have realized that I don't usually mettle with you and your life. But I couldn't help but see how distraught you were." He sat down next to Aang and looked across the water.
"Kyoshi put you up to this, didn't she?" Aang asked, suspicious.
"Yes...she was going to come instead of me. But I don't think you would have liked what she was going to say."
"Oh, wonderful," Aang replied as he rolled his eyes and looked at Roku.
"But, seriously, Aang, what's wrong?"
Aang looked at his hands and back at Roku. He didn't know how or where to start; he just looked at him. He stared into the man's glowing eyes and just sighed. "Well, I've been captured by the Fire Nation," he began. "I have a crush on the person who kidnapped and tortured me; I haven't seen or heard from my friends in a month and a half; I still can't Firebend; and I also can't access the Avatar State. So, yeah. Oh, did I mention that I'M ALSO FIGHTING A WAR?!"
Roku looked at him and could only pity him. He knew that Aang was going through a lot, but he didn't know that he was going through this much. He sighed and thought about what he could actually help him with.
"Aang, I didn't know that you were going through all of this, but I unfortunately can't help you with most of it."
"So, then, why did you come to me if you can't help me?" Aang asked, starting to get frustrated again. He had so many issues that he knew that he couldn't solve that it was starting to get to him.
"I came to talk to you about the Avatar State," Roku replied calmly.
"Really?" Aang said, perplexed. "That's why you came?"
"Yes...why do you sound so shocked?"
"To be honest, Roku, you kinda just give me vague info that I then have to spend days trying to figure out," Aang replied bluntly.
Roku looked at Aang and chuckled to himself. He knew that he was right, of course, and let the slight insult go over his head.
"No, young Avatar. I have come to help you get back into the Avatar State." He stood, walked over to a rock, and sat. "You need to get in contact with your truest self. Only then will you be able to unlock it again."
Aang stood up and looked at Roku with a smirk on his face. "There's the vague information I was looking for."
Roku simply rolled his eyes and chuckled. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself."
"Great…so are you gonna help me figure out what the heck that means?"
"Nope!" Roku replied quickly, grinning.
"Glad you haven't changed," Aang said, rolling his eyes and watching as the spirit before him laughed at the jab.
"Well, I guess I can advise you to get in touch with your emotions," said Roku. "How did you unlock it the first time?"
"Well, some Guru gave me some weird juice thing and then told me to open my chakras," Aang recalled.
Roku stroked his chin and furrowed his eyebrows, seemingly deep in thought. "Have you tried reopening them again? Maybe when you got shot with lightning, all the chakras closed."
Aang was about to say how that idea wasn't gonna work, but then he realized that he never actually tried to open them up again. "Hey, you know, that could actually…" Aang looked around to try and find Roku, but he was gone. "...work," he finished defeatedly.
"Oh well, at least now I can go back into the Avatar State," he thought aloud. "I still have a bunch of other problems that I have to figure out, but this takes a big one off my plate. But how do I open up my chakras without the Guru?"
Aang started pacing back and forth on the riverbank. He had to figure out a way to open his chakras or else his entire conversation with Roku would have been totally worthless. "Think, Aang. There's gotta be something that you can do right? Maybe I could just open all of them at the same time."
He sat down on the ground and started to mediate. After a while, he was able to reach a state similar to the one he was in when he was unlocking the chakras for the first time.
Alright, Aang, his inner voice said to him. All you have to do is open all of the chakras at once. Not that difficult...just gotta concentrate. Just gotta concentrate...and...
Suddenly, Aang felt a great sensation wash over his body. It was a sensation that started from his toes and slowly worked its way up to his hips and then to the swell of his back. The feeling was getting stronger the higher it moved up his body. He went into an orgasmic-like state the longer he was opening his chakras. It seemed to hit a peak when the feeling reached the crown of his head. It felt as if his entire body was contracting in on itself. He felt ecstatic..
"I..I...GRAUH!"
Suddenly, Aang felt euphoria. He felt like he was laying on a cloud and floating through time and space. Nothing mattered to him right now. He hadn't been captured, he hadn't been fighting a war; he was just in paradise; a place he didn't want to leave.
Azula didn't know what to do. All she saw in front of her was an unconscious Aang laying on a beach. He looked so peaceful that she honestly didn't want to disturb him. It was the most relaxed she had ever seen him. He had a gentle smile on his face and was breathing softly.
"I have to move him back to camp...I'll just put him in my tent, I guess," she mumbled to herself as she picked up the boy and carried him back up to where she slept the previous night.
His clothes are all dirty, she thought. If I wash them now, they might be able to dry in time. Wait, why do I care about his clothes? So what if they are dirty!
Azula just shook her head and started undressing him. As she took off his clothes, he started mumbling.
Oh, Agni, what is he saying?
"I'm sorry," he mumbled.
For what? What did he do? Why do I care so much?
"I'm so sorry."
Azula didn't know what to do. Just 10 minutes ago, he looked to be in a peaceful slumber, but now, he was apologizing. For what, she didn't know. Is it for yesterday? All she knew was that he was now unclothed and she had his clothing in her hands.
She left the tent, walked over to the river, and started to wash the Avatar's clothing, removing the dirt and stain that was on it. "You owe me for this, Aang," she scoffed as she cleaned his clothing and hung it on a tree branch. When she was done, she made her way to her tent and found that Aang was still asleep, but was now wrapped in her sleeping bag.
Oh, for fuck's sake, what am I supposed to do now? she thought, bewildered. She stood there for a moment and watched as he slept. Whatever dream he was having before was gone as there was now no evidence of pain or sorrow on his face and he had stopped mumbling to himself. She decided that she could just sit next to him cross legged and read a book while he slept.
This, however, didn't last very long as she felt movement on her leg and saw that Aang was struggling with what looked to be another nightmare.
Sighing to herself, she decided to place his head into her lap, resting his head on her thigh. She sat reading her book while also cradling the boy. He started to toss and turn a little, causing Azula discomfort.
Why can't he just sleep normally and peacefully like everyone else? she thought irritably. It's not like he gets nightmares or anything. Only monsters get nightmares.
He continued to move around in her lap until she put a hand on his shoulder. I gotta calm him down, she assured herself. Seeing that there was nothing she could do, she started to rub his shoulder.
I can't believe that I, Princess Azula, am currently comforting the Avatar, a person who is my enemy, but someone who also needs to be comforted. No, he doesn't need comforting, he can comfort himself.
Azula was totally out of her element; she was not known for being all that friendly, and she definitely wasn't the one to go to for comfort. But here she was, comforting the Avatar, her sworn enemy, while he had a nightmare. She sighed, looked down at the sleeping boy, and blushed. She knew deep down that she had a crush on him. Hell, everyone knew at this point that she had a crush on him, and it was confirmed in her mind when she talked to Mai yesterday.
"I just hope no one finds me like this," Azula muttered while cradling the Avatar's head.
"Alright, guys, today is the day that we should be getting to the Stronghold, but we have some time to kill since it won't take us that long to get there, thanks to Katara's flying last night."
Sokka was standing in the middle of the group pointing to their position on a map that he had stolen.
"Alright, so what do we do for the rest of the day?" Toph asked while eating some nuts that she had.
"Well," Sokka said, stroking his chin while he looked at the map in front of him, "it looks like there's a large village near the Stronghold that we can explore before we set up a battle strategy on Operation: Rescue Suki!" He jumped up as he said this and pumped his fist in the air causing everyone to laugh except for Toph.
"Hey, what's so funny?" she asked, looking at Zuko and glaring at him.
"Oh, Toph, you should have seen him, he looked an-"
Zuko was interrupted by a stone crashing down onto his foot.
"I would've loved to have seen it," she said as she punched him in the arm. "But I received the short end of the vision stick."
At this point Katara was cackling and had tears in her eyes. Sokka was also trying not to laugh while Zuko was struggling to get the giant rock off of himself.
Eventually, the group packed up their things and made their way back to Appa, who was enjoying some berries that Momo had gotten him.
Sokka started to load their stuff onto the saddle. Once everything was loaded, they all hopped onto him. With Sokka taking the reins, they took off towards the village.
Katara was sitting back in the saddle. She was watching everyone as they were doing the things that kept them busy during long flights on Appa. She watched Toph take a nap now that she couldn't "see" people and she watched Zuko practice his breathing techniques.
I wish I had something I could do. She stared at Zuko and didn't realize that she was blushing.
"Is there… something on my face or something?"
Katara immediately snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Zuko look at her confused. "Oh, umm, no!" she replied hastily. "There's nothing wrong with your face." She turned around in the saddle so that she wouldn't face him.
"Oh," Zuko said, blushing as he looked at her back now. "Well, if that's the case, then why were you staring at me?"
"I wasn't staring at you!" She shouted, turning around to face the Prince. "I was just… looking at the cloud that was behind you!" She crossed her arms and pouted.
"What cloud could you possibly be talking about?" Zuko asked, turning around to see not a single cloud in the sky.
"Well…there was a cloud that looked just like Momo and it was cute," Katara lied.
"Sure there was," Zuko said in a drier tone.
"What do you mean sure?" Katara snapped.
"Nothing."
"No Zuko, say it!"
"Say what?!" he practically shouted. "I literally just accepted that you were looking at a cloud in the sky!"
"No, you think that I'm lying, don't you!"
"Katara, that makes no sense!" He shouted, raising his arms in frustration.
While they were arguing, Sokka had just landed Appa and helped Toph get out of the saddle. They both laughed at the pair as they were once again arguing over nothing.
"Hey, you want to get something to eat and leave those two to argue?" Sokka asked, looking at the Earthbender next to him.
"Sure," she replied as they both started to walk towards the entrance of the village. "I'm sure that they will be able to handle themselves."
They both left, leaving the still arguing Zuko and Katara in the saddle. Eventually, the two realized that both Sokka and Toph were missing.
"Hey, do you know where they went?" Katara asked as she got out of the saddle and waited for Zuko to exit.
"They probably left to go into the village," he said as he dusted himself off and started to walk towards the village.
"Hey," Katara called as she started running towards him. "Where are you going?"
"Well," he began, halting, "Sokka said that we could spend a good chunk of time here before we head to the Stronghold and figure out how to rescue his girlfriend."
"Oh," Katara said meekly.
Zuko continued to walk into the village with Katara at his side.
The pair walked through the gates of the village and saw how beautiful it was. There were gorgeous yellow and red flowers everywhere that lined the many pathways moving throughout the village. There were beautiful birds flying from the trees. They were singing happily and went on with their days.
"Isn't this just beautiful?" Katara asked Zuko as she took in the beauty of the village.
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like this before," he replied while brushing his hand across the flowers.
"Did they have villages like this in the Fire Nation when you were there?" She asked while looking at the shops.
"Yeah, but nothing nearly as pretty as this," Zuko replied. "Most of our villages don't have these kinds of flowers in them."
"What do you mean?" Katara asked curiously.
Zuko looked at her and blushed a little while she was picking some flowers. "Well, we have a different kind of fauna in the Fire Nation. Most of our flowers are shades of white or red."
"Wow, I can't wait to see them some day," Katara said lightly, standing back up and continuing to walk with Zuko.
"Yeah." Zuko started to blush as she moved closer to him. Their hands brush together and they instantly pull apart.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to touch you," Katara quickly said, blushing.
"No, no, I'm sorry," Zuko stammered. "I should have been paying attention to where my hand was."
"Let's just forget that it ever happened, okay?"
"Yeah lets do that."
They both continued to walk down the street. They saw many different shops and stopped at each one, looking inside of them and even buying something from a few of them. They were so caught up in the moment that they didn't even realize that they were holding hands.
"Oh, well aren't you two such a cute couple," an elderly lady called from the street, causing both of them to blush.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but we aren't a couple," Zuko stated while trying not to blush.
"Well, even if you aren't one, you would make a really cute one," The old lady giggled as she walked past them and sighed to herself. I guess hiding feelings must run in the royal family.
Eventually, Zuko and Katara walked to a merchant selling sandwiches and decided to purchase some. Katara was holding some of the things that she had bought during their shopping trip and Zuko was holding their food. They walked to a secluded part of the village that was on top of a hill. It had a fantastic view of the ocean and the coast of the Earth Kingdom.
"Wow, you can see so much of the coast from up here," Katara said while she was looking at the horizon.
"Yeah," Zuko agreed. "You can even kinda make out the Stronghold way off in the distance." He pointed to a large group of mountains and at the base can be seen a building.
"Wow, is that really it?" Katara said, pointing squinting at the structure. "That's where they are taking Suki?"
"Yeah," he answered as he took a bite out of his sandwich.
The two didn't realize that Sokka and Toph had been trailing behind them since they had gotten lunch and were a few yards away from them, but could still hear their conversation.
"Yeah, they are totally head over heels for each other," Sokka said smugly.
"Wow, I'm shocked it took you this long to realize it," Toph smirked as she heard the conversation that the two love birds were having.
"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I figured that something was brewing between them, but I didn't expect it to be something like this, you know?"
Eventually, Sokka grew tired of watching his sister snuggle up with Zuko and decided that it was time for them to get back to Appa, head to the Stronghold, and scope out the area. He walked up behind Zuko and tapped him on the shoulder which caused him to jump immediately.
"AHH!"
Zuko immediately took up a fighting stance and was about to charge when he heard Sokka and Toph laughing. Looking at who was in front of him, Sokka was bracing for impact and had his eyes closed.
"Fuck you, Sokka," he retorted as he started to walk away from him and back towards the village.
"Well, I guess that's our cue to go back to Appa, is it not?" Toph suggested, nudging Sokka, who then snapped back to reality.
"Yeah, guys, let's head back to Appa. We should reach the Stronghold by late afternoon."
"Alright then," Katara said, getting up off of the ground and starting to walk after Zuko with Toph following behind her.
Sokka was left alone at the top of the hill looking off into the distance. He was holding the necklace he had gotten for Suki in his hands.
"I'm coming, Suki!" Sokka called out. He started walking away towards the village before he took one last look at the horizon. "I'm coming."