Chapter 5: Recovery or Redemption?
"Wasn't so bad." I sat up and blinked. I looked around and found myself in a hospital room. I turned and swung my feet over the edge of the bed and hopped off only for my legs to give out on me and sprawl me out on the floor. The IV's in my arm pulled the drip bags down and the things that were attached to my hands fell off.
A loud continuous beep sounded and a moment later a nurse busted through the door followed by 3 more.
"A little help please? I need to go to the bathroom." I grinned dumbly. The first nurse let out an annoyed sigh. "What?"
"Don't tell me your one of those idiots who smiles through pain and laughs at anything." She looked very irritated. "If it's worse than it was when you were unconscious spurting nonsense, I will put you back to sleep."
"Huh?" I asked confused.
"During surgery when you were under heavy anesthesia you still managed to laugh, cry, and talk mostly nonsensical slurring and mumbles but it got to the point where we had to muzzle you to stop you from distracting the doctor." The nurse glared at me and motioned the other three to pick me up.
"Surgery? What surgery? How long have I been out?" I thought for a moment as the nurses scooped me up and took me to the bathroom.
"It's been what, 2 days since you got here. You almost lost your leg son and with all the burnt flesh the doc had to scrape outta you it's a miracle that you were even able to stumble outta your bed." The older male nurse chuckled as he propped me up while I peed.
"Why does my leg not hurt then? I mean with what you're saying shouldn't I be in immense pain or is it because of pain killers?" I flushed the toilet and leaned over to wash my hands.
"All the nerve endings in your leg are fried son. It's thanks to your little girlfriend and her pops that the doc had a chance to save the leg." He hauled me back to the bed and laid me down again. "If it wasn't for them zapping your leg you would've lost way to much blood."
"My girlfrie- Oh Aura yeah she's not my girlfriend, well she is a girl and a friend but not like that." I laughed. "I'll have to pay them back for that. Hey are either of them here right now?"
"Yes your headmaster asked us to call him when you woke up; he is on his way now." The first nurse said a little more rudely than I would have liked.
"Jolie is just mad that your headmaster blew her off when she tried to flirt with him." The male nurse said as he reattached the things on my hands. I laughed and rolled my eyes.
"SIMON!" Jolie shouted to which he chuckled.
"So Simon huh? When can I get out of here?" I reached down and felt my leg.
"Doc said you could go tonight if you had someone take charge of you." Simon grunted as he stood and walked out the door with the other 2 nurses leaving Jolie in my room. I grinned and raised my eyebrows at her.
"Oh shut up." She groaned and rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.
"Hahaha she tried to hit on Roku? Oh shit and he rejected her ha-ha." I struggled to breathe because I was laughing so hard.
"Who was hitting on me?" I looked up at Roku as he walked into my room.
"Oh nothing ha. Hey Roku thanks for saving my leg." I chuckled.
"Akira I'm glad they were able to save your leg but I'm here for a different talk." Roku took a deep breath. "It's about Tenchi."
I shut my mouth and looked away.
"What about him." I huffed.
"We decided to send him to my family in the Fire nation where he could be punished and reformed into an upstanding avatar." Roku sat next to me and sighed.
"Cool whatever so are you here to sign the release papers and get me out of here tonight?" I asked anxiously. Roku shook his head and leaned forward.
"Why do you two hate each other so much? You're brothers for heaven sake, what made you boys like this?" I could see concern in his face.
"That stupid asshole got all sorts of cocky when he found out he was the avatar and everyone cast me aside and only cared about him." I took a deep breath. "The only person that I wanted to show me that I was important was our mother but she was so sick I barely ever got to see her." I felt my tears roll down my cheeks.
I sat there silently crying as Roku hunched over. He shifted his hands quickly.
"Akira didn't Jinora and Kai care for you when they trained you? They would speak so highly of you when they returned. All I would hear from them was how you started off mimicking them while they trained your brother and they saw potential in you so they brought you into the training."
"So what I can't air bend; I'm not the avatar remember, I'm just an earth bender who can't even find any level ground in life." I let my tears fall and leaned the bed so I was sitting. "If you're done could you call my aunt Kayna so she can get me out of here?"
Roku looked like he was about to say something but stood up and walked towards the door. He stopped at it and turned.
"Life isn't about finding even ground, it's about how you use the terrain to your advantage and how well you overcome obstacles." He spoke softly and walked out.
"What does he even know he was born a prince, he probably got anything he ever asked for." I threw the TV remote at the wall and it turned on. I looked at the news and saw the news anchor standing in front of a large fire nation flag.
"I'm standing here with the next ruler of the fire nation Fire Lord Wan; now tell me Wan how does it feel knowing that your older brother and sister stepped down from their birthrights and rejecting ruling over their homeland?" She turned to a young man who wore a deep red robe and long black hair tied in a low pony tail.
"You say it as it they abandoned our country. They both had their own reasons and took it up with our father and he approved on the condition that should I ever need their counsel, their help with anything, they would need to answer my call." His voice sounded much softer than Roku but just as serious.
"What the fuck? Roku was supposed to be the next Fire Lord? Why did he turn an opportunity like that down and Ursa too?" I was so stunned by what I was hearing that I didn't hear someone enter my room until they placed their hand on mine. I jumped a little and turned to look at my aunt Kayna.
"The doctor will be in soon to take your IV's out and tell you what you will have to look forward to in the next few weeks of your recovery." She had a deeply saddend expression on her face but I put no thought into it.
A little while later.
I sat in the front seat of Kayna's car as she drove me home. The car ride was long and silent so I started to get sleepy. I shook myself and decided to turn on the radio buy my aunt slapped my hand away before I could.
"Now before we get to the house I will set ground rules. Number 1: Anything I say goes no ifs ands or buts. Number 2: You will be respectful at all times no matter who is at my house. Number 3: You will continue your school work and if you fall behind I will find a suitable form of punishment." I could hear her voice crack. "And please just behave and be a good child. The call I got from your mother made me want to mold you into a better man for next time you see her."
She had hit a nerve with that one.
"What the fuck do you mean shape me into a better man? I don't need to-" I shut up as I saw the tears fall from her face. "I'm sorry aunt Kayna, thank you for getting me out of the hospital. I promise I'll try to be {deep breath} a better person."
She did a half smile and turned up the radio which at this point I didn't care for. I ignored it for the rest of the ride and when we got to a house I hadn't seen before, I could see people sitting on the patio talking.
I could see Sky, Hope and Aura sitting with a fourth person who I couldn't really see. As we pulled up I could see Sokka walk out of the house and hurry over to the car. He walked to the trunk as my aunt opened it and he pulled out a wheelchair.
"Aunt Kayna I can use my bending to help me walk I'll be fine." I opened the door and bent up a small cane and leg brace. "See I'm Ok I can do this."
"Nope no earth bending in or around my house." She said flatly and I bent them back into the ground. "Good now get in the wheelchair we are going to celebrate the fact that you will recover just fine."
I must have made a face because it earned me a slap to the shoulder by Hope who had ran up to push my chair.
"You lucked out Akira; you got me, Sky and Aunt Kayna to help take care of you." She chuckled as she wheeled me into the house.
"Wait why are you here aren't you living with your mom?" I asked remembering that I was living with Aunt Nala and Hope along with Tenchi.
"I moved in here with Sky and Aunt Kayna so Sky could tutor me whenever I needed it." She sighed. "Also my mom blames herself for not being able to do anything; she basically made me come here because she is going to go on a rediscovery trip, whatever that means."
"Oh I just half expected to go back and live with just you two until I could take care of myself." I sighed. 'Trouble follows me like I'm going out of style.' I thought and shook my head.