IMPORTANT! I didn't like the former chapter two (nor did lots of people), so here's a new one.
Spin Me Around
Chapter Two, A Favor
A/N-Pardon if the first part is confusing. Believe it or not, it makes perfect sense in my head. Oh, yeah, and the Gaang is in a hotel in Misty Palms Oasis, or whatever it's called. Eh.
Disclaimer- I don't own Avatar. Perhaps that's what I should ask for for my birthday…
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Meet me at sunrise by the iceberg.
This is what she had written him.
So what caused him to be unsure? Come to think of it, he'd never before seen her handwriting, so how was he to know if she'd written it?
And yet surely none knew of his meetings with her save Uncle. Surely. Unless…
How much did she trust her friend the Avatar? What would she tell him? The boy might trick him; surely she wasn't that foolish…
But what was he so worried about? What was the likelihood of someone else writing this note and sending it to him? This was madness. Of course she wanted to see him; He hadn't been able to speak to her in nearly two weeks.
So what do I do? Zuko silently asked himself. Tell Uncle I'll return shortly and meet Katara at daybreak. Simple as that.
--
Katara absently folded her blanket and placed it in her sack. She was worried about Sokka; he constantly seemed mildly put off by something, but for some odd reason she could not bring herself to talk to him about it, or even ask Aang for advice. Strange thing when you can't speak with your best friend about something so simple, especially when your friend's job is to help. Perhaps she subconsciously knew why Sokka was acting in a peculiar, believed it to be her fault and was thus feeling guilty… No. Absurd. Katara shook herself. Where did that come from? Absolutely absurd.
At that precise moment, Sokka strolled into the room. Somehow he seemed… oh, Katara didn't know, possibly like he'd achieved something marvelous.
"Hey, Katara!" he grinned at her. Katara smiled back uncertainly and resumed taking her things and putting them into her bag. Inwardly she sighed.
I wish I could talk to Zuko.
Sokka sat down in a chair near Katara.
"We're leaving tomorrow, you said?" she asked, not looking up from her work.
"Bright and early," he said, unsheathing his boomerang and proceeding to sharpen it with a rock he produced from a pocket. The Gaang had been staying for a few days at the Green Cactus Inn in an oasis in the desert.
"I suppose it is dangerous to stay in one place for too long. Someone could find us." Katara inwardly sighed again. She'd hoped that if they remained in one location for a time, Lady Fate would bring Zuko her way. But alas, no one could control the future. Read it, either, she thought bitterly, recalling her encounter with Aunt Wu.
"Where's Toph?" Sokka asked, replacing his boomerang.
"Training Aang, I believe," Katara replied. "Just outside. You can hear the thuds."
"Thanks, sis." Sokka got up and left. Quickly he found Toph, who was helping Aang with a difficult move.
"Toph!" He called out as he neared them. "Can you do me a favor?"
Toph relaxed her stance. "Depends. What is it?"
Sokka walked closer. He explained, being careful not to let Aang hear, how he had seen Katara and Zuko flirting by a lake a week or two ago as he went to see why she was taking so long to get a bucket of water. He continued on, expounding a plot to capture the fire nation prince ("which should have been done a long time ago, and Katara deserves better anyway") involving digging a hole in the ground and tricking him to fall into it.
"It'd take me days to dig a hole deep enough," he concluded.
"My pleasure," Toph grinned wickedly. "Talk to you later. Aang has almost got this move."
--
Around an hour later, Toph and Sokka had left a note for Zuko requesting he be at the iceberg at dawn the next day and dug a sizable hole with and disguised it with a fragile crust of earth over the top. They knew for a fact that Zuko and Iroh were staying at the Inn, and that Katara remained unaware of this.
So Sokka woke early the next morning and watched the dwindling iceberg from his second-story window. Soon after the sun's first rays warmed the sand, a figure came out of a door below. It proceeded towards the iceberg. Five feet away, the figure promptly disappeared. Sokka smiled and disappeared from his window.
--
Zuko threw the desert rose he had plucked from the complimentary bouquet in his room for Katara to the ground. Crushing it with his heel, he cursed his ever-worsening luck. This hole in the ground was most likely a ploy of his ill-willed little brat of a sister or that of a bounty hunter desiring a handful of gold coins from the fire lord. Whichever it so happened to be, conditions were dim. His best bet would be to climb out and leave this wretched excuse for a town, but the earth was crumbly here and handholds disintegrated at the lightest touch.
Vexed, Zuko listened to someone approaching, as well as an odd sloshing noise. A face appeared over the edge of the pit; Katara's idiotic brother.
"Hello," the peasant had a triumphant grin spread upon his face. "Where you waiting for my sister?" Zuko remained silent, glaring.
"Hate to break it to you, but she won't be joining us," Sokka continued. "As a matter of fact, she's most likely sound asleep and not aware of your presence."
Zuko swore under his breath and released a blast of fire in Sokka's direction. Sokka responded by producing a large bucket of water from behind him and dumping it into the pit. Satisfied that Zuko was now to soaked to bend, he slung a long length of rope from his shoulder and tied it around a tree. Seizing the other end, he leapt into the pit. He dodged a kick and immobilized his enemy with a karate chop to the neck and a few knots.
"Am I expected to sit here all day long?" Zuko muttered as Sokka took a step back to admire his handiwork. Sokka kicked him and used the rope to pull himself out of the pit. He yanked on the rope, pulling Zuko out of the hole, with much audible grunting on the latter's half. Zuko was lugged up a flight of stairs into Sokka's quarters.
That was unexpected.