Chapter 15:
Shopping
Takes place at the same time as the previous chapter.
Aang, Zuko, and Sokka walked down the cobblestone path, unaware of the serious conversation that was taking place 100 yards from them.
"How about some food?" Sokka asked, patting his stomach.
"We just ate! How could you possibly be hungry?" Zuko asked, incredulously.
Aang stopped walking and turned to Zuko.
"You haven't spent nearly as much time as I have with Sokka. He can eat his weight in meat and still be hungry!" Aang explained. Sokka nodded proudly. Zuko stared at Sokka, mouth agape.
They continued down the street, stopping at the meat vendor on the corner street. Aang gagged at the smell.
"Calm down Aang, at least the meat doesn't eat meat here." Sokka said, handing money over to the vendor. The vendor handed him some unidentifiable piece of meat on a stick.
Aang sighed and moved over next to Zuko. Sokka munched away happily on his meat as they headed for the shopping district.
"So what exactly is our goal for this little trip?" Zuko asked.
"I dunno, I was thinking about buying something for Katara." Aang shrugged his shoulders.
"I think I'm good with Suki right now. She's riding the 'I'm engaged' happiness wave. I don't have to do anything good for a while." Sokka smiled at himself.
"How about getting something for Mai?" Aang suggested.
"I never know what she wants is the problem. She doesn't like shells, or other girly stuff. It's hard to shop for her." Zuko scratched the back of his head and his voice sounded stressed.
"Well why don't you ask her to marry you? You are fire lord, why don't you have a fire lady yet? I thought for sure you were going to ask her to marry you before I asked Suki." Sokka asked with his mouth full.
Zuko opened his mouth to speak and shut it shortly afterward. They continued walking down the street towards the shopping district. They were about 5 more minutes away.
"I guess I really should ask her. Isn't it kind of tacky to ask her right after you did Sokka? Plus I don't have anything to give to her, and I don't know what to say!" Zuko started to get frantic.
Sokka laughed at Zuko's sudden onslaught of panic.
"Calm down," Sokka laughed. "It's not like you're asking her in 15 minutes. Why don't you buy her a ring or necklace?"
"I don't know if she'll like a ring or necklace. She's already got enough throwing knives. Do you know how many she keeps on her at one time? It's crazy!" Zuko got excited.
"How many?" Sokka asked, curious.
"Well I've counted 69, but there's probably more. She sleeps with 20 on her." Zuko smiled.
Sokka stopped walking and faced Zuko.
"That's… so… h-awesome!" Sokka prevented the catastrophe of calling Zuko's girlfriend hot.
Aang snickered to himself.
The boys were in the shopping district now, and they looked about as lost as foo-foo-cuddly-poops. Aang wandered into a jewelry store, and the other two followed like sheep.
Aang looked at racks of necklaces, bracelets, and rings. He wanted to buy Katara something with flowers on it, something like the necklace he had made her when they first met. As he perused the shop he found a basket with beads in it.
He picked a handful of beads up and let them slide through his fingers like sand. As he watched them fall, he noticed to beads with blue tropical flowers on them.
These would make great beads for her hair loopies! Aang thought to himself. He picked up the two and showed them to Sokka.
"What do you think of these?" Aang asked, presenting the beads in front of Sokka's face.
"For… what, exactly?" Sokka asked, confused.
"I was going to buy them for Katara."
"I know that. What would she use two beads for?" Sokka responded.
"Her hair loopies!" Aang said, astounded that Sokka didn't pick up on his idea.
"Oh, yeah… sure." Sokka said, sounding distracted.
"What's the matter Sokka?" Aang asked, a concerned tone in his voice.
"It's nothing. Suki just seems a bit off… I'm worried that she'll get sick again."
"Oh don't worry Sokka! She's fine; you're just being a little ridiculous." Aang said lightheartedly.
"I guess you're right. We're going to be married soon, I should be happy!" Sokka said, trying to perk back up.
Zuko wandered back to Sokka and Aang with his hand closed over an object.
"Do you think Mai would like this?" Zuko asked, opening his hand to reveal a ring with a flower made of rubies.
Aang's eyes widened at the beauty of the ring. Its petals were made of rubies and the center was a collection of topaz stones. The ring itself was made of silver.
"Uh huh." Aang said with his mouth wide open.
"I think I'm going to buy it for her. It's not tacky is it?" Zuko asked, concerned Mai wouldn't like it.
Sokka and Aang shook their heads in disagreement with Zuko.
"How much is it?" Sokka asked.
"I'm fire lord, it doesn't matter how much it costs!" Zuko chuckled to himself.
"Shall we head out?" Sokka asked.
"Are you not buying anything for Suki?" Aang asked.
"Maybe later. I don't know." Sokka shrugged.
Zuko and Aang headed for the cashier.
"Do you want me to just buy the beads for Katara?" Zuko offered.
"No thank you Zuko, it's a kind offer but I can't accept it." Aang replied in a monkish manner.
"Too late!" Zuko smiled. He was in an unusually gracious mood.
Before Aang had time to refuse an offer a second time, Zuko had already paid the cashier and started to leave the store.
"But! You- no- Zuko!" Aang protested.
"You're wasting your breath little air bender." Zuko said as he left the store, Sokka trailed close behind.
Aang sputtered at Zuko, trying to somehow get him to un-pay for the beads. After a few minutes he gave up, realizing that he was just going to have to deal with Zuko being generous.
Sokka lead the way to a women's clothing shop. Zuko and Aang looked at each other skeptically and then proceeded to follow him inside.
"Can I… help you?" The shopkeeper tried to contain her laughter.
"Yes I am looking for a new outfit." Sokka replied.
"You do realize this is a women's clothing shop, right?" The shopkeeper giggled.
"Not for me!" Sokka flailed his arms, embarrassed. "It's for my fiancé." He said, much calmer than 10 seconds before.
"I see." The shopkeeper smiled. "Anything in particular you are looking for?"
"Not really, I just wanted to buy her something pretty Sokka replied.
"How about this?" The shopkeeper held up a pale yellow dress. It was fairly loose fitting, with a belt at the waist to emphasize her form.
"What do you guys think?" Sokka gestured to the dress.
"It looks good to me!" Aang said.
"I guess so; I don't really know what she likes." Zuko shrugged.
"What else do you have?" Sokka asked.
The shopkeeper turned toward the back of the store and walked to the rack of dresses. A thought hit Sokka.
"Hey Aang, should I buy her a dress or anything right now? We need to talk about where we are going to live and stuff like that. I think we should go back to the apartment and plan all this out."
Hearing Sokka's comment to Aang, the shopkeeper returned empty-handed and leaned against the counter.
"Sorry…" Sokka said.
"Don't worry about it." The shopkeeper replied with a smile.
"Shall we head home?" Zuko suggested, walking out of the store.
Aang and Sokka followed, waving good-bye to the shopkeeper.
"We've only been out for half an hour." Aang said.
"Why don't we do something fun back at the apartment?" Sokka asked.
"Sounds good to me!" Zuko said cheerily.
Aang sighed and slouched his shoulders. He didn't want to leave the market. Everyone was acting a little weird lately, and he liked being in a different atmosphere.
"I suppose we can go." Aang said.
As the boys neared the intersection of the main market street and the street the apartment was off of, Sokka paused.
"What is it?" Zuko asked.
Sokka was silent for a few moments. Then he suddenly yelled, "Race you!"
All at once, the three boys tore off as fast as they possibly could. They rounded the corner and knocked over a cart full of cabbage.
"My cabbages!" The merchant exclaimed.
"Sorry!" Aang called back as he continued running in the opposite direction.
None of the three boys knew why they were racing, but they all were having fun doing it. As they ran down the street, they dodged in between groups of people, frequently knocking things over. Lucky for them, they didn't break anything.
As they reached 50 yards from their apartment, Aang bended an air scooter and cheated his way to victory.
Zuko and Sokka caught up with him a few seconds later.
"No fair!" Sokka panted.
"Yeah, you cheated!" Zuko agreed.
Aang shrugged and opened the door, intruding on the very serious conversation.
"Are we interrupting?" Aang asked.
"No, everything's fine." Suki said as calmly as she could.
Zuko sat down next to Mai on the couch. Sokka walked over to Suki, who was standing up.
"What's the matter?" Sokka asked.
"Nothing, well- I'll tell you later." Suki said, sitting down in the armchair.
"What's got you guys out of breath?" Katara asked.
"We had an idea." Aang replied, panting.
"What is it?" Katara asked, intrigued.
"Truth or dare!" Aang grinned.
End of chapter 15! So this was really poorly written but I just HAD to post a new chapter. Yeah, so I know I said that this was almost the end? I lied. There's going to be like 10 more chapters, however 5 of them are all taking place at the same time. I hope you like it, even though I promised much gallivanting. Next chapter should be much more interesting. I've already started working on it, and it has a lot of flashbacks and a lot of crazy stuff. Sorry for the lateness, we are moving so life's been a bit crazy!