Chapter 22:

48 hours

Sokka and Suki returned to the apartment with breakfast for everyone.

"Welcome back!" Katara greeted them cheerily.

"Do I smell egg custard tarts?" Aang asked excitedly leaping up from the armchair and rushing over to Suki.

"Calm down Aang." Suki laughed. "And yes, it is an egg custard tart. Yes you can have one."

Aang fake-collapsed of happiness, and then quickly leapt up to retrieve his tart.

Suki reached into the bag and pulled out a blueberry muffin and handed it to Katara. She gave Aang his tart and Sokka his muffin as well. She set her tart on the table and offered the lychee nut muffin to Toph.

"How did you know I liked lychee nuts?" Toph asked, holding out her hand to receive the muffin.

"I didn't… I just made a guess and figured if you wouldn't eat it, Momo would." Suki laughed as she handed the muffin to Toph.

Toph smiled slightly and took a huge bite out of her muffin.

"Thanks Suki. This is an awesome muffin." Toph said with her mouth full.

"You're welcome." Suki smiled and took a small bite out of her tart.

"So we've got one more night in Ba Sing Se before we head back to the South Pole. What do you want to do today?" Suki suggested.

"I don't know but I really want to go penguin sledding when we get back to the South Pole!" Aang sounded excited.

"Penguin… sledding?" Suki sounded confused.

"Yeah it's where you jump on a penguin and ride at as far as you can. It's really fun!" Aang explained.

"I want to try that!" Suki's eyes opened wide with excitement.

"No." Sokka said protectively.

"Why not?" Suki pouted like a small child.

"It's far too dangerous! You could fall off a cliff and freeze to death or any number of things could happen to our baby!" Sokka was taken aback by the words 'our baby'. Before now he knew it was real, but saying those two little words made it even more of a reality.

Suki sighed loudly and plopped into the armchair that nobody was occupying, and took another bite out of her tart.

"What? I'm just trying to be realistic. We can't have you running around like a crazy person, doing whatever you want because you're now responsible for two people!" Sokka was once again in protective mode.

"I can take care of myself and our baby just fine!" Suki got up angrily and walked into their bedroom. Katara followed closely behind.

Suki flopped down on the bed and buried her face in the pillows. Katara shut the door gently and sat down beside her.

"Suki, Sokka's right for once." Katara laughed. "You have to be a little bit more careful about what you do now that you have a whole new person inside you."

Suki spoke into the pillow, and her response was muffled, "I know," Suki rolled onto her back. "I just really hate it when he gets all protective over me. It irritates me to no end. I can fend for myself; I have been for most of my life."

Katara took Suki's hand in a comforting manner.

"I know." She replied warmly. "Sokka is really protective because our dad told him to protect me and the other people in the tribe when he left for the war. He turned those words into his entire life."

"That's pretty messed up." Suki laughed. "It's sweet, but messed up."

"Yeah I know." Katara agreed.

Katara smiled and stood up. She opened the door and wasn't particularly surprised to see Aang and Sokka listening at the door. Katara pushed through the two boys and dragged Aang back to the main room by his ear.

"Ow you're hurting me Katara!" Aang complained.

"You deserved it twinkle toes." Toph laughed.

Suki looked at Sokka and patted the bed next to her. Sokka walked into the room and shut the door behind him.

"I'm sorry." Sokka began, sitting down next to his fiancé.

"No…" Suki stopped him. "I'm the one who should be sorry. You know, you were right. I have been a little bit irresponsible and reckless lately, and I really should start acting more like an adult. It's unfair to you to always have to worry about me, and whether or not I'm being safe or not. I'm responsible for two people now, not just myself, but our baby! I still have to get used to that, and it'll take me a little time, but I'll try my best to be as safe as I can."

Sokka looked stunned. Never before had they had an argument that wasn't actually an argument. Suki waved her hand in front of his face.

"Oh- erm- yeah… sounds good." Sokka laughed nervously. He had been caught off guard by the maturity with which they handled the minor disagreement. Frankly, this gave him confidence that they would be good parents.

Suki looked puzzled at him. "Are you alright Sokka?"

"Yeah, I'm just surprised that we didn't get into a yelling or power struggle is all." Sokka laughed.

Suki didn't say anything; she simply stood up and took Sokka by the hand and dragged him out to the main room.

"Problem solved?" Toph asked, her feet were once again propped up in the table.

"Yup, problem solved." Suki smiled.

Sokka sat down in the armchair and Suki sat on his lap. She sat with her legs over one arm and her back resting on the other, while Sokka had his arms behind his head.

"You know we never answered the question of what we wanted to do today." Suki said.

"There's a whole city to see, and we've seen all the creepy and bad parts of it, why don't we go and look for stuff for the baby?" Katara suggested.

"It's not your baby." Toph teased.

"I know, but I am going to be spending a LOT of time with it." Katara retorted.

"It?" Suki was mildly offended.

"Well I don't know if it's a boy or a girl." Katara explained.

"It's a girl." Suki said matter-of-factly.

"How do you know?" Katara asked.

"I don't for sure. I can just feel it though." Suki explained.

"Oh." Katara didn't know what to say.

"Why don't we go get Zuko and Mai and ask them what they want to do?" Aang suggested.

"Sounds good to me!" Everyone said simultaneously, and stood up to go drag Zuko and Mai out of their cave.

Yay another chapter finished! The first one of the year! Woot! I hope you liked it! It's a short one, and the next chapter may or may not be the last one. I think I've dragged this one out far enough lol. (: