Chapter 17: Underneath It All

So, exciting news, apparently M. Night Shaymalan is going to be directing three live action films based on the Avatar cartoons. Sounds exciting but then everyone has mixed feelings about it. Some are excited; some think he'll ruin it. Me, I'm gonna wait on this. I love the Avatar show, and I hope that Shaymalan can pull off a movie without ruining it. Of course there's always the chance that this could fall through. Well, being a fan, I probably will see the movie if it comes out, then base my opinion. Anyway, now that I've addressed these rumors, back to my story. So one of my readers was wondering, what happened to Mai and Ty Lee? They did survive and they are back. Some questions will be answered this chapter, and many more will be asked. Oh that sounds mysterious. Ok, Chapter 17, go for it.

"You mean you had the same dream too?"

"Uh-huh. Avatar Roku told me the same thing. That Azula's alive and we have to help her," Ty Lee said.

Mai nodded. They were in a small Earth Kingdom village in the local inn. It was tiny, but at least it was warm and dry. Mai was less than happy to be in stolen, green, Earth Kingdom clothes, but they couldn't walk around like Fire Nation nobles.

"So, the question is, how do we get to the island she's on?"

Ty Lee bit her lip to think. "Hmmm… we need a boat."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious. How do we get a boat? They're harder to steal than drying laundry."

"We could hire one," Ty Lee pointed out.

"We don't have any money," Mai countered.

"You're forgetting. I'm a circus performer."

"Great. I get to watch while you perform for money. I can barely contain my excitement."

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"For an air-headed musician, he sure gives exact directions," Sokka said.

"Aww. He wasn't that bad," Crin said, laughing a little.

Sokka shuddered. "You have no idea."

"His song was nice. I liked the tune."

"Yeah. It was…" Sokka couldn't find the words to describe it. "It's hard to explain."

Crin nodded in agreement.

The sun was dipping lower into the sky. They landed. It was an old campsite. It looked like a small group had been there the day before.

"We're catching up," Sokka said.

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Jet's arms were around her before they fell asleep this time. They ended up like that anyway. Azula smiled as his lips brushed against her skin and she turned her face to meet his.

Desire raged in both of them. A strong passionate desire. Jet's hand was sliding up her leg, pushing away her belled pants. Coming closer to her wrap skirt.

Azula pushed his hand away and pulled back. "Stop. Wait."

Their gazes met. "Sorry," Jet murmured.

"I just can't. I'm not ready."

"I know. I'm sorry." Azula pulled him into a deep embrace.

"Someday," she promised. "Just not tonight."

"Does that mean you want to stay with me?" Jet whispered.

Azula paused to consider. "I don't know. I'm still thinking."

"Azula, I think I love you."

"Jet," she began.

"Don't say it back if you don't mean it."

"I don't know id I can say it yet, but you make me happy. I'm happy with you. I've never felt this good before. I'm happy and it's not because someone else is hurt. It's because you're around."

They smiled and kissed again.

"Why do you love me?"

"What?" Jet asked, shocked by her question.

"Why do you love me?"

"Is this a trick question?"

Azula smiled. "No. I just want to know why you love me."

Jet thought for a moment. "I love you because you're strong. And stubborn. And you're brilliant. And you make me realize what is important in life. It's funny how what you think will be the worst things in life turn out to be the best."

Azula smiled and nestled her had against his chest.

"Azula?"

"Yeah?"

"You're beautiful."

No one had ever called Azula beautiful. Clever, strong, in control, decisive, fierce, strong-willed, all those things were adjectives to describe her. Beautiful had never been one of them. No one in the Fire Nation had ever told her she was beautiful.

I like this chapter. It's starting to set up for my final climax. Everything's coming together. Alas, this story will end soon. There's maybe six or seven chapters left, and I'm sorry to say, if you thought my past chapters were really short, well, the last fourish chapters are worse. Sorry, but I wanted to divide them that way. Anyway, so this story is wrapping up and soon we'll be moving on. Oh and this is where I start asking if you want an epilogue or a trilogy. My friend thinks it should be a trilogy, but I have no idea what I would do. So if you want a trilogy, I want some suggestions. Otherwise, I leave it off with an epilogue and move on to my next story. Still want to know what you think of my "fate commentary" idea. I want to know if I should do that or if it's too tacky. I'll probably try out a tester in a profile when I'm bored some time, so look out for that. Otherwise, well, I think the next thing up after this story would be some form of a oneshot, because I'm really not close to done with "Because I Don't Make Mistakes," though I'm almost into my season 3 ideas. I'll give you more details on that soon, but this author's note is getting longer than it should be, so still feeling like a Latin dork, I say, "Salvete omnes!" Which if you were wondering, just means "Goodbye everyone." And "Nescio te" means "I don't know you" if you ever want to say that to anyone. Salvete omnes!