I know, it's inexcusable that it's been nearly little over two months since I've updated this story. But just so people are assured, I am not abandoning ship on this story. I love this story way too much to give it up (even if at the moment, I'm not dedicating time to it). Just tap me if you're getting too tired of waiting! Expectations for updates are much different for writers than readers, xD.
This chapter is dedicated to ObeliskX, who reminded me that indeed, people were waiting. Very patiently.
Chapter Seven:
a revolution simmers under his nose, and he can barely smell it
Suki took the scroll into her hands and opened it immediately, eyes widening as she got further into the message.
"What's it say?" Ty Lee asked her, looking over her leader's shoulder.
Suki,
I'm sorry about bothering you with more worries. I'm sure you have enough on your plate. Everything on Kyoshi Island is doing well—but I didn't know how much longer you and the others would be in the Fire Nation, so I at least wanted to tell you this: King Kuei sent us a letter earlier today to ask us for permission to build a naval base on the west coast of the island.
I've already given him the liberty, but I wanted to pass the news to you so that you wouldn't be startled when you came back.
Kira
Her eyes widened.
"Oh, well that's interesting," Ty Lee murmured behind Suki's shoulder.
Suki stiffly turned her neck to the acrobat. "What is?"
"That King Kuei decided to set up a naval base?" Ty Lee replied, poising a finger on her chin, thinking. "I mean, the Earth Kingdom isn't really known for its navy, is it?"
"No, it's not."
"Suki?" Ty Lee suddenly asked, noticing Suki's suddenly dark face. She shuffled around to face the other Kyoshi Warrior directly. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Suki stared back at the other girl, blankly. She needed to think. She needed time to think about everything. She just needed time—everything was happening much too quickly and all at once.
But she also had to act—and if she didn't do something right away…
"We need to go back to Kyoshi Island," Suki said suddenly.
"What?! What's with the sudden change in the plan? What about Zuko and the Fire Nation?"
"I'll stay," Suki declared. "You and the others will go back."
"Wait—Suki!" Ty Lee exclaimed. "What…what are you thinking about? What's the plan?"
"I'll explain in the morning tomorrow," the Kyoshi Warrior leader said, starting to pace back and forth in her room. "I have to think."
The Fire Nation-native watched her for a moment.
"Listen…" Ty Lee blurted. "I don't know what kind of plans you're thinking up of right now but there's no way that I'm just going to go back to Kyoshi Island and leave the responsibilities that we have here. You know that Mai is my friend, right? My really really good friend."
The Kyoshi Warrior leader—interrupted in her thinking—became slightly exasperated. "Yes, fine. Okay. Whatever. You can stay too. Everyone else will go back," she sighed.
Noticing that the other woman seemed more irritated than usual and wasn't completely thinking through the group's actions as she usually did, Ty Lee grew concerned, catching her in the middle of her pacing and placing her hand on Suki's shoulder.
"Wait, what's going on?" she asked softly, her eyebrows knitting together into a rare frown. When the other warrior didn't say a word, she urged, "Come on, Suki. You can tell me anything. You know that."
Suki looked into Ty Lee's eyes for a long moment before she sighed, shaking her head and looking down. "I…I have a lot on my mind right now." Then she added, after stepping back and letting Ty Lee's arm slip off her shoulder, "I'm sorry. I just need some time alone right now"
"…please leave."
The acrobat left, and Suki's room had never felt so empty.
the next morning
The other three Kyoshi Warriors had the same reaction as Ty Lee when Suki told them the news.
"Jena, Riza, Su Lin," Suki announced, her hands on her hips. "You will go back to Kyoshi Island to rejoin Kira."
"What?"
"Why?"
"What happened?"
Suki closed her eyes and continued. "Ty Lee and I will stay here and conclude our duties in the Fire Nation. We will return when it is time. While you are in Kyoshi Island, you will be under Kira's leadership." She paused and reached behind her. "And give this to Kira when you get there," she added, handing Su Lin a scroll.
Su Lin looked up at the Kyoshi Warrior leader, her eyes still questioning everything that was happening, but she simply nodded.
"I've prepared a ship to send you back," Suki concluded. "It's leaving at noon."
The silence within the group of five women was deafening—and Suki knew there were many things they wanted to ask her.
"I think the others deserve a better explanation than that, Suki," Ty Lee said quietly, her arms crossed, foot propped against the wall. "As Kyoshi Warriors, don't we discuss everything among ourselves as equals?"
Suki's emerald eyes flickered over to her, a little angry. But then she glanced back at the three other women—their faces solemn and looking the tiniest bit betrayed.
With a slow realization, Suki realized that she was doing precisely what she had previously advised the Fire Lord not to do—not tell her people the full truth.
Suki's face softened and she took a breath. "Kira wrote to me yesterday," she explained. "She gave the Earth King permission to build a naval base on Kyoshi Island."
"Is this what this is all about?" Jena asked, her eyes widening.
"Yeah," she admitted. "I don't trust King Kuei. This sounds selfish but…I want to keep a close eye on what he does."
"You don't trust the King?" Riza blurted.
This question, Suki didn't answer.
"Okay," Su Lin said, quickly understanding that Suki didn't want to discuss much further. She nodded her head and looking down at the scroll that was in her hand. "And this letter is for Kira to explain what's going on?"
"Yes. Other than that, I just want you three to take time to keep track of the activities that are going on in Kyoshi Island by the King," she detailed. "Keep my updated. I'll expect a letter after couple of days—but of course, I want to hear about what's going on as much as possible…and try to get every single thing down. There is never too much information."
Ty Lee finally rejoined the conversation, the anger on her face a little mollified. Suki noted that the acrobat wasn't ready to confront her directly—after all, the usually garrulous woman wasn't contributing very much to the discussion, and in fact, the only thing that Suki had heard her say the entire day was that one passive-aggressive statement from earlier.
No matter—Suki had other places to be for the next few days.
Ty Lee could talk to her when she was ready.
"I'm sorry about this being so sudden," Suki apologized, after a moment. "I didn't expect this either. But I trust each and every one of you." She paused before adding, "I'm sorry if I didn't explain everything—but to put simply, there are a lot of things that are on my mind, and I would prefer to think through these things myself." She smiled softly. "All I really know is that the first thing I want to do is get you three back to the island safely. We have to protect the island."
"It's okay!" Jena immediately forgave Suki. "We're always going to stick together and support each other—be as one, right? There's nothing that we're not going to be able to handle together!"
"Yeah," Suki affirmed but she couldn't bring herself to the younger girl's eyes. She changed the topic. "Well," she said, concluding their conversation when she noticed the time on the wall clock. "I guess you three better start packing to go home, then. This will be our goodbye—I have some tasks elsewhere to finish up with the Fire Lord."
The three of them nodded, saying their last goodbyes to Suki and Ty Lee.
"Good luck, Suki! Good luck, Ty Lee!"
"We'll miss you!"
"Come back to Kyoshi Island soon!"
The three girls hugged the two of them tightly.
Suki watched the three of them hurry off into their rooms to pack, before she checked the time again and quickly turned around to be on her way.
She was surprised when Ty Lee caught the sleeve of her uniform and pulled her back.
"You're going on a trip with Zuko, aren't you?" the brunette accused.
"What of it?" Suki asked. She was surprised by the tenseness in her voice, almost a half snarl.
"How about I go this time?" the other woman asked, but it was more of a declaration.
"Why?"
Suki could tell that Ty Lee had one answer in mind, but she only told Suki the face value of another. "I thought it would be nice of us to switch responsibilities every now and then."
"I think it'd be better if you were in the palace with Mai," Suki defended, not sure why she was starting to get a little tense. "I barely know the girl."
"You've just seemed so stressed, hanging around Zuko all the time," Ty Lee replied. "I think you deserve a break, don't you?"
Suki briefly remembered the last time that she and Ty Lee had discussed Zuko while they had been guarding the Fire Lord's bedroom together.
She wondered if Ty Lee still had feelings for him.
Suki pulled herself out of Ty Lee's grasp—gently albeit with force.
"I'll be fine," she said, green eyes straight at the acrobat's chocolate eyes. "I'll be off now."
The other woman didn't say a word, but Suki could feel her eyes watching her back as she hurried off to the Fire Lord's office.
moments later
Suki was on her way to his office to see him when she realized that he was coming up from behind her in the hallway.
"You ready?" he asked Suki, passing her.
"Oh—Zuko," she gasped, surprised. She quickly followed after him into his office. "I was about to ask if you were going to get on board soon."
"I am," he simply replied. "I have to pick up some documents."
"Have you figured out what you're going to tell all the colonists?" she carefully asked him.
He stiffens and she almost regrets asking him in the first place.
But he turns around to face her.
"You were right," he replied, after a moment. "I was thinking about what you were saying last night, and I think I'm just going to tell the colonists the truth—I think they'll appreciate an honest Fire Lord that a deceitful one."
He turned toward her, golden amber eyes looking straight into her eyes.
They were standing inches away from each other. Suki can smell the smoky musk from his armor.
"You were right," he repeated softly.
His words aren't a compliment, but Suki's heart can't help but beat a little stronger.
She looks away from his intense gaze.
"Let's go, Fire Lord," she said, placing her hand gently on his chest.
after a few day's journey, spreading the news
When the Fire Lord came back to his desk in the Fire Nation, after a long journey of harsh discussions and explanations for what was happening overseas, he was confronted by a desk full of paperwork and a number of requested meetings.
Suki only heard short snarls of summaries emerging from his lips every now and then.
"I can't have any more colonists moving back to the mainland," he muttered.
"Hm?" she asked, looking up from a book that she was leafing through, even though she wasn't concentrating on the text at all.
"Many colonists are requesting to come back and settle back in the mainland," he simply explained. "We're not going to be able to handle the population influx in the mainland."
She waited for him to continue, and as she expected, he started thinking out loud again, bouncing his ideas off her as he had been doing for the past few days since they had come back from telling each of the colonies in person what was going to happen in the next six months.
"A lot of them are relatives of powerful families in the mainland."
It's a difficult situation, and like many other times, Suki doesn't know what to say.
"If I don't let them move to the mainland, I'll ruin the connections that we have with the nobles here," he mused.
He thought for another moment.
"I should let them move back—shouldn't I?"
She realized that he was looking over at her, and she brings her eyes up to his and gives him a soft smile and a nod.
She didn't mind staying in the Fire Lord's office—she was able to learn more about the Fire Nation as well as overhear King Kuei's plans through short exchanges with Zuko, and she felt helpful every now and then—even though she didn't have one smart thing to say, she felt it was good for Zuko to have her as someone to just simply nod and affirm that what he was doing was right.
Besides, she didn't feel another place that she should have been.
She wasn't ready to see Ty Lee either.
the following day
"The news about the colonies is starting to get to the mainland," Zuko mused, leafing through the day's newspaper, which had just been delivered to him.
Suki placed a cup of hot tea on his desk. "You shouldn't read the news."
"It helps me understand what my citizens don't know," he defended, eyeing the tea that she had placed on his table before reaching out to touch the warm ceramic cup.
She picked up the paper from his hands, glancing at the editorial that he had been perusing.
"If the Fire Lord doesn't lay a strong arm against the Earth Kingdom, we will lose all the glory that we had gained in the last dynasty," she read from the text. "He will undo all the honor that the Fire Nation has built up!"
She put down the editorial and watched for the current Fire Lord's reaction.
"My father might not have been loved by the world, but he was mostly definitely loved by his people," Zuko simply said.
The Kyoshi Warrior took a moment to think about this. "It makes sense," she said.
She wasn't personally able to identify with the same feelings, but what was important was that the current anti-Fire Lord sentiment wasn't going to help the situation that Zuko was in.
"Thanks for the tea, Suki," he said suddenly, taking another small sip of it. "It's perfect."
Suki smiles but quickly tucks the curve of her lips away.
"I'll leave now, then," she told him. "I've been in your office for a few days in a row—I'm sure there's other things to attend to in the palace."
The Fire Lord takes another sip of tea before placing the cup down on his desk.
"Stay, Suki," he said.
She almost dropped the tea cup in her hand. It had grown too hot to handle in her fingers.
"Stay," he reaffirmed, leaning back over his desk. "You help me think."
He took note of her body language.
"Besides," he added. "It looks like you were originally planning to spend the day with me anyway."
She looks down at her feet, which are turned toward the chair that she had been sitting in for the past couple of days. She laughed nervously, and he chuckled lightly.
"Alright then," she nodded, placing her undrunken tea cup next to his before reaching for the chair that was off in the corner and pulling it up to the corner of his desk that she had been sharing with a good part of this week.
A quiet understanding floats back over the two of them, and Suki quickly felt herself sitting back comfortably into her seat, in tranquil silence next to him.
It was as if there was nothing else in the world except the two of them, the closed door of the Fire Lord's office their barrier from their problems.
"Sir?" a royal courier said, entering the room suddenly.
Suki straightened her back, leaning away from Zuko.
"I just got a letter from Ash Island."
Zuko froze, and Suki could feel the air chill and stiffen in the room. "What of Ash Island?"
"It's about Azula," the messenger said quickly, striding over to the Fire Lord's desk and handing him a scrolled letter. "Her mental state seems to have stabilized. She now has visitor rights to see her family." He paused a moment, holding his breath before releasing his last sentence:
"She wants to see you."
Suki paled.
Zuko darkened.
"As if I don't need any more trouble," he muttered.
Ah…Azula. How could I not have let her enter the story?
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