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The Smell of Hotness

Five: Mysteries

Previously on Avatar: - "Oh that? That's nothing. It's just an old house that no one lives in; it's completely empty." Kiame kept a smile on her face, which just made her look suspicious.

"Um okay." Aang just shrugged.

- "Oh, I just wanted to see what you were up to?" a slight smirk appeared upon her face. Zuko raised his right eyebrow a little in suspicion.

"That's good… oh and uh, I meant to ask you— what was up with Mai and Ty Lee this morning? They seemed a little, juvenile, wouldn't you agree?" she grinned. Zuko said nothing as she just walked off. Zuko watched as she turned the corner and entered into another hallway.

- "Is something the matter, Mai?" Azula smirked during her question.

"It's nothing." Mai stated, and went on.

I had the same dream… except I was fighting with Ty Lee over Zuko… Mai thought as she went down the hall, where is Zuko?

- Aang walked in further and further, and something at the end of the room caught his eye. He walked up to a square glass container that held what seemed like a precious item inside. It was a beautiful rock. The moon's glow from the window made it look like a rainbow. It was perfectly smooth in all areas. Part of it looked like it had been broken off; it looked perfectly cut out so it still kept its smoothness.

¤ ¤ ¤

The rest of Zuko's day seemed to go okay. He kept his distance from Mai and Ty Lee, considering he hadn't even seen them at all. In a way, this relieved him, but at the same time, it worried him. He still wasn't too sure quite what to think.

It soon grew to be night and Zuko rested in his bed. He couldn't quite get to sleep. It seemed to be this way lately; he had so much on his mind. Now, with something going on with Mai and Ty Lee, this just made things worse.

Zuko sat up in his bed and pushed off the covers. He seemed to be famished; or at least he looked it. He stood up from his bed and walked over to his door. He opened it and walked out into the hallway, on his way to the kitchen for sustenance. After, a few blocks he came up to the kitchen doorway. He entered in and walked straight over to the refrigerator, scavenging for any food. He soon pulled out an apple and brought it up to his lips. His mouth was watering before his lips even grasped it.

Zuko opened his mouth and crunched through the apple's succulent insides. He chewed and swallowed enjoying it. As he ate, he began to feel another presence close to him. He turned to find Mai standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.

"Are you here to attack me again?" he sat down his apple on the counter, "You do know that was childish, and unlike you?" he folded his arms and leaned up against the counter. Mai turned her head away from him and stared at the ground.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" she plainly stated.

"What do you mean? You practically tore Ty Lee apart to get to me. What was wrong with you? I mean, if you wanted to be with me at that party, you could have just told me; instead of telling me I smelt like a dead koala." Zuko stayed calm through his angry thoughts.

"Look. I never did anything to Ty Lee. So just— drop it." She stated.

"Drop it?" Zuko's voice rose, "you were all over me! You were never like that before—" Zuko paused; "I kind of— liked it." He admitted.

"Well don't get used to it; because I never did anything like that." Mai said and left down the hallway. Zuko became fumed. Why can't see just admit she has a soft side! She's so… err… Zuko tightened his fist and hit his apple. His apple turned out to be a burnt pancake… Upon doing this, he left the kitchen as well and went back to his room for some sleep…

¤ ¤ ¤

Aang had made it back safely to Katara and the others. They were sound asleep under their blankets. Aang tiptoed past them and stepped into his pallet. He began to lie down on his sheets and against the hardwood flooring.

"— Twinkle toes, what are you doing up?" Toph rubbed her eyes and yawned. Aang blinked as he was still halfway standing up. He turned a little red and began to perspire.

"Um well— you see I—" Aang scratched the top of his head while Toph just sat there with her eyes half closed, and unenthused. "I was just… getting up to— stretch! Yeah! After you sleep on a hard floor for a while, it really gets to your back." He claimed and jumped up, stretching his arms up in the air and leaning to both of his sides with his hands on his hips.

"It doesn't bother me." Toph commented and lay down, rolling over to her side. Aang let out a sigh of relief and situated himself back in his blankets. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep…

¤ ¤ ¤

Zuko walked back to his room and slammed his door shut with no compassion towards the other people who were sleeping. He walked over to the rectangular mirror he kept hanging form his wall. It was outlined in a pure gold that was surrounded by other shelves that held candles upon them. Zuko slept in a very placid and discreet room…

He stared at himself in the mirror and scowled at himself. It pained him inside just to look at that scar he had. He was marked for life; and he couldn't take it back. He clenched his fists, just trying to hold himself back from breaking the glass. He finally just sighed and unclenched his fists. He sat down on his bed and layback across it, horizontally. His smooth, midnight hair laid down against his ruffled sheets and moved slightly with every heavy breath he took in. His amber eyes showed moroseness on his part.

"Why does it have to be this way?" he asked himself, "And I DON'T smell like a dead koala…" he whispered and turned over on his side— his locks of hair falling gracefully in his face.

It was nearly two in the morning and Zuko laid there on his bed in the same position on his side. Was his life really this bad? Or was he just making it out to be something like this. Thoughts roamed around through his head as he lay there. What if Mai's telling the truth? What if she has no clue what she did? What is I was just dreaming? Or, what if she's lying? The questions never ended, and he thought of these things in his dreams as well. He fell asleep about a half hour past two. He was too tired not to get any sleep…

The next morning, Zuko woke up to the shining rays of the sunlight through his clear, glass window. He moaned and stretched as he stepped out of bed and smoothed his hand through his hair. He glanced over at his mirror with his right eye. He narrowed his eyes in an angry manner at himself. He simply turned away and walked over to his closet. He took off his shirt and it landed on the closet floor; Zuko didn't care about picking it up. He'd just do it later. He past by his dresser and then stopped in his tracks. He turned back and stared at the bottle of cologne on top of the dresser. He stepped back and grabbed the glass container. He loosened his grip around it and examined the glass. The sunlight shining it really showed off its rainbow glimmer.

"I still don't understand the point of this stuff." Zuko told himself, "— but, maybe it'll grow on Mai… Then, again, should I trust Azula?" Zuko carefully placed the container in his pocket and exited his room, in hopes of finding Mai.

Zuko checked around the halls and found no one.

"Maybe she's out today…" Zuko said. He walked himself back to his room and he searched through his closet. He found an official fire nation uniform, fit for a prince. Since he was going in public, this was suitable. He took off his pants and shoes and replaced them with the uniform. He zipped up the back and smoothed out the front to make it look nice. He slipped on his pointed-toe shoes and his outfit was complete. The suit itself was a dark red with black accents. The collar was black and flipped up, while the upper part of the short-sleeved shirt, was a dark red. At a point on the shirt, it changed from dark red to a lighter red, which was more of a flag color. The lighter red extended into his pants that had black rims around the bottom of his pant legs. His belt a light brown that tightened with a black buckle. His shoes were a dark red, and were pointed. They with held the fire nation symbol on the soles of them.

Zuko straightened up his collar and exited his room once more. He headed for the doors of the mansion and opened them up to the outside. The wind hit him like a ton of bricks, but his stance stood steady. He slowly walked down the staircase leading to the bottom of the palace. He stepped on the cobblestone streets and began to walk through the markets. His shoes lightly touched the cobblestone with every step making a small "clang" sound.

As he walked, he began to feel like he was being followed. This feeling started to annoy him. He stopped in his tracks and turned back to see a crowd of young women behind them with hearts in their eyes.

"Um…" a sweat drop ran down the back of Zuko's head.

"Ah!!! It's Prince Zuko!" one woman screamed. Zuko had a strangely horrified look across his face.

"Get him!" another girl shouted.

"Great…" he let out in a sarcastic manner. He turned back around and ran as fast as he could.

¤ ¤ ¤

It was early morning and Aang had woken up to a familiar face. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning.

"Huh, what?" Aang blinked a couple times straightening his vision, "Ah!" he fell back onto his sheets. The individual started to giggle. "Huh?" Aang sat back up to see Kiame laughing.

"It's morning, and time to wake up." She smiled.

"Okay." Aang was helped from the floor with Kiame's hand. Everyone else seemed to already be up and outside. He was the last one sleeping.

"Morning everybody!" Aang smiled as he exited the home and saw everyone standing before him. Katara, Sokka, and Toph smiled.

"It's about time you got up, Aang." Katara commented.

"I was just feeling a little more sleepy." Aang stretched and took in a long breath of the morning air. "Ah…" Aang breathed outward in a sigh.

"Well, for starters, I'm hungry." Sokka rubbed his belly.

"When are you not?" Katara crossed her arms and smirked. Sokka's eye twitched at her comment.

"We are actually having a big breakfast for everyone at Lee's home. He's supposed to be coming back today. Maybe even during breakfast— we want to be prepared." Kiame smiled.

"Well, maybe I can sit by you." Sokka moved his eyebrows up and down, and smoothly moved over next to Kiame and lightly nudged her. She giggled at him.

"Here, come. Follow me." Kiame gestured. As Sokka and the others followed in Kiame's footsteps, Sokka seemed to be in a trance from her beautiful, brown hair swaying in the wind. The sun shined directly overhead and made her look like a goddess. Katara watched as Sokka's knees dragged the ground, and drool dripped from the corners of his lips. She just rolled her eyes.

What's so special about her? Toph had her arms crossed whiling walking between Aang and Katara. She couldn't help noticing Sokka's constant stares towards Kiame. This played around on her envy. She walks funny and her steps are far apart… she walks like an— old person. Toph thought while picking out Kiame's imperfections.

Look at Aang. He's so lost today. Katara peered over at Aang who was walking aimlessly by Toph. He looked up at the sky while keeping in sync with everyone else's steps. He's still just so— young… I wonder if being the Avatar is putting a lot of stress on him just being a boy… Katara put her first finger on her lip; a gesture which shows thought.

"Here we are." Kiame put her hand out towards a rather large table in the middle of the town. It was wooden, and about fifth teen feet long and five feet long. There were already copious amounts of people seated. Sokka's mouth fell to the floor upon seeing all of the food prepared. There was bacon, sausage, eggs (scrambled, busted, sunny-side up), pork, biscuits, jelly, toast, ham, turkey, and etcetera. There were foods set for every taste bud.

Sokka quickly sat down at his seat and picked up a fork and knife.

"Let's dig in!!!" he shouted and started putting a bunch of food upon his plate. Kiame smiled kindly.

"You heard the cute traveler, dig in everyone." Kiame announced. Her words caught Sokka's attention more than the food. He peered up to get a glimpse of Kiame's smile towards him. His face turned a light shade of pink.

"C'mon Katara! Look at all this food!" Aang yelled and ran over to the table.

"Yeah!" Toph yelled, "I can't exactly see it, but it smells great!" Toph ran in right after Aang did. Katara smiled and joined them as well…

Please review everyone!

A/ N: I just wanted to mention, too, that there was some foreshadowing in here. So you might want to overlook it some more. It gives hints to future events in the story! ;-)