Yeah, yeah, yeah, I lied about you having my undivided attention, but, in my defense, I think I would have been much better at updating if I would have gotten at least one review aside from TheSawesomeImaginaryFriend on either of the last two chapters, sooo... freakin' review! *angry face*
_Dai_
After everyone finally quieted down, An Ming decided that since Sonset hadn't allowed me to cook, I could fulfill my kitchen duties by cleaning up after the mess she'd made. And believe me, when Sonset cooks, she leaves quite a mess behind. So, yeah, that was me, stuck with the hard job. Isn't it so obvious how much my friends like me?
"Ooh, and take my plate while you're at it!" she decided, dropping her plate in the middle of the mess after I'd stood up. I glowered at her, but she grinned mockingly at me and, with a happy little shrug, pranced out of the room. Anya sighed and got up, lightly placing her plate on top of An Ming's. I glared at her, too, but she remained totally unaffected and sat back down at the table again. You just can't intimidate anyone, these days…
Just as I finished cleaning up, Toph walked in and sat down next to Anya, who greeted her. I smiled in her direction, temporarily forgetting that she couldn't see the gesture. I took a couple steps towards the cupboards.
"Morning, Toph. Are you hungry? Want me to make you something?" I offered, pausing in my trip to the cupboards.
"Oh, no," Anya said before Toph could respond, "If anyone's making something, I'll do it."
I scoffed and crossed my arms.
"Sonset and Anya are against us earthbenders," I informed Toph, "They think that just because we're earthbenders we can't cook as good as them."
"I can't cook as well as them," Toph pointed out. She was referring to a time when we had encouraged her to try it. Actually, considering that she couldn't actually see anything she was doing, she was a really great cook.
"Well, that's different, Kiddo," Anya encouraged, using Tara's nickname for Toph, "You're actually a good cook, especially considering that you're an earthbender. And you are better than me, but I can still make a killer sandwich for you, so long as it involves no sort of actual cooking."
"Besides," Anya continued, turning to face me, "With Sonset gone someone needs to rag on the lowly Earth kingdom peoples, who are much lesser than water and fire. Except Toph. Toph's cool."
Toph grinned for a moment, but I rolled my eyes, unimpressed.
"You're just saying that because she could smash you into the ground."
Anya shrugged.
"That fact that she could—and would—smash me into the ground is part of what makes her so awesome."
Her and Toph fist-bumped, which was, surprisingly, not very complicated, despite Toph's blindness. After that Anya got up and asked Toph if she wanted anything. Toph shrugged.
"Sure, as long as it's quick; Sokka's really anxious to see Suki."
In fact, after Anya made a breakfast sandwich for Toph and just before Toph finished eating, Sokka burst into the room, announcing, "Okay, girls, I know you all like to spend hours shallowly making your appearance perfect, but we don't have all day, and I really wanna see Suki!"
Anya raised her eyebrows at him.
"Do you want your eyebrows scorched off, Sokka?"
Sokka, understanding that that was not an empty threat, hastily apologized, urged us to hurry once more, and left. Anya sat back with a smug grin on her face. An Ming came back in from the other room with damp hair pulled into an updo.
"I sensed a spike in the level of obnoxiousness in here, so, naturally, I assumed Sokka had paid a visit," she said as she sat down, "What'd he want?"
_Sonset_
Tara, Katara, and I were being shown to our quarters. The farther down we got into the ship, the more the metal hallways seemed like the stuffy caves in the old volcano. Becoming more and more uncomfortable, I turned to look first at Katara and then at Tara. Katara seemed uncomfortable also, but she seemed to feel a little better than I did. Tara, however, looked pretty bad. In fact, she looked terrible. She was keeping her head down and breathing slowly and shakily, and I was fairly confident that she was feeling worse than me. In fact, I was pretty sure that if it became any more warm and humid where we were, Tara might just go ballistic. After hurling on us.
"You okay?" I asked her quietly. Her head shot up and she looked at me.
"Oh," she laughed weakly, "I'm fine."
"You sure about that?" I asked, examining her pale face. After a moment, the fake smile that she'd plastered on her face faded.
"Is it really obvious how crappy I feel?" she asked. I raised my eyebrows and nodded. She sighed and hung her head again.
"After all I've been through, you'd think I'd be stronger than this," she muttered to herself, and I didn't comment, because I could tell the statement wasn't addressed to me. In fact, I don't think I was supposed to hear it at all. After another moment, she looked back up, the forced smile on her face again.
"I guess I need to man up, huh?" she joked feebly, "Or woman up, I guess?"
I tilted my head to the side.
"Tara, you're not like this because you're weak, it's because you've just—"
"Yeah, Sonset, I know," she interrupted sharply, "It was a joke."
I opened my mouth to say that I was fairly sure we both knew that it wasn't, but then the soldier who was showing us to our rooms stopped.
"These are your quarters," the soldier informed us, gesturing to three doors, and then turning around to point to a door farther along the hallway, "And I will be in that room down there, in case there's any trouble along the way."
"Oh, that makes sense," Tara remarked sarcastically in a voice so quiet that only Katara and I could hear her, "Because rebel firebenders are definitely gonna get on the ship, and when they do, three expert benders won't be able to protect themselves at all."
I fought off a smile, and I'm not sure how I was managing, but Katara's face remained completely unchanged. Katara thanked the soldier and then went into the closest room to us, and I followed her lead, going to the next room.
| .Press the pretty button!. |
V Good things will happen! V