*Disclaimer- I own nothing of Avatar: The Last Airbender*
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Chapter 3
"Hey, Baldy," Toph called out. The young avatar turned around and smiled at his longtime earthbender of a friend. "What are you doing today? Attempting to make more world peace with everyone?"
He laughed. "A couple of generals and I are going out for dinner tonight. They plan on talking to me about some new strategies just in case another war happens to occur." He shrugged, "but I really doubt that would happen."
Toph grunted. "Sounds boring...but don't get your hopes up Twinkletoes, you never know what could happen. The people who are still for Ozai may still want revenge for what you did to the firenation."
"I hope not," Aang said with a nervous frown. "I really don't want a repeat of 5 years ago." He looked away. "And I know that getting the Gaang back together won't be easy."
Toph raised one of her eyebrows. "Why do you think that?"
"I just don't think it'll be the same, Toph, that's all." He held a small frown on his face. "Things have changed, we have all changed."
"Aang we're both 17, I think we both have been through some changes."
"No, no I mean..." he sighed, putting a hand on top of his head. "Monk Gyatso used to tell me that 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world, and if you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.'"
"You have changed the world, Aang." Toph placed a comforting hand on the airbenders shoulder. "Why are you worried about change so much?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I think that me changing the world as the avatar had an effect on us, the Gaang. We're not close like we were when we were kids. And I think it's because of me leaving..."
"What'd you expect Aang, we're older, we're not kids anymo—" Toph hesitated in her speech and turned towards where the avatar was. Though she couldn't see him, she could sense how he was feeling...guilt. "Wait, this isn't about the Gaang is it? This is about someone else." Aang stayed silent. "This is about Katara."
"I think I really hurt her, Toph. I was gone for a long time."
"Damn right you were," she mumbled.
"Maybe I should go talk to her," he stood up out of his chair. "Maybe if I talk with her, I could convince her. And maybe just maybe...we could get back together and things would go back to normal."
Toph stood up next to him and grunted. "Yeah, uh...maybe you should rethink that."
"No, no, something is telling me to do this!" He placed his hand on her shoulder and turned to sprint towards Katara's room.
The earthbender shook her head and sighed. "He's just going to have to learn on his own."
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"I didn't have a chance to talk with you after the anniversary," Zuko stepped inside of the waterbender's room and sat down in one of her chairs. "I thought you left pretty early, what happened?"
Katara rolled her eyes. "Nothing happened. I just couldn't take the whole royalty snobs up in my face any more." The corners of his lips curled into a small smirk. "What's so funny? I was being serious."
"I know," he said simply. He took a deep breath and sighed, suddenly interested in the carpet on the floor. "You've been avoiding me haven't you?"
She shrugged. "I wouldn't call it avoiding. I would call it, keeping my distance away from you," her lips twitched, but she refrained from outright laughing at him once she caught glimpse of the small frown that was forming on his face. "I didn't want Mai thinking anything."
He rubbed at his face slowly, as if deep in thought. "You know, I was thinking about telling Mai."
"About what?"
"Us."
"There is no us, what are you talking about?"
"Before...when we were 'together'," he paused, "I think it's time for me to tell her. She knows about all my other girlfriends except you."
"Well that's the reason why," I narrowed my eyes at him. "I wasn't your girlfriend."
He stood up and groaned. "You're making this harder than I had intended for it to be, Katara." Shaking his head, he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm gonna tell Mai about our little relationship we had, ok. She's been asking me all types of questions about us...?"
"No, ok," the watertribe girl stood up and poked her past lover hard in the chest. "What gives you the right to tell her? She doesn't need to know anything about us? Is she suspecting something? You promised that we wouldn't tell anybody, Zuko, you promised! We promised!"
"I know, I know!" He placed his hand on top of his head and ran a hand through his hair. "It's just that when she found out we were out by the garden during our anniversary, she got a little suspicious. I don't know why, but she did. And as her husband I feel that it's right for me to tell her about us."
"Well I don't. Husband or not, this was our secret, ok," Katara tapped her fingers on her legs nervously. "Besides, if you tell Mai, the word will spread, and when the word spreads, our lives won't be the same."
"I can just tell her to keep her mouth shut—"
She shook her head. "That's not going to work. It'll somehow get passed around and later be heard known around the whole firenation. Then our reputation would be ruined, and every time someone sees us together they're gonna think we're in some type of affair. Geez, Zuko, for you to be Firelord, I'd thought you know about this stuff."
"Ok, ok, ok," he scowled at her. "I do, you just make it seem like more of a big deal than what I thought it was, like with everything with you," he mumbled.
"I'm just trying to protect us."
"I thought you said that there wasn't an us?"
She bit her lip and hesitated before she spoke. "There isn't," her voice wasn't as strong as before, and she was sure he had heard it. "I'm just trying to protect myself from rumors spreading about both of us."
He grunted, nodded his head slowly, "right, of course." A moment of awkward silence passed between them, where they just stood and looked at each other in a sort of confusion. The room suddenly felt so silent they could practically hear the rapid heartbeats of each other; the tension in the room felt even thicker. "Um...well, I should be going. I don't want to take away any more of your time." The firelord pushed himself off of the wall and turned to face the door. With a hand on the knob, he sighed and said, "I'm not going to tell her, Katara. Our secret's safe with us."
"Thanks," she mumbled silently, looking up into his golden eyes. With a small nod, he left out of her room without another word.
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"Good morning, Azula." Azula rolled her eyes once she figured out who had come into her cell. It was him. Again. "I hope you didn't miss me too much." The young man slid his back on the wall and sat down on the cold floor. "I brought you something."
She narrowed her eyes at him interestedly. "Oh, really?" He nodded his head and buried his hand inside the bag that hung from his shoulder and took out a large red blanket. "Where'd did you get that?" the ex-princess asked in an incredulous tone.
"I went in to your room—"
"You did what?" The girl stood up and gripped at the cell bars that were holding her back form chocking the watertribe boy. "No one goes into my room without my permission! Who the hell do you think you are! You had no right to...to..." Azula sat back down on the ground and placed her head in her hands, trying to calm herself down. "Why?"
Sokka sighed, not necessarily alarmed by her outburst. "Honestly, I don't know. Zuko told me about some of the things you held precious to you when you were younger. He said that this blanket was something your mother gave to you...?"
She scoffed. "And?"
He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, I thought you'd want something comforting—I don't know. Can't you just accept the blanket and be done with it?"
"No, I can't just accept it," she seethed.
"But it was from your mother."
Azula turned to look up at him; her golden eyes piercing through his soul as she stared searchingly at him. "So? Do you always accept things from your mother?"
"My mother is dead," he answered bluntly
An unreadable look passed over her face; he couldn't completely decipher her expression. "Well, think of my mother as the same." Sokka stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. "My own mother...thought I was a monster...everyone thought I was a monster." That thought had plagued her mind for some time until it had completely consumed her.
"I don't think you're a monster, you're just misunderstood." Pushing himself off of the ground, he walked towards Azula's cell and sat down right in front of her. "You took control of people by manipulating them, by making them think of you as this strong ruler and if they didn't obey you, they'd die." Her eyes flickered towards the ground. "But once you get past that tough shell you put around yourself, you realize that there is a girl under there that needs someone to lean on, to trust in." He placed a warm hand on her hand and looked deeply into her eyes when she looked up at him. "Let me be that person you trust in."
She slid her hand out from under his. "How dare you touch me? Who do you think you are, coming down here acting all concerned? I can see though your façade, I know you are lying!"
"I'm not lying, Azula. When will you learn that I'm only trying to help you?" She shut her eyes abruptly. "Maybe if you let someone in to help you, you'd finally realize that someone actually does care about you."
She kept her eyes closed. "Do you care about me?"
He blinked, startled at the question, but quickly regaining composure. "I care enough to help. And if you can't see that...I guess I shouldn't be here." Sokka hesitated for a minute before turning around and slowly walking away.
"Wait," the voice was small, but the watertribe boy had heard it. He stopped in his stride and turned around. "Will you come back?"
The corners of his lips curled into a small genuine smile. "I will." He left the cell room with a sense of accomplishment. He had dented her shell, but he knew it was going to take some time to fully break in to it.
"How was today's session?" the female guard asked, closing the door behind him.
"Interesting. I think I'm on to something."
"Don't get your hopes up too high." She placed the keys back into her pocket and walked in front of him. "She is famous for telling lies, you know."
He nodded his head in understanding. "Yes...but I think I can get through to her. I just need more time."
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"Katara..." a small voice said behind her.
The waterbender slowly turned around to the person who had stopped her stride in walking. Holding in her irritation, she said, "Aang...I'm kinda in a hurry...I can't really talk with you right now."
"I know you're busy but I just wanted to apologize to you, ok," he walked towards his older friend and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I shouldn't have left that long. I should have at least sent you something, a post card or a messenger bird to tell you I was ok. I'm so sorry, Katara, I—"
She rose up her hand. "Aang, it's fine."
"No, it's not fine!" he exclaimed loudly. "I hurt you emotionally and I know that I am the avatar, but I should have realized that I had other duties besides making peace with other countries, I had other priorities...a girlfriend who—"
"Aang."
"...truly missed me. Who I truly love."
Katara closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Aang...things have changed, I have changed." His grey eyes stared deeply into her cerulean blue ones. "You were gone for so long. I didn't think that you would ever come back. And when you didn't return I thought you had forgotten about me, about us." She took a step back, allowing his hand to slide off of her shoulder.
"What are you saying?"
"I moved on, Aang, from you."
"What? You moved on...why?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Because I was tired of waiting, because I knew that you had forgotten."
"I didn't forget!"
"Then why didn't you answer my letters."
He hesitated, his attention suddenly being more focused on the grandfather clock that hung on the wall beside them. "I don't know...I just didn't, but I—"
"Apparently you didn't care for me that much then," Katara started to turn her body away from the young avatar, but he placed his hand back on her shoulder, making her stop.
"I didn't want you being concerned, Katara. I didn't want you worried."
"You made me more concerned when you didn't respond," she held her expression, trying to say calm.
He sighed. "Who'd you move on to?" he asked quietly.
She swiftly turned herself back towards him. "What?"
"Who'd you move on to?"
"That doesn't concern you..."
"Was it Zuko?"
Katara tried to hide her amazement at how this boy had the audacity to think she had moved on, well, back to Zuko. "Me and Zuko never—we didn't, we—no, I didn't move ba—I didn't move on to Zuko. Why do you think that?" She silently prayed that he didn't hear that slip up.
"I don't know, I'm just throwing random names out there, and he was the first name to pop in my head," he shrugged, holding his head down once more.
Katara rolled her eyes and sighed, suddenly feeling slight sympathy for her ex-boyfriend. "Aang—"
"Katara!"
Katara turned around to see her lover of a week standing shirtless in his firebender workout clothes. Great. Her breath hitched in her throat. "Kang..."
The tall firebender walked towards her, holding a mischievous smirk on his lips. "Hey Kat." He leaned in and slowly kissed her on her lips. Holding in her want to kiss him back, she stepped back, breaking the kiss. "Katara, I've been looking for you all day. Where've you been? I asked everyone in the palace, and they just told me that you were with Zuko..."
Katara felt herself tense up as the name left his tongue. "Yeah, he had wanted to talk with me."
"Why?" he questioned.
"For...something he wanted...to do with the palace," she couldn't allow herself to look him in the eye. She decided to change the subject. "Where'd you go after Toph sent you away?"
He shrugged. "Back to my room, and then I went to train with Zuko a little bit later." Raising his eyebrow suspiciously at her, he asked, "What did Beifong want anyway? She seemed pretty determined into talking with you."
"Girl stuff," she said quickly, "Nothing that you would want to hear." She turned to look back at Aang who had the face of a kicked puppy. "Kang, um...this is Aang."
He looked behind her and smiled fully, holding out his hand. "Hey! My name's Kang; nice to meet you.
The avatar put out his hand and shook it, giving Katara an incredulous look. "I'm Aang, Katara's ex-boyfriend."
"Yeah, Katara's told me all about you guys," he said, not catching the disgust in Aang's voice. "You guys dated when you were 12 and she was 14, right?" Aang nodded his head. "For like 5 years."
Aang shrugged. "If you don't count the two year break we had, then yes 5 years."
"Oh, really, Katara never told me about any break."
"It was nothing important," Katara said, thinking about those few important months she had with her relationship with Zuko. The two gentlemen stared at her confusedly. "What?"
"Are you and Kang together?" Aang asked.
"No."
"Yes."
Katara frowned. "We're not together, Aang."
"But we come together in many other ways if you know what I mean," Kang said with a suggestive wink. The frown on Katara's face grew deeper as a small shade of red colored her cheeks. He shrugged. "What? We do."
The young avatar stared at the pair, shaking his head slowly, clearly oblivious to Kang's words. "So technically, you're still single, right?" he was speaking to Katara.
"...Yes."
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"You've been doing what!?"
"Please hear me out before you go around making assumptions." Suki remained quiet, an unreadable expression painted on her clearly annoyed face. "Look, I know it's not something you would do, but Zuko thought I'd be a good candidate and I took the job."
"Yeah and crazy enough," the head Kyoshi warrior crossed her arms over her chest and let out a small huff of disapproval.
He took a deep breath. "Suki, I think I can change her."
"Change her?" she questioned quietly. "Why the hell do you need to change her? She's not your job to change! If anyone, Zuko should be doing the job! Why isn't his ass talking to her, she's his damn sister?!"
Sokka walked towards her and sat her down next to him. "Listen, Suki, Zuko knows that Azula won't listen to him, and the only way to make her listen or even try to listen is to bring in someone that she would mostly likely not...kill instantly."
"She'll kill you in a heartbeat. She'll kill all of us if she had the chance, Sokka."
He shrugged. "I don't know about that. When the opportunity was there she never tried to kill me. She always went after Aang or Katara, you and Zuko, and Toph maybe. But she would never attack me, at least, not how she would attack you guys..."
"What is it about Azula that you're going to change?! She's gone, Sokka. A completely insane bi—"
"No," he said, quickly cutting her off. "I think there's something still in there. Suki, please, you have to think about this."
"I don't have to think about anything!" she pointed out loudly. "It's Azula we're talking about, Sokka; Azula that tried to kill us not too long ago! Why can't you get that through your thick skull? She deserves to be in that cell she's in! She deserves it!"
Sokka placed a warm hand on her thigh. "Suki I—"
"You don't understand," she had cut him off. "You don't understand the things she did to me and the other Kyoshi warriors on that day we found Appa. She tortured us, Sokka, practically left us dead in the forest." She stared up at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't do this, please. I don't want you getting hurt the same way I did. I don't want to lose you, Sokka."
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him tightly, kissing her cheek. She fell into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck and sinking her face into his chest. "You're not going to lose me, Suki, I promise."
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*Please read and review! And there you go chapter 3! Slow update, yeah I know. I probably update Mondays for now on or just a week after I post a chapter. So, please review, even if you just skim over this, review, if you favorite, review, if you follow, review. In everything you do, please review, bad, good whatever. Tell me what you think and how I should change the story or anything at all. Appreciate it! Thanks*
