Disclaimer: Check the past chapters…
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"Arianna?" Zuko called throughout the palace, "Where is she?"
"Did you check the training grounds?" Katara asked.
"No, I didn't! Come on!" He grabbed her wrist and pulled her with him to the training grounds.
"Agh!" Arianna grunted as she blasted three fireballs at the dummy on the other side. Pleased with the charred remains, she got out of her stance when she saw Zuko and Katara.
"You guys are holding hands." She smirked at the couple on the other side. The two quickly let go and started blushing fiercely. Wait, isn't Katara engaged?
Zuko came up to her and whispered something in her ear.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THEY CAME?" Arianna screamed and ran out of the training ground to the entrance of the palace.
"Aang came?" Katara whispered to herself. Zuko just put his hand on her shoulder in comfort and gave her a reassuring squeeze.
*O*O*O*O*O*O*
(Arianna POV)
I saw some kind of fuzzy monster land near the entrance and figured that it was the Avatar's bison. A short green girl jumped off the bison. Her raven colored hair was flowing over her eyes and a small smile crawled out of her lips.
"ARIANNA!" She screamed and started running in my direction.
"TOPH!" I ran towards her. We ended up running into each other and fell onto the floor, but I got up and helped her up.
Muffled by the embrace, she started laughing.
"Arianna, this is Aang, the so called GREAT Avatar. Aang, this is my best friend, Arianna." Toph pointed to a taller, muscular Air Nomad man behind her.
"Hey! I'm THE Great Avatar! And don't you forget it!" And he picked up Toph like she was a feather. I see something her : ) and isn't he engaged too?
"Put me down!" He finally let go and she just murmured with a small blush appearing, "You're lucky I'm in a good mood."
"Aw, you haven't changed a bit, Toph." And I hugged her again. That's when I saw another blue figure jump out of the bison.
"Who's that?" I pointed to the guy.
"Oh! That's Sokka." She introduced, "Sokka! This is Arianna."
(Sokka POV)
The moment I got down, I saw her. She wasn't innocent like Yue. I could tell. And she wasn't warrior-ish like Suki. She was different. She looked Water Tribe. Her skin was pretty dark for a Fire Nation but it was lighter than a Water Tribe. Right in the middle. Her hair, on the other hand, was very Fire Nation. It was a wave of pure black falling to her mid-back. She was wearing a dark red baggy pant that went right above the knee and a light red tank-top. But her eyes were the one that caught me. They weren't the classic Fire Nation amber eyes. They were dark brown, just like me.
"Hey!" She waved to me awkwardly. She must've noticed that I was staring, but her smile was beautiful.
"Hey." And I walked away immediately. Yue died. Suki killed you. Never love again.
(Arianna POV)
The moment the Sokka guy left, Toph winked at me.
"I'm not the type that falls over for a guy thatquick, Toph." I rolled my eyes. She punched me in the arm and I didn't even wince.
"Why can't other people be just like you?" She told to no one actually.
"So, what happened back in Gaoling?" She asked cautiously.
A flash of memories passed through me and I tried to stay strong and managed to reply, "I'll tell you everything inside." I forced a smile and pulled her inside.
"Shut up little girl!" The soldier hissed as he pushed him into a room and locked him in.
"DAD!" I screamed as another soldier slapped his grimy hands onto my mouth. "Get your filthy hands off of me!" I pushed his hands off and ran to the door. My fingernails raked against the metal in failure. I fell to the ground.
"Dad." I whispered as I heard a blood-curdling scream inside.
"Sparkles?"
"Huh!" I jumped up from my seat. Once is saw people stare I stopped and apologized. Toph was on the right of me and Aang was on the left. That Sokka guy was right in front of me but he was just picking at his meat.
"So, Sparkles? You gonna tell us what happened?" Toph insisted as she stuffed herself with some more meat.
"Um…" This was a hard topic to talk about.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell us." Katara apologized. She's sitting next to Zuko, not Aang.
"It's okay. I think you deserve to know more about me." Everyone nodded and Sokka looked at me in interest. It huts to talk about this, but I have to.
"Before I met Toph in Gaoling, I used to live here, in the Palace City. I was part of the Royal Family. My father was Fire Lady Ursa's younger brother. He joined the army young and was recruited in some of the ships that were assigned to go the Southern Water Tribe to kill the last waterbender." I could see some people flinch at this part of the story, but I continued on. "After seeing how ruthless the Fire Nation was, my father tried his best to stop more people from dying, but failed. During his "heroic save", he met another girl. At first, she didn't trust him, but helped him anyway. They ended up falling in love and the girl sneaked inside the ship with my father. Somehow, she managed to not get caught, but after reaching the Fire Nation months later, my father was sentenced to death for treason. That's when I was born. He escaped and my mother insisted that she come with him. They ran to Gaoling and found out that I was a firebender, so I had to practice in caves and that's where I found Toph."
"What happened after those Earth Kingdom soldiers took you from Gaoling?" Toph asked still confused.
"They killed my father right in front of me. I was only eight when that happened. They thought since he was Fire Nation, he had to be killed." I winced at this memory. Aang put his hand on my shoulder as consolation. It helped and I just smiled.
"Stupid Earth Kingdom soldiers." Sokka muttered to himself.
"It's okay. I would've done the same thing if I was in their position. They were just trying to protect their people from my horrible ones."
"Not all Fire Nation people are bad, though. They should've known that!" Aang came back to my defense.
"Not everyone thinks like you, Aang." Toph replied, "Go on, Arianna."
"Well, after seeing him…on the floor, my mother and I escaped and ran to a different Earth Kingdom town. Son Bay. It was on the western coast of the Earth Kingdom. A few months later, my mother gave birth to my younger brother, Han."
"What do you want to name him sweetie?"
"How about Hanh?" I looked at my squishy-looking brother.
"Hanh, it is. Look, baby Hanh! It's your sister, Arianna." He started to cry again.
"I think he's hungry again, Mama." She chuckled. "Yes, he is."
"He was a firebender also, and sadly, he showed his powers pretty early. He was only five when he got super angry at someone who was making fun of me. I don't want to explain it, but, let's just say that they killed him and my mother as well." Everyone winced at this.
"Well, then what did you do?" Katara asked.
"I was alone and travelling with the haunting images of my dead family. I figured that the only safe place for me was, ironically, back at the Fire Nation. There were so many firebenders there, that I would fit in and that's exactly what I did. I found a family to travel with and made it to one of the villages around the Palace City. I've lived my entire life as an orphan trying her best to make a living. I worked as a waitress in one of the tea shops in the village. Life was rough and all I wanted was the stupid War to end. I never really made any friends. After the War ended, I met Zuko and here and explained everything."
"I'm impressed," Toph declared, "It takes power to see your family get murdered right in front of you and work hard for your own life."
"Why did you still go against the Fire Nation when the Earth Kingdom was the one that killed your family?" Sokka asked curiously. He's smart.
I stared into his eyes, "Because I'm better than that. I'm not the kind of person that would lose track of reality for personal reasons."
"I'm not the kind of girl that sits down and mopes." I whispered to myself.
"No, you're not. Can I talk to you?" Sokka came up behind me.
"Sure. Come on, I know the best place to go." I took him to the turtleduck pond in the middle of the palace.
"They're so cute!" He started making googly faces at one baby duck when the mama duck came and bit his nose.
"OW! Damn duck!" He rubbed his nose and I started laughing.
"You okay?" I asked as I came closer to look at his nose. The space was becoming smaller and the awkwardness was increasing. I started laughing to ease it up.
"I can see some teeth marks!" He started pouting and I just playfully hit him on the arm.
"So, why'd you call me?" I asked him carefully.
"Sorry for acting so rude before."
"Oh, it's okay" I assured him, but he seemed determined that he had to do this.
" No, it's not. I shouldn't have let my personal problems get in the way." His head hung low and there was a slight pause.
"If you don't mind, can you tell me what the problem was?" He looked into my eyes and saw how badly I wanted to help him and he agreed.
He finally gave in and confessed, "Well, I just proposed to this girl and she rejected me."
"Did you love her?" I asked pretty straightforward.
"What?" He seemed surprised that I wasn't consoling him. No classic oh I'm sorry.
I explained what I thought true love needed, "Would you have been there for her whenever something bad happened? Would you have killed yourself just to let her live? Could you honestly tell someone that she would do the same?"
He didn't answer at first.
"No. I couldn't have guaranteed that." He confessed slowly
"Then she didn't love you and you have to get over it." I fixed as though it was that easy, because it isthat easy.
"But-" Poor guy, still confused.
"No buts. You have to move on and live so she doesn't have the pleasure to say that she ruined your life. Once you find a girl that would die for you and you the same, then come back to me and tell me if there's any problem."
I smiled and walked away satisfied.
(Sokka POV)
"No buts! You have to move on and live so she doesn't have the pleasure to say that she ruined your life. Once you find a girl that would die for you and you the same, then come back to me and tell me if there's any problem."
And she walked away. She's right. She knows more about love than me and I bet she's never been in a relationship.
(Katara POV)
"I'm telling him now." Zuko perked up at this.
"Finally!" I gave him a frown, "I mean…be easy on him. I don't want our friendship ruined by this."
I hope mine with him isn't either.I walked through the halls to bump into Toph.
"Hey, Toph! Have you seen Aang?"
"Yeah, he's in his room. Be easy on him." She whispered.
"I'll try, but he likes you, so it'll be okay!" I smiled.
"Just shut up and go." With that she walked away. They're so in love. I cautiously knocked on the door.
"Aang? You there? I need to talk to you." I knocked again.
"Yeah, one sec, I'm coming!" He shouted through the door. It opened and he hugged me.
"Um, Aang?" I muffled through the orange mess of his robes.
"Yes?" He asked sweetly.
"Let go, please."
"Ok." And he let go as the guilt came pouring out of me.
"Well..how do I say this? Um…"
"You want to break up?" He asked solemnly. I was in shock.
"How'd you-,"
"Toph told me a moment ago." He interrupted.
"Oh. I'm sorry Aang, but we never really had any connection, you know? And I really love Zuko. I'm sorry I did it behind your back, and you can hate me but I still love him."
"It's fine. I'm just disappointed that you didn't tell me before and you had to GO BEHIND MY BACK! But other than that, I'm fine."
"I'm so sorry, Aang! But I loveZuko."
"I'm fine with that. I'm actually happy that you found someone." And he hugged me again.
"Still friends?" I asked just to be safe.
"Of course! Best friend!" And I kissed him on the cheek as a goodbye kiss.
"And anyway, you've got Toph!" I smirked and left before he could even answer. I looked back and he was blushing.
I'm so good at these kind of stuff!