Chapter 3
Appa continued sailing through the skies until he reached his next stop, Kyoshi Island. It took a half hour to get Sokka to come down from Appa's back. But eventually he complied.
"Do you mind if I go visit Ty Lee?" Mai asked Zuko.
He nodded,"Sure." She gave him a small peck on the cheek before getting off of Appa.
Katara stared towards the cheering croud of people,"Maybe we could all use a break." The rest of the group jumped to the ground, where they were swormed by fans.
Sokka shook his head,"Wait, somebody's missing." He said, looking around the noisy crowd suspiciously. "Where is that guy that would foam from the mouth every time we came here?" He asked the chief.
"You mean Shenji?" He replied with a chuckle,"He isn't feeling to well."
Sokka frowned,"Aww..I wanted to show Zuko before he left."
"Actually, we're staying for a while. We all should take a break." Aang explained.
Sokka jumped and clapped,"Really? That's so great!" He said with his usual goofy grin. "For how long?" He continued, still excited.
"We don't know yet. I guess we can all just see how it plays out." Aang answered.
Suki gave a confused expression to the group,"Where did Mai go?" She asked after greeting her old friends.
"She's visiting Ty Lee." Zuko said looking down.
The chief returned,"We have prepared rooms. There are 3, so you can decide who's sharing and what not." He smiled and lead them to their house.
Sokka started walking backwards so he could talk to everybody at the same time,"Okay, me and Suki are sharing-"
Suki cut him off,"You seem pretty confident about that."
Sokka frowned,"Aren't you?"
She looked to the side,"Well, the other warriors haven't seen me in a long time. I think I should share the room with them. Just for tonight."
Sokka looked down disappointed and sighed,"Okay..Well then, me and Aang can share a room." He said, excited once again.
Aang stopped in his tracked,"Oh...well, you see.. I was kind of planning on sharing a room with-"
"Like old times!" Sokka shouted, acting like he hadn't just heard anything.
"Yeah.." Aang said with a sigh.
"And Katara, you can have that whole room to yourself!" Sokka went on.
"Yay." Katara said sarcastically.
"I thought you would like a room to yourself." Sokka said.
"Well it's our last night together, and I wanted to spend it together." She looked up to Sokka.
"It's just sleeping. You wouldn't be able to see whoever you're sharing with anyway."
Sokka cleared his throat to continue,"And I presume Zuko and Mai are sharing?" He said with a grin.
Zuko ignored him. Sokka waited, awkwardly, then continued,"Okay. That settles it. I gues.." He went back to walking beside Suki.
"And just in time." The chief said, hearing the conversation. They came to a stop at a small home. Not elegant, but not bad. Just simple.
Sokka pushed ahead of everybody to choose the biggest room. "Aang! Hurry up!" He yelled. Suki waved, knowing he wouldn't see, and went to the other warriors homes.
Zuko and Katara went to the two rooms that were left. One with a single bed, and one with a double.
Sokka peered around the corner,"Zuko probably should take the one with the double bed."
"Go back to your room!" Zuko shouted angrily.
"Fine gosh." Sokka said timidly.
There was knock at the door, and Mai poked her head in.
"Hey." Zuko said, walking up to her.
"Hi." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull them closer.
"You're done visiting with Ty Lee?" He asked.
"Sort of.. I was going to ask if we could stay longer, but I guess we are staying the night..?" She asked.
"Yeah.. I guess we are." Zuko said with a smile.
Aang ran into the dining room,"The chief said they heard we are staying and are throwing a feast for us. It starts in a couple minutes."
The couple backed off of each other awkwardly. "You want to come?" Zuko asked.
"Sure, why not." Mai said with out looking at him.
Sokka ran into the dining room next,"Gah! Why didn't they say anything earlier?! I was in my sleep wear and everything!" He grunted as he struggled to get his shoes on.
"I think it's perfect timing. I'm just starting to get hungry." Katara yelled from her room.
They continued getting ready, and headed down towards the feast. There was a huge table with seats aligned on each side, and food that was spread on the top.
"Yum.." Sokka moaned with his mouth dripping. He took a seat right next to where a giant pig sheep lay on the table.
Aang rolled his eyes and started filling his plate with salad. Once everybody had food and was sitting, the chief stood at the end of the table.
"This feast was prepared for the young heroes that restored peace to this world. We thank the avatar and his friends, for ending the war that caused fear in the hearts of our people." The villagers bowed to them, and went on eating.
"Do you guys get this a lot?" Mai whispered to Zuko. He chuckled,"Kind of."
Sokka stuffed food in his face, all meat. Suki stared at him from across the table,"Don't forget your vegetables." She said crossing her arms.
"But Suki! Warriors don't eat vegetables, they eat meat." He pleaded.
"They eat both. In balanced amounts. I mean, Aang is more then two years younget than you, and look at him."Suki and Sokka turned and look at Aang, who had a plate of raw vegetables and salad, which looked almost color coated.
"Now look at yours." Suki said pointing to his plate full of chicken cow and pork.
Sokka groaned,"Fine. I'll go get your sill salad." He rose his eyebrows at the word. He got the least amount he could with out Suki noticing, and picked through the leaves.
Suki smiled,"Good."
Katara ate next to Aang. She reached for a bite, when something caught her eye,"Hey... Isn't that... Hawky?" She asked, staring at the flying object above.
Sokka looked up, with a hopeful look, but it suddenly turned back into a frown,"That's not Hawky." He went back to eating his salad.
The bird flew down across the table, startling the villagers. It landed in front of Zuko. He stared at it confused. Zuko reached for the note tied to his back,"It's from Ba Sing Se."
He opened the letter and started reading, when a horrified look crossed his face.
"What does it say?" Mai asked, suddenly interested.
"It's about Iroh.. It says he just had a heart attack." He turned to her, concerned.
"Is he okay?" She asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah..." He looked at her again.
"Do you want to go back to visit him?" Mai whispered.
He shook his head,"I need to get you home."
She scooted closer,"It's fine, I can stand being away from my family for a while."
Zuko smiled slightly, and put his arm around her waist.
"What did it say?" Aang asked.
Zuko forgot he was whispering before. "My uncle just had a heart attack."
Katara gasped,"Oh no! Is he okay?"
"I'm not sure. He doesn't sound too bad, from the letter." Zuko said, scanning over the words one more time.
"Do you want us to fly back to Ba Sing Se?" Aang asked.
Zuko hesitated, then shook his head,"I'm sure he will be fine. Besides, it's time I got back to the palace anyway."
The group all stared at Zuko with concerned looks, and some of the villagers joined in.
"Zuko, your uncle's more important then the palace." Mai lowered her voice again.
He remained silent, and sighed,"You're right.." Zuko looked up towards Aang,"If you don't mind-"
"I'd be glad to." Aang interrupted smiling. Zuko smiled and nodded, and went back to eating.
"So can we come?" Sokka asked hopefully.
"Sokka, that would take even longer. And we just got unpacked." Suki said, lowering her eyebrows.
"So, I wanna see Iroh.." He pouted. Suki ignored him and started talking to some other Kyoshi warriors.
An hour passed, and they thanked the chief for the meal, and headed back towards their home. Sokka pushed everybody out of the way again, and Suki called after him,"Wait!" She yelled.
"What?" He groaned, coming back.
"You forgot something." Suki said smiling, and kissed his cheek.
Sokka chuckled,"Oh. Sorry." He said, walking back into the house. He ran to the room he and Aang shared, and started bouncing on his knees on the bed. "So! What do you want to
do? Burping contest? Tell stories? Tell SCARY stories? Raid the cabinets for food? Ju-"
"Sleep." Aang groaned and face planted into his pillow.
Sokka's face went blank, he didn't think Aang would be so cranky,"Well..That's fun I guess..." He trailed off, and put a lid on the small flame that lit up the room.
Zuko stretched and removed his shirt.
"Do you want to leave tomorrow?" Mai asked from the bathroom.
"Whenever..That's fine, it's up to Aang.. Sort of.." He answered, unsure.
Mai peeked part of her out of the door way,"I didn't think it would be so hot here at night.. Can I borrow one of your shirts to sleep in?" She asked innocently.
Zuko swallowed,"Uhm, Sure.." He smiled weakly.
"..Kay.." Mai bit her lip and grabbed one of his shirts from his bag.
She shut the door to the bathroom and slipped it over her head. It was comfy, and smelt like Zuko. Mai smiled. It covered every where it needed to, but didn't cover her legs.
She opened the door and showed herself. Zuko's expression dropped when he saw her in his clothes. Both their faces slowly turned crimson.
Mai invited herself into bed and snuggled into him. He wrapped an arm around her, leaving one free to stroke up and down her thigh.
Katara unpinned her hair and sighed. She was no where near tired. She closed her eyes, trying to force sleep. But she couldn't. She wished she haden't eaten as much sugar as she had. Katara didn't notice she ate so much. She dragged herself out of bed and tip toed past Mai and Zuko's room. She started towards the balcony, where she saw Momo and Appa sleeping happily. She thought of how much she would miss her brother in the South Pole. And she thought about her future with Aang. And, she thought about how she would break the news of their relationship to her father.
Thanks for reading.. I really had no idea how to end this chapter ;P
I'll update soon ;D