A/N - I have been getting less and less reviews lately. =,( Please review whenever you read! I crave your feedback! =) =) =)
I had no clue at all what I should do. If any did anything but give him what he wanted, the butler (Gahn) would tell my father my secret!
I went sullenly back to my room. Sokka and Katara were in there talking, but they stopped and looked at me when I came in. "What took you do long?" Katara asked.
I plopped myself on Sokka's mat and sighed. "We've got trouble." I said, simply and sadly.
Sokka stood up from the chair he'd been sitting on abruptly. "What kind of trouble?" he demanded.
I looked up at him and replied, "Someone knows."
"What?" he gasped.
"Who?" Katara cried, "And how?"
"Did you see Iroh's butler when I was telling my story?" She nodded, knowing what I meant, so I continued, "Well I wanted to talk to him about it..." And I told the two of them the frightening conversation I'd just had. They listened to it wide-eyed, both of them. "I don't know what to do besides to give him what he wants." I finished, and it was all too true.
"There's got to be something we can do!" Katara said, optimistic as always.
"I don't think so. We'll have to give in to him." Sokka said, pessimistic as always.
"There may be something...I don't know." I said, neutral completely out of character.
Yeah, what's with that? Katara's making me soft! But, anyway, one thing at a time. Back to the point. "I guess what we should do for now is tell Uncle to talk up that stupid butler to my father. There can't be any harm in that, and it will keep Gahn happy until we can think of a solution. Or, if need be, a way to get that money." The two of them nodded, and we decided to tell him in the morning.
We took turns putting on sleep clothes in the bathroom, then settled into bed. I could see Katara was a little uneasy of sleeping in the same bed as me, though Sokka seemed to trust me, finally. "Don't worry, Katara." he said chuckling, "If he tries anything, just yell out."
Katara scoffed jokily, saying, "Yeah, because you always wake up so easily!" Sokka shrugged, playfully defeated.
I put my hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. I'll stay firmly on my side of the bed." She nodded, and got into bed; Sokka and I did the same. We fell asleep peacefully, despite our terrible situation.
My dreams were anything but peaceful, however. When I first fell asleep, I dreamed of Gahn telling my father and leaving me to Azula's mercy. I woke up, and fell asleep with a similar dream. And it went on: nightmare after nightmare until I finally decided it was too close to morning to bother going back to sleep. I got up and washed my face in the bathroom, and when I came out, I saw Katara tossing and turning. With a quick glance at Sokka (in which I found him fast asleep), I went over to wake her.
"Katara?" I whispered, with a gentle hand on her shoulder. When she tried to turn again, I held her shoulder a bit firmer, keeping her still. At this, she woke.
"Huh? What?" she said, gasping and whipping her head all around her.
"Shh, shh. Your brother's still asleep. Are you alright?" I asked quietly.
She found her bearings and answered sullenly, "Yeah...I'm fine. I just had a nightmare."
"Me too." I said, sitting next to her on the bed, "A bunch, actually. They were all about the same thing, though: My father finding out our secret from Gahn. What about you?"
She wiped the sweat from her face, and replied, "Aang. It was like...he was fading away from me slowly...farther and farther away...Then, once he was gone...the Fire Lord was walking around and around me, constantly threatening me, and I couldn't move. It was awful."
"It'll be okay. I'm sorry you had to lose him. Aang, I mean." I said.
"Yeah. I've been getting over it okay. Since I know there's no way I'm going to see him again, I'm trying not to dwell on it so much, even if I really miss him. I...well, I kind of...nevermind."
"What?" I asked.
"I was just going to say...no, no. It's nothing." she said decisively. I figured I wasn't going to get much more out of her, so I let the matter drop. Katara went to get dressed as I woke up Sokka. When we were all ready, we went off to breakfast.
We walked in to find Iroh waiting at the table alone, thankfully. We told him the situation and what he had to do, and by that time, my father and his butler entered. "Good morning, son, brother, Katara." he said nodded to each of us. Katara bowed her head in respect, and Iroh and I nodded. "Where is Gahn, Iroh?" he asked.
"Well, I insisted that he sleep in this morning. He does work so hard, you know. I just thought I would return his kindness." my uncle replied with a glance at me. I guessed that what really happened was Gahn had overslept, but Iroh was doing what he was supposed to do.
Speaking of which, Gahn then waltzed right through the door saying, "And for that, master, I am extremely grateful."
"Iroh, I didn't know you liked this butler so much." my father mused.
"He is the kindest butler a man could ask for. But, I'm not saying I'd want him all for myself. I believe he is meant for bigger and better things than he. Although, you don't really get much bigger than me!" he added with his hearty, happy laugh. I couldn't help but smile, even if I knew it was all a lie. But my smile faded when I saw Gahn wink and sneer at Iroh when my father turned away.
And the days slowly slipped by, and I struggled and struggled with something I could do to avoid stealing from my newly reattained father. What if I got caught? At that point, Ozai would probably screw banishment and just kill me!...and Katara and Iroh. I couldn't let that happen- ever. I had to be sure that I cane up with some way to get out of the situation. Before I knew it, a week had gone and none of us- Iroh, Sokka, Katara, nor I -had come up with a solution. Nothing. And our time was half over.
Once I realized it was this late, I began to start thinking of plans to steal the money from my father's private store. I had given up, having come up with nothing after constant thinking of possibilities for a week straight. I was convinced that there was absolutely no way to deal with Gahn without giving him the money. So I decided to do just that. I spent the next couple of days coming up with robbery possibilities- and plenty of Plan B's in case my Plan A's failed. But on the third day of the final week, Sokka looked up suddenly from the spear he'd been sharpening.
"I've got it!" he exclaimed out of nowhere.
"Got what?" I asked. Sokka peeked out the door (we were a lot more careful when talking about the secret now), then turned back to Katara, Iroh and I with a grin on his face. (Iroh had been there sharing some afternoon tea with us.)
"I know how to deal with Gahn!" he said excitedly.
"Without the money?" I confirmed with just as much excitement. Sokka nodded happily.
Katara sighed anxiously and said, "Well, don't keep us in suspense, Sokka! Tell us!"
"Yes, please do." Iroh put in.
Sokka was practically bouncing up and down with the apparent brilliance of his plan. "Alright, alright. Listen up. Okay, so Iroh. You're going to, as soon as possible, when Gahn isn't around, give a little suggestion to the Fire Lord," he said with a sly smile, "Like that Gahn should be promoted to something far, far away! And make sure that he'll be shipped off before the week is over, so he technically can't bust us, because the two weeks aren't over!"
I thought it over for a moment, then said, "That's actually a pretty good plan, Sokka!"
"It is clever, yes," my uncle said wisely, "But can we really be sure Gahn will cooperate on technicalities? Can we rule out the possibility that he will not demand the money before we goes? Then we would end up with even less time to get it done, and we might be caught!"
"Uncle Iroh's got a point." Katara said rationally. In the past few weeks, even when we were at sea, Katara had, on Iroh's insisted, made a habit of referring to Iroh as her uncle as well. Which was fine with me. I figured, this way, she'll be used to it for when Iroh's her uncle-in-law.
Anyway, I said, "But it's a good plan. We just need to improve it." Sokka nodded in understanding, and the four of us were left to our thoughts. After a moment or two, I came up with a patch for the hole in Sokka's plan. And, as usual, it involved threats and violence. "Uncle...can Gahn firebend?"