Chapter 6
Yue had happened to him.
Was that the best he could do? Suki wondered to herself. She'd been grief stricken at his loss, then elated by his return, then frightened by his new waterbending abilities, now she found herself just plain angry at his explanation.
Yue.
That was all he had to say.
She tried to be understanding. She tried to be patient. She thought she'd worked through any latent jealousy of Sokka's long lost love years ago when they were teenagers.
After all Yue was now out of his life permanently. What could a spirit have to do with him now?
Apparently plenty, she thought wryly.
But with a glance through her bedroom window she could see the edge of the moon there in the sky, its light filtering through the glass.
So, Yue had happened to him. But Suki had news for Yue. He was in her arms and her bed. He was the father of her children.
Carefully, the Kyoshi Warrior slipped free of her Sokka's embrace and walked to the window. "I am his wife. I happened to him first," she whispered into the sky. Then she pulled the curtain.
Far away in the pool of the Spirit Oasis of the Northern Water Tribe, the little white koi fish gave a switch of her tail as the black fish with the blaze of white on its head simply stared at her, its gills pumping water intently.
"It's not right," Katara declared firmly as they settled Bumi and Kodaso into the trundle bed of the guest room at Sokka's parents' house. Suki's mother Shei had settled Zutara and Toma into bed in her room. All agreed that Sokka and Suki needed some time alone.
"What's not right?" Aang asked curiously, even though he had some idea what his wife might be thinking.
"It's not right that Sokka should suddenly have this fabulous bending ability," Katara declared. "I have worked all my life to be the best waterbender I could be. Now he comes along and does these amazing, incredible things without a second's training. He just woke up one morning a master bender. It's not right."
Aang gave her a little smile and put his arm around her shoulder. "Jealous?" he asked.
"Of course I'm jealous," Katara replied. "Who wouldn't be? Aren't you?"
"Not really," came Aang's answer. "That kind of ability comes with a hefty price tag."
Katara looked at Aang seriously, her jealousy giving way to concern for her brother's well-being. "What kind of price tag?"
"I don't know," the avatar answered. "Only time will tell."
Katara looked down at their two boys in the bed, Kodaso now cuddling the stuffed sky bison that had been Bumi's favorite toy. Neither of their children had a room to truly call their own. They had various guest quarters in the major capitals, but no place that was truly theirs. They were always on the move, heading from one obligation to another.
She put her arms around her husband and kissed him in understanding. "Being avatar has a price tag as well, doesn't it, Aang?" she asked quietly.
Aang pressed his forehead to hers and replied, "I can take whatever the spirits dish out as long as I have you beside me."
She kissed him again, then Bumi asked for a glass of water.
"It's not right," Mai was saying to Jet as she brushed her hair before bed.
"What's not right?" Jet asked, unable to take his eyes off her.
"Sokka being a waterbender now. After all these years," she stated firmly. "If you aren't born a bender, you don't become a bender as an adult. You just don't."
"I did," Jet replied.
Mai gave him a firm look. "Jet, you were born with bending abilities. You just didn't use them."
"But I'm still not very good. Toph has pretty much given up on me," he replied.
Mai looked at him again. He truly didn't think he was much of a bender, she realized. For all his abilities and talents, for all his position as King of Omashu, deep inside Jet still felt like a kid on the run, like he was going to be found out at any moment.
She crawled into bed next to him and ran her hand into his hair. "You," she began firmly, "are only one of two earthbenders in the entire world who can hear the voice of the earth. You are the King of Omashu, selected from all earthbenders as the one to guide the city that was founded by the original earthbenders."
Then she looked him squarely in in his dark green eyes and declared, "I think that makes you pretty hot stuff." Then she kissed him, delighting in the way he kissed her back.
Some time later, she lay there with her head on his shoulder, his fingers intertwined in hers, and picked up the conversation where they left off. "It's still not right that Sokka should be able to waterbend now as an adult."
Jet looked down at her and replied, "I think you're jealous."
"Of course I'm jealous," she answered. "All my life, I've wondered what it would be like to firebend. Azula made my childhood a living hell trying to force me to use my abilities-which I do not have, trust me."
"I know what you mean," Jet agreed. "At the back of my mind I always wondered what kind of bender I could have been if I'd had the training." Mai nodded silently. "But are you going to let it eat at you or are you going to be happy where you are and who you are?"
Mai thought for a moment about her life. She might not be a firebender, but she was far happier than she'd ever been, happier than she ever thought she could be. And she owed so much of that to Jet, her husband, her partner, her lover, her friend.
Plus, he was gorgeous. He was the one. She was incredibly happy and she told him so.
The smile that lit his face at her declaration was fire enough for her, she decided.
Meanwhile, Zuko stood before the fire in the apartment he shared with Toph and stared into it with a slight frown.
"What's the matter, Sparky?" she asked as she came out of Rokiroh's room where the little boy had finally settled into sleep.
"It's not right," Zuko stated firmly.
"What's not right?" Toph asked curiously as she took a seat on the low sofa before the fire.
"That Sokka should have all that ability and not a shred of technique or discipline," Zuko answered.
"Bending without technique is dangerous."
Toph looked at her husband before the fire in the way only she could, taking in the serious expression on his face and the way the muscles in his hand and arm tensed up, as if he were working through bending forms in his head.
Zuko practiced firebending forms constantly, both in full training session and in his mind. Any time he had a problem to work through, he began running through the basic forms mentally as a kind of focusing device. She could see it in his musculature as tiny movements invisible to the eye, but visible to her.
"What's he going to do if it gets away from him?" Toph teased. "Bend all the water out of the ocean?"
Zuko turned to her, concern evident on his face. "You didn't see it, sweetie," he reminded her gently. "You couldn't see the way that wave just froze there. That kind of power without discipline is dangerous. I know it."
Toph frowned herself at that. She knew how hard Zuko worked to control the fire within him. He was always so careful to keep his emotions in check, to make certain his decisions were sound and his policies were well-considered.
But when he worked out in the mornings in the light of the rising sun, he let it all go. Places in the exercise yard at the palace in the Fire Nation capital were slicks of molten rock where the full force of his abilities were allowed free reign.
That kind of power was terrifying, she thought to herself. An uncontrolled Zuko would be a force of nature indeed.
And it had been unnerving to look out across the invisibility of the water to see Sokka just standing there suspended over the ocean floor.
Toph went over to the fire to stand next to her husband. She ran her hand down his arm, catching his hand in hers and bringing it to her lips. "Then you show him," she suggested. "Work with him. Teach him the technique he needs."
Finally, Zuko began to relax enough to sit beside her on the sofa.
"It's nice not to have official duties to attend to, isn't it?" she asked him after a few minutes of quiet.
"I guess," he answered absently.
"But you are still thinking about that shipping complex, aren't you?" she teased.
"I'm sorry," he replied apologetically.
"You need to think about something else for a while," she declared, then pushed him back onto the sofa with a mischievous grin. "You need to think about me."
And the fire burned a little hotter in the fireplace as Zuko lost part of his self control.
Deep in the ocean, a spirit stirred.
It wasn't right.
The spirit of Ocean rose from the depths and gazed up at the moon so far away in the sky.
It wasn't right.
The spirit of Ocean entered the body of the black koi fish and gazed across the pond at the white fish so far away.
It wasn't right.
The spirit of Ocean appeared in the spirit world in the coral palace he'd once shared with Tui, the moon spirit.
It wasn't right.
Ocean sighed and walked through the house of coral, room after empty room, finally ending in his bedroom. It too was empty.
Tui was gone. Had been gone for years.
But this house had lain empty most of the time even when she was alive.
Thoughts of Tui were bittersweet to him. The moon had held him, certainly. He'd been at its mercy for millenia. At times she had angered him with her mercurial nature, quick to love then just as quick to turn away from him.
And she'd taken lovers.
He'd understood that even as he'd resented it—after all, she was beautiful, the most beautiful of all the spirits.
But despite the ever changing nature of the moon, Ocean had remained constant. He'd never strayed from her side. Neither in the spirit world, nor in the spirit oasis, nor in the depths of the ocean as he looked up into the sky to see her overhead, to feel her touch.
Her death had been unthinkable. His anger toward the human who had killed her had been boundless. He'd destroyed him without regret.
And his grief had been overwhelming.
But Tui had left someone to take her place-Yue, so young, so human still.
After the initial shock of losing his partner, he'd resolved to make the best of the new situation.
He'd been patient with her. He'd gone out of his way to be kind. He'd given her time to become used to the world she now inhabited. He was patient by nature. After all, he'd endured millenia of waiting for Tui, patiently circling as she pulled him close to her, then pushed him away.
But Yue had only circled, keeping her distance from him, first out of fear, then out of shyness. But over the years, he'd watched her grow from fearful human girl to true moon spirit. He'd seen her embrace her power and her place.
But with a sweetness that Tui did not have. Yue cared about the natural world and its people. She watched over them in a way he found endearing. His layers of cynicism and disconnection had been softened by her earnestness and innocence.
He'd found himself growing younger, his own interest in the natural world increasing. So much had changed since he'd bothered to be interested last. A great war had divided the nations. An entire people were gone—at least it was so believed.
But balance was coming back to the world in a new way with a new avatar.
And as he looked toward Yue—in the spirit oasis, in the sky above him—he could see the possibility of a new balance between Ocean and Moon. And each time Moon pulled the waters of Ocean closer, Ocean began to reach out to Yue as well and thought she'd begun to draw a little nearer to him as well. He'd caught her gazing at him from the sky, across the koi pond. He'd hoped to show her the palace of coral, a place she might make her home.
But now she'd pulled completely away. She had turned her face firmly to the natural world. The moon still rode the heavens. It still pulled the ocean in and out with the tide.
But Yue no longer looked at him. All her attention lay with the human she'd marked for her own.
He thought of the man and anger and jealousy surged through him. The ocean of the natural world reflected his dark mood and waves tossed boats and broke through levees. After a while, anger gave way to weariness, a weariness as old as the earth itself.
Yue was just like Tui. Inconstant, ever changing in her affections. His curse was that he would be true to her, even as she turned from him.
And though spirits do not tire as humans do, Ocean lay down in the large empty bed and slept at last, his dark hair cast across the pillow, marked by its own streak of white.
And on the beaches of Kyoshi Island, the waves at last began to calm.