Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender or take credit for it in any if my stories.
Wow, new longest chapter, beat chapter four by a good five hundred words. Also I'm trying to add some action into the story as well so it's not just romance but also exciting. Let me know what you think of it.
"That's where it ends. So what do you say Katara should we begin our journey to the South Pole?" Sokka asked Katara who had several different feelings right now. She looked up to Sokka and said
"OK we'll head there tomorrow morning." Saying this made Sokka so happy that he even offered to fix the door.
"Yeah!" Sokka exclaimed as he gave his sister a platypus bear hug. "To show you how happy I am I'm going to fix your door." He said with a rather large grin.
"Sokka I would have made you fix it even if you didn't offer." Katara said as she stared at him.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, but before I fix your door I have to tell Suki." Sokka said crossing his arms and turning away.
"Fine, go on." Katara sighed and put her hand to her temples as Sokka ran out of the room.
"Don't worry Katara he's just excited." Aang said.
"Yeah I know but when Sokka gets excited he tends to be a bit more-" Before Katara could finish she heard a loud thud come from the hallway followed by Sokka mumbling something. "Clumsy." She finished figuring out that Sokka probably fell on the ground in his haste. The couple laughed as they pictured Sokka on the ground, more than likely with his face on the wood and his butt in the air and mumbling into the ground like normal.
"We should go see if anyone wants to come with us." Aang finally said as he tried to control his laughter. Katara nodded in agreement trying to do the same, but as they left the room they looked at Sokka who, as they guessed, was face planted on the ground with his butt in the air mumbling into the ground. Both Aang and Katara bent over in laughter.
"A picture was one thing but seeing it now that's priceless." Katara barely managed to say. Sokka got up and continued to walk to Suki's room trying to hide his red face planted and embarrassed face. The couple continued to laugh all the way downstairs holding their stomach and wiping away tears of laughter. As they reached the main floor they finally quelled their laughter but still let out a few giggles. The first person they found was Iroh who was washing some dirty cups.
"Hey Iroh we've got a question to ask you." Aang asked as Iroh turned around and waited patiently for their question. "Katara, Sokka, Suki and I are going to the south pole to visit her dad would you like to join us?"
"As much as I would love to go with you I can't, the Jasmine Dragon is far under staffed as it is and I need all the help I can get." Iroh responded sadly but still kept his smile on.
"Oh, are you sure you can't go?" Katara asked as Iroh shook his head. Katara then felt Aang's hand on her shoulder followed by his voice.
"Come on Katara lets go see if the others can come. Oh wait…Iroh do you know where Zuko and Mai would be?"
"I do but I think they would like to be alone for now, they will return around supper," He said reassuring them.
"OK then what about toph?"
"If I remember correctly she went to the sparing circle a few blocks away. Do you know where it is?"
"We'll find it don't worry." Aang said to Iroh as he and Katara ran out the door with Katara yelling back to him.
"Thanks for all the help Iroh we'll be back around lunch bye!" Katara had to yell as her and Aang ran towards the sound of flying boulders hitting the ground and random screaming and cheering. When the couple arrived they could see a rather large crowd around the sparing circle. They fought their way through to the front as they saw toph staring down her next opponent, a rather large man who had an ego the size of Sokka's stomach. After looking at this man they recognized him as The Boulder.
"The Boulder demands a rematch with the blind bandit!" He exclaimed and pointed at toph who just stood there waiting for him to finish.
"You may have beaten me last time, but this time will be different. You will no longer be the greatest earthbender in the world. It will be The Boulder on top of the mountain this time." As the Boulder's rants continued Toph recognized a familiar vibration and started to walk towards it.
"What's this is the little girl afraid of The Boul-AAHHHHH!" The Boulder screamed as Toph sent a small platform up under The Boulder to launch him away.
"Hey Twinkle Toes hey Katara."
"Hey Toph how was your reunion with The Boulder?" Aang chuckled.
"It was nice even though he hasn't changed a bit. So what's up I'm sure you didn't come here to see me kick the best earthbenders in Ba Sing Se's butt."
"We wanted to see if you would come with us to the South Pole to visit my dad." Katara asked Toph with a hope that she would say yes even if she knew that she would say no.
Toph thought about it and then an idea popped into her head. "How about this if Twinkle Toes can beat me by just using earthbending then yes I will go with." Toph said as Katara grew a smile on her face and looked at Aang who had a grin on and was about to bow and accept when Toph put her hand up to stop him. "But, if he can't then when you get back were going back to Ember Island to watch the Ember Island Players again." Toph said with a large smile since she was the only one who actually liked the play the first time. Katara and Aang looked at each other then nodded.
"I accept your challenge Toph."
"Good, then let's get started shall we?" Toph said as she walked back into the sparing circle.
"Alright." Aang said as he air bent himself to the other side of the circle.
"Just remember that you can't do that when we start OK." Toph said remembering how he beat her the first time.
"Don't worry I know the rules only earthbending." Aang said as there match began. Toph started by kicking up two rocks at Aang who held his ground and pushed his hands out as the rocks shattered on contact. Aang responded by kicking a rather large boulder at Toph. As the boulder went towards her she disappeared under the earth then reappeared behind Aang who quickly shot a pillar up straight into Toph's chest that made her slide near the edge of the circle.
"Well that was close; I guess you've learned a thing or two about sensing vibrations huh?" Toph asked Aang as she started getting back up to "see" that Aang had turned to face her.
"I should I had a pretty good teacher." Aang said to try and catch her off guard as he kicked up several large rocks and sent them right at Toph. She quickly sent up a stone pyramid around her and shot one of the sides right at Aang. Unfortunately he didn't see this and it caught him off guard and hit him sending him to the other side of the circle. Toph wasted no time with this she quickly sent up a series of pillars that caused Aang to bounce off each one. Right as he was about to be knocked out of the circle Aang pushed on the final pillar causing it to collapse. He landed on his feet and looked at Toph.
"That wasn't very fair; at least I let you back up."Aang said with happy tone showing Toph that he enjoyed the challenge. Toph smirked and sent the rest of her stone pyramid at Aang then kicking the ground turning the rock under him into sand. Aang looked at the pyramid as he only had a brief moment to dodge it. Not a second to late, Aang side stepped the pyramid and started to stomp the ground causing massive tremors within the circle hoping that Toph would lose her balance. She responded by jumping in the air and slamming her head into the ground causing the tremors to stop and sent a wave of earth at Aang. Aang looked at the wave dumbfounded then charged it and kicked the center of it sending a precise sphere of earth at Toph. The rock came fast and hard and hit Toph and made her fly out of the circle. Aang looked down at Toph who started to get back up.
"Yeah!" Aang cheered as he shot his fist into the air.
"Don't get to excited Twinkle Toes if you were on the ground I could have easily blocked that and you know it. Toph said as she walked over to Aang and punched him in the arm.
"Ow." Aang said holding his arm. "I wonder if I'll ever get use to your punches?" he asked Toph.
Toph shrugged and punched Aang in the arm again.
"Ow, stop it." He laughed
"My guess would be never." Katara said as she walked up and joined them. "So Toph I guess you'll be joining us then?"
"Yeah I guess but I don't think I'm going to like it…will I have to wear shoes?"
"Only if you don't want your feet to freeze." Katara said with a growing grin on her face. She looked up at the sky and figured it was a few hours past noon. "Come on lets head back to Iroh's tea shop and get something to eat."
"That sounds great. Kicking butt really makes me hungry." Toph said holding her stomach. The group walked back to the Jasmine Dragon and had lunch. They saw Sokka, Suki and Iroh and told them how Toph spent the day beating up random earthbenders in the sparing circle and how Aang had beat her. They also let them know that Toph decided to go with them. They all continued their conversation well into supper. Katara, Iroh and Suki left to prepare supper. As they finished and brought out the food they heard the front door slide open to see Zuko and Mai in the door.
"I told you they would be back at supper." Iroh said acting like he knew the exact time they would show up.
"Sorry we've been gone the whole day." Zuko apologized.
"Don't worry about it your just in time for supper. Please join us." Iroh said to his nephew and pulling up two more chairs for Zuko and Mai to sit.
"Hey Zuko? Katara, Suki, Sokka, Toph and I are headed to the South Pole. Would you like to come?" Aang asked with much hope in his voice? Zuko continued to eat his soup without looking at Aang or responding."Zuko are you their?"
"I heard you I just don't have an answer." Zuko said as he continued to divert his eyes from Aang.
"Why? You don't have to be back in the fire nation for another two weeks. That's plenty of time for you to get to the South Pole, relax and get back to the fire nation." Aang said pestering the Fire Lord trying to get him to go with.
"Fine you want to know why I don't know if I should go?" Zuko asked Aang as he finally looked at him. Aang nodded his head and eagerly awaited his answer. "The South Pole is where I first met you and not only that where I first caused people pain. I scarred the village with my firebending and took away their hope when I took you. However I'm a different person now, but I don't know if they'll be able to see past that." Aang watched Zuko realizing that he was conflicted with past memories.
"Don't worry so much about it Zuko, if they heard anything about the past month then I'm sure they would have no problem with it. Besides seeing you with me and two other members of their tribe couldn't hurt your chances to much." Aang told Zuko hoping this would convince him to go with.
"Yeah Zuko if you go with us then we'll get to show you our home now that it's being rebuilt to the city it used to be. Just don't get your hopes up to much after all it is just snow and ice." Sokka said continuing to pressure Zuko for an answer. Zuko looked at Mai.
"What do you think Mai? Would you like to take a visit to the South Pole?"
"Hey as long as I don't freeze to death then that's fine." Mai said in her normal gloomy tone.
"Alright then, both of us will join you all on your trip to the South Pole." Zuko said smiling at the group.
"That's great were leaving tomorrow morning after breakfast don't be late or were going to leave you behind." Katara said jokingly. The rest of the night was filled with random conversations and arguments such as what's the South Pole like in the winter or if a Komodo Rhino could beat a Saber Tooth Moose Lion in a fight. By the time everyone decided to go to bed it was midnight. All were sleeping soundly awaiting the next day except for one air nomad and girl from the Southern water tribe.
"Aang c…can I…can I stay with you tonight?" Katara stammered. Aang looked over to her with face of concern.
"Of course you can. Whenever you want you can stay with me, I'll always be there for you."Aang finished as he initiated a long and passionate kiss that made Katara melt. The couple smiled at each other and walked up to Aang's room. They climbed into his bed and began to cuddle. Aang wrapped his arm around Kataras waist pulling her close to him. Shortly after, the couple fell asleep.
Sorry I kind of made the end a little mushy. I also find it hard to write for Mai. As dark and gloomy as she is you would think it's easy but it's pretty hard for me.
Anyways there is chapter five guys don't forget to review. It always helps the story improve.