I hope the whole alert business works this time. Once again, if you happen to be a follower who jumped here, please go back two chapters if you hadn't read them yet.

I think holding hands is generally a sign of affection. There are instances when parents hold their children's hands, to take a walk with them, or play with them, or comfort them. Another case is about lovers, of course. It's a way of connecting, showing someone that they're not alone.

Well, and sometimes, it's about dragging people around. I sent the rest of the gang ahead at some point, gave them a description how they'd find the inn. Luckily, it's not far anymore. I'm not sure what I would have done if that were the case.

After Judai's breakdown, everything I could piece together was a soft "Come on!", and since then, I've been leading him through the dimly lit streets, forcing him to keep setting one foot in front of the other. I don't think there is much more to say, Judai is completely and utterly spent, he probably wouldn't hear me anyway. I guess I should have put some more effort into convincing him to stay at the inn. Nila was right, being older does not necessarily equal being wiser.

A part of me is glad, though. That I was there. I mean, I'm not an expert at comforting, but I'm not sure who else could have done it. Again, Nila maybe. She was in the same cell, too, if that is what the whole no-touchy-business is all about. Not that I believe Judai would care at this point, numb from crying and essentially deadweight. I know what it feels like.

I'm not entirely sure what happens once we reach the inn. Could be the light. Could be the smell. Maybe it's the general change of atmosphere which sparks some life in Judai. Either way, he jerks his hand free of mine and rubs his eyes.

"Be right back," he declares drowsily and disappears through the door next to the counter, basically leaving me behind to prettify the landscape. Then I shrug philosophically and look for the others. I spot Toph and Sokka sitting at an oval-shaped table with six chairs, which makes sense. Katara and Aang are standing at the counter, so that's where I go.

"Hey, you two."

"Hey Kamina," Katara greets, smiling briefly before concern returns to her face. "Is Judai okay? We've seen him head for the bathroom."

Ah, so that's the bathroom. Good, one more puzzle piece in place. "He's probably freshening up. He's positively bushed, I'm not sure how he's still walking. And you guys are...?"

"Waiting for Aang's food," Katara explains and I turn at the little Avatar, who's smiling brightly.

"The innkeepers are really nice. They're preparing some noodles especially for me."

"That really is nice! I'm not sure if I had the energy to cook an extra meal for a vegetarian at this time of the day."

Aang cringes. "Yeah..." he drawls awkwardly, then trails off when a man chooses this moment to show up from a backroom which is probably the kitchen. I recognize him, it's the same guy who picked up Nila and Judai's mugs. He recognizes me, too.

"Ah, welcome back, young lady," he says, smiling friendly. "A cup of tea and a bowl of stew, I assume?"

"Sounds awesome!" I smile back and reach into the inside of my surcoat to produce one of the tokens Judai gave me. "I hope it's not too much of a bother."

"Of course not!" He gets a bowl from a cupboard and ladles some delicious smelling stew into it. My mouth waters in anticipation, and while my brain says it would be nicer to wait for Aang like Katara does, my stomach votes for screwing niceness and be on my merry way.

My stomach wins. Carefully balancing tea and stew, I thank the barkeeper and join Sokka and Toph at their table. Sokka is eating with such relish that I'm amazed he actually bothers with a greeting.

"I gotta hand it to you Fire Nation people, you know how to enjoy good meat!" he announces cheerfully. I'm so busy raising a brow at him that I forget to set my stuff down properly and almost tip over my bowl. Good thing Sokka is there to stabilize it.

"Careful with that!"

"Sorry," is the first thing slipping out of my mouth, then Toph's 'Stop apologizing!' comes back to me. So I correct myself, "Thanks. Or whatever," and drop into the seat next to Sokka. "About the meat, I guess I'll take that as a compliment."

"I think it's a bit too spicy," Toph remarks, and I swing my gaze at her.

"Spicy?" I ask skeptically and try a spoon of the stew. The salty, meaty taste is just the way I love it, the hippo cow has just the right degree of tenderness, and is not at all overseasoned. I lick my lips, savoring every drop of it.

"I don't know what your deal is, this is the absolutely most perfect stew I ever ate!"

Toph shrugs. "I bet you've blown up your taste buds already."

Sokka chuckles at Toph's antics. "You should try Flaming Fire Flakes. They're really hot!"

"Suuure they are..."

I smirk. "Well, there wouldn't be much of a 'flaming' if they were cold, right?" Of course I know what Sokka is hinting at, but it's funnier this way.

"True!"

I take another spoon of the sublime stew when a realization hits me: "Sounds like you already had fire flakes, but Toph... didn't?" Even saying it sounds weird. And it enlightens me about how I think of the group as a unit, which actually can't be true. Katara and Sokka are from the Southern Water Tribe. Toph is from the Earth Kingdom. Where Aang hails from is up in the air... literally. One of the four Air Temples. They can't always have traveled together, that's physically impossible.

"Well, it's always Captain Boomerang here who licks the weirdest stuff. There was that one time he drank cactus juice and spent the next couple hours hallucinating. And Sweetness wouldn't let me try it!"

Frankly, the way Toph says it makes me worry more about her rather than Sokka. Although I guess it would be interesting to find out what blind people would be hallucinating about. (Agni, did that really arouse my curiosity? Next thing I know, I'll be trying the cactus juice myself... Turtle whiskers, I want to try it.)

"Well, I do hope he didn't start hallucinating on fire flakes," I reply, quirking an eyebrow at Sokka. "Did you?"

"Does getting a blurry vision count?" he asks innocently, and I feel my jaw go slack. I mean, what?!

I must have said that out loud, because both Sokka and Toph start laughing.

"Gotcha!" Sokka crows, jabbing his spoon at me with delight. "Your eyes start watering when you eat something too spicy. Didn't think of that, huh?"

Of course. Sokka was messing with my associations, and I completely fell for it. I roll my eyes to cover up my embarrassment, although I suppose it's a little too late.

"What's so funny?"

I look up to spot Judai claiming the seat next to me... and my tea cup. He looks infinitely better, the traces of the crying fit have vanished from his face and he seems halfway awake again.

"How are you feeling?" I still can't help asking, too worried to react to his question. Sokka's extreme omnivore tendencies have little significance here.

Judai shrugs, probably faking nonchalance. "As good as can be, given the circumstances." He downs my tea, and just like that, I've lost my appetite. I can't eat when my stomach is clenching with self-reproach. How can I insist on having the first serving when the person next to me is starving?!

I push the bowl in front of Judai, refusing to look at him. Maybe I should have. Maybe I would have seen the flick stinging my temple coming. Flabbergasted, I turn my head at the culprit, unable to bring out a word. Judai sighs.

"I know what you're thinking. You think I'm a wreck, and I need someone to take care of me. I admit it, I could have done without those last four weeks, but I'm still very much capable of functioning without you being such a mommy turtle duck."

Oh Agni, are we playing the assumption game again? "I don't..."

"Yes you do. You just proved it. With this." He slides the bowl of stew back to me. "I'm not hungry. I wouldn't have returned my own bowl if I were. I can judge my stomach myself. I know you mean well, but do you see Sora and Toki making a fuss?"

It makes sense, I guess, assumption game or not. So instead of protesting, this time I resort to massaging my temples. Whatever I do, it's wrong. Mistakes over mistakes, I never get anything right.

No. Stop. I won't start down that road again. It never leads to anything but misery.

"I'm sorry," I sigh, putting my hands back on the table. "I didn't mean to act patronizing. I'll try to avoid the mommy turtle duckiness from now on."

"You'd better." Interestingly enough, that almost petulant statement comes from Toph. I whip around to catch her blow a strand out of her face. "We didn't add you to the group to have Kari all over again."

I don't bother mentioning that they didn't add me to the group. I did that all on my own, and I wasn't thinking straight at that point. And... What did Katara do to offend Toph? Probably the same thing I did to offend Judai.

"Is there something you want to tell me, Toki?"

Oh, it's Katara. Looks like Aang got his vegetarian noodles, because the two finally join us at the table.

"Nope. Except that birds of a feather apparently do flock together. No wonder you met her first."

"Technically, I met Kuzon first. Granted, we didn't talk, but..." Hmm... Does it count as 'meeting' if the acknowledgement is one-sided?

Toph shrugs again. "Same difference, birdie."

Sokka almost snorts his stew at his sister. "I like that one!" he announces as soon as he swallowed. Even then he keeps chuckling. "Birdie..."

Neither Aang nor me grace him with an answer. It's harmless enough phrasing, but if we go further from here, Judai may start suspecting that there is more to it than Sokka's weird sense of humor. That, and you shall not feed the mocking bat.

With that in mind, I concentrate on eating my poor, neglected stew. Judai stands up to get his... my... our mug refilled, and I claim it at the first opportunity. Aang laughs. Judai pouts. I return the cup to him, so he can go again. (No, I'm not gonna do it. Why would I? I have a bowl of stew to take care of after all.) It's amusing. And avoids mommy turtle duckiness. Sokka gleefully announces that you should be careful what you wish for, and shoves his own mug into Judai's hands as well. (No point in having two people walk the same way when one is enough, right?) It doesn't cross my mind that the roles are reversed once I hand my bowl over to Judai, and he makes sure to remind me. The barkeeper is amused, too. In the end, he gives me the whole teapot. Judai is quick to cry dire wrongness, but laughs with everyone at how no one thought of that earlier. Then again, I guess it was too much fun to boss Fire Nation people around. Solution unnecessary.

All in all, it's a good way to end the day. We return the dishes and pick up a key instead.

I don't expect the room to be much different from my own, because, well... I sleep in the attic. But as it turns out, it's very different indeed.

The room is somewhat U-shaped, to allow for the staircase and the door to swing open on one side, and a washroom on the other. But else, it's treated as if it were square-shaped. The sloped ceiling makes it necessary to separate the room into three, with the outer sides mainly for sleeping and the center as a sort of lounge where you don't have to watch your head. Two double beds occupy the far corners of the room, as well as a bunk bed in the middle, where the tapering roof is just spacious enough. The floor is covered in straw mats (a furtive glance in Toph's direction reveals her clinging to Sokka's arm for guidance), and a rug-table-contraption like the one at Kiran's place as well as a shelf complete the picture. Four bedside tables with lanterns, already lit, sprinkle the room. Two other lanterns illuminate the table. A positive surprise, however, are the slide screens on either side of the center third.

"Check this out!" Aang cheers and pulls at one of the screens, closing off the hindmost sleeping area and disappearing from sight. "I call the bed in here!"

"I guess it does solve the undressing problem," I remark, absentmindedly rubbing the back of my neck. "You brought writing things, right, Sora? So you probably want to work on something tonight, and you'll need light for that."

Sokka catches my drift. He nods. "Keeps everything logical."

"Er... Guys?" Judai pipes up. "Good thing you can read each other's minds, but I'm kinda new here."

"Simple," I take it upon myself to explain. "Toki won't be bothered by Sora lighting up the room, so she will share the bunk bed with him. That leaves two double beds for the rest of us, which is usually a reason to separate boys and girls. But you and Kuzon sharing would defeat the point of this whole brouhaha, and with you guys split up, Kari and me are practically set. Anyone with objections?"

The question is superfluous, of course. Aang couldn't be happier with the arrangement, Katara smiles at his enthusiasm, Judai's face betrays a relief I can definitely emphasize with, and Sokka and Toph don't seem to care.

"Terrific," Judai ends up breaking the brief silence. "If I had to sit through a school trip discussion, something would have burst into flames." As if on cue, he lets out a huge yawn. Without wasting any more time, he turns around and I give him some privacy by closing 'our' slide screen. "I leave the lanterns to you, Kami!" comes a last call, then silence.

I blink at the rather... intriguing statement.

"I expected something like 'good night'," Sokka deadpans, and I nod deliberately.

"Kind of, yeah," I drawl, then shrug and turn to face the group. "Anyway, we need to talk."

That bed arrangement... was supposed to look different. In (bad) romances, I noticed that authors tend to shoehorn the Intended Couple into sleeping together by... well, having them sleep together for some contrived reason. ("Whoops, we booked you the wrong room, and the hotel is too full to find another!")
Ah, well, it's not so much of a deal that I need to cry over it. Since I'm not writing a romance here, nobody actually goes off on it (except for Aang, because Aang goes off on everything). The Gaang is used to sleeping close to each other, while Kami and Judai are just glad that they're not getting everyone involved in possible nightmare sessions and couldn't care less about the lacking air between their mattresses.

I'm not even sure why it's such a big deal in romances. Sure, marriage bed symbolism, but else? Maybe it's just me, but it's a freaking BED, not a wedding altar!
Hmm, probably raging hormones. Raging hormones and 42 are the answer to pretty much everything.

Zentauria over and out!