Chapter 13 – down the rabbit hole
Azula's return to The Northern Lights was supposed to be the beginning of the happier times for everyone working at the restaurant, but especially for Katara and Sokka, the siblings who had been under so much stress for a very long time, working tirelessly to keep the family restaurant afloat. Katara had never imagined that at the end of Azula's first day back at the restaurant, she would find herself a completely broken mess, lying in a bed that wasn't hers, staring numbly at the ceiling and feeling betrayed and depressed.
Her relationship with Jet was over, of that there could be no doubt. Katara had always known that this was a relationship with an expiry date that they both kept postponing because outside of work they continued to have fun together. Jet was a funny guy who wasn't too bad to look at, and he had the kind of tragic past that tickled Katara's nurturing instincts. But at the same time, Jet wasn't someone that Katara could ever fully open up to emotionally about her hopes and fears, or about the lingering trauma of her mother's violent death. With this breakup, Katara was not losing some kind of crucial emotional connection that would cripple her, but the realization of just how Jet had manipulated and lied to her was still devastating, and it was filling Katara with bitterness and making her question her naïve tendencies to believe in the innate goodness of other people.
Katara had cried the entire afternoon, but now as the evening slowly approached, the tears had finally dried up and instead, a devastating numbness was setting in. Katara hadn't eaten the entire day, but the sick feeling of betrayal was still heavy in her gut, making it impossible for her to experience hunger. Katara knew that she ought to get up and at the very least wash her face and make herself less scary to look at after hours of ugly crying, but she simply couldn't muster the motivation to do it. So, Katara remained unmoving on the bed even when she overheard the voices coming from the stairs, Sokka and Suki having returned from their mission to retrieve Katara's stuff from Jet's apartment.
"Hey, how are you doing, sis?" Sokka soon poked his head around the corner to look at her, his expression dropping when he saw that Katara had remained collapsed on the bed, just the way they had left her. "Stupid question, obviously you're still a wreck."
"Thanks," Katara grumbled. "Did you take care of it?" she asked, not wanting to know any details regarding Jet right now.
"Well… yes, and no," Sokka admitted, stepping into the room. He was carrying a single large bag, while himself looking rather disheveled. Katara managed to briefly overcome her apathy to give Sokka a questioning stare. "We ran into some problems," Sokka sighed, placing the heavy bag next to Katara on the bed. "This is all I managed to grab."
Katara quickly checked the bag to discover that it was filled exclusively with her clothes, underwear and some other basic stuff from her wardrobe. "What happened?" Katara asked, her concerns spiking. She still had some of her stuff left behind at the apartment above the restaurant, but by now she had moved most of her belongings over to Jet's place. Sokka had recovered very little of what she needed, but his appearance suggested that it might have not been entirely his fault. "Did you get into a fight?" Katara pressed. "Was Jet-"
"No, Jet wasn't there," Sokka quickly shook his head. "I'm pretty sure he'll be spending at least a few more days at the hospital. Unfortunately, his friends showed up while I was stuffing your things into the bags. You know, those two big guys he's always hanging out with."
"Longshot and Pipsqueak?" Katara asked. "They attacked you?"
"Well, they didn't exactly attack me, but they tried to get me to leave and they stopped me from taking more of your stuff," Sokka explained. "So, there might have been some pushing and shoving, and I might have come off second best there. They made me leave behind some of the bags I had already filled. This is the only one I managed to grab as I legged it."
"I was ready to go back in there and back Sokka up in a fight, but he didn't want to do it," Suki said, also having popped into the room and perched on the edge of the bed. "I still think we could have taken them, Sokka."
"Not a chance," Sokka shook his head. "Besides, I wasn't going to endanger you, Suki. You were there as my getaway driver, not as some kind of an enforcer."
"I'm glad you didn't try to fight them," Katara sighed. "Longshot and Pipsqueak aren't some thugs. They're nice guys who maybe listen and rely on Jet a little too much. I bet he asked them to make sure nobody gets into his apartment. But if Jet will be at the hospital for a few more days, then I suppose we can try again tomorrow. And this time I'll be coming with you."
"Yeah, about that…" Sokka spoke up reluctantly, looking guilty as Katara gave him a questioning stare.
"What Sokka is trying to say is that in his haste to get away, he forgot that he had left the key in the hole, so… we can't go back tomorrow," Suki said. Katara groaned in exasperation, covering her face with her palms.
"Well, at least we brought back something," Sokka said, reaching into the bag and pulling out an item that turned out to be one of Katara's pale blue bras. Sokka quickly dropped it. "And I think I should be commended for surviving the traumatizing experience of handling my sister's panties and bras," he said.
"Oh, really?" Katara scoffed. "And yet, you think I should have no issues mending your boxers? Even though that's literally where your balls are?"
"Umm, point taken," Sokka admitted guiltily. "I wish I could have done more to help, of course. It sucks that you have to deal with this. But at least you'll always have a place here, you know that," he tried to smile encouragingly, suggesting that Katara would always be welcome to find refuge at the apartment above the restaurant.
"It can only be a temporary solution," Katara insisted, even if she didn't actually have any other options when it came to having a roof over her head. "I could not impose myself on you two, not with everything that's been… well, you know," she finished uncomfortably. "Spirits, I would totally lose it big time if you two broke up as well," her emotions suddenly burst forth, breaking a dam that had been holding them back, causing Katara to literally shake with another bout of ugly crying.
"Hey, stop that, there's no need for it, I promise," Suki reacted quickly, embracing Katara in a tight hug. "Sokka and I have been doing a lot better recently. Haven't we, Sokka?"
"I would say so," Sokka managed a small smile despite still looking concerned about how hard Katara was crying. "Suki hasn't been sleeping on the sofa for the past few nights," he added, giving Katara a sly wink.
"That's right, and last night was particularly fun," Suki continued. "We found the best possible use for that leftover whipped cream and caramel sauce, didn't we?"
"Eww, shut up!" Katara exclaimed, wincing in discomfort after Suki had definitely entered the TMI territory. Still, Katara had to admit, getting grossed out about her brother's sex life was an effective way of making her forget that she was supposed to be crying.
"See, that did the job of stopping the tears," Suki chuckled, pulling away but not before affectionally tousling Katara's hair. "Anyway, I wouldn't feel right leaving Kat all alone tonight. I've been through the heartbreak rodeo myself a few times and I know how crappy it feels. I'll keep you company on the sofa, Kat."
"Seriously, you don't have to, I'm not some big baby who's not in control of her emotions," Katara tried to protest, but Suki appeared unimpressed.
"You think you'll both fit on that sofa?" Sokka asked, raising a curious eyebrow. "You'll be… awfully close, won't you?"
"Are you for real, Sokka? That's where your mind went?" Suki laughed incredulously, taking a swat at her boyfriend, but Sokka managed to pull back just in time. "Anyway, if you don't want me cuddling with your sister, then you'll have to take the sofa yourself while Kat and I make ourselves comfortable here on the twin."
"Actually, now that I have thought about it, perhaps I do deserve to sleep comfortably on the twin, while Sokka struggles on the sofa," Katara mused thoughtfully. "I mean, who's the failed supportive brother who couldn't even retrieve all of my stuff?" Sokka looked crestfallen at her scathing reproach, but he perked up when Katara pulled him in for a hug. "I was just kidding, silly," Katara smiled. "I'm so grateful to have a place with you and Suki."
"Always," Sokka whispered, looking a little choked up.
"Anyway, I've had enough thinking about Jet and how depressed I am about being played like a cheap fiddle. I'm not going to think about it anymore, not tonight," Katara sighed. "But that makes me think about Azula. Sokka, I feel like I'll have to ask her to leave."
"What? Why?" Sokka gasped in surprise.
"What do you mean, why?" Katara asked. "From what she told me, it sounded like she knew that Jet was stealing way back in September. She needed until April to tell us the truth? That's… a betrayal of its own," Katara let out a heavy sigh. It hurt so bad to know that Azula had not been truthful with her. It was probably worth exploring why Azula's lack of truthfulness felt almost worse than Jet's betrayal, but Katara did not want to let her thoughts wander there, not tonight.
"I understand that it doesn't look good, but… I mean, she told you eventually, right?" Suki argued. She looked almost a little panicked at the idea of Azula leaving, which was also an interesting reaction that Katara did not feel emotionally prepared to analyze. "That has to count for something."
"I agree," Sokka nodded. "I respect your feelings, Kat, but… it would be crazy to ask Azula to pack her bags after she has just arrived. And she is here to help, you said so yourself."
"I'm not contesting that," Katara said. "I'm just saying… given what I know now, it's going to be very hard for me to work alongside her."
"Yeah, I suppose I see your point," Suki admitted reluctantly. She did not look at all happy, though. Katara figured that Suki probably saw her chance of getting the head chef promotion in Azula, but perhaps there was more to it than that. "I'm just thinking… why would Azula not tell us the truth about it back in September? She was very nice to us. I feel like there has to be some reason for her to have kept silent."
"I think you might be onto something, Suki," Sokka nodded in agreement. "Maybe you should just talk things out with Azula, Kat. Perhaps it was all just a misunderstanding. It would be very sad for everyone involved if we simply told her to take a hike without giving her an opportunity to explain herself."
"Hmm… yes, I suppose that's true," Katara sighed. "Very well. I don't know if I'll feel ready to face Azula tomorrow, but I promise to give her a chance to explain herself before we make any decisions about her future at The Northern Lights."
Despite Mai's excellent advice that he should stop obsessing about the weird Sea World incident Ty Lee had been involved in, Zuko was having a hard time dropping the matter. Various conspiracy theories continued to evolve in his paranoid mind, threatening to consume all of his thoughts as he considered one theory after another. For a while, he had been a firm believer of this being a start of a widespread animal uprising, suspecting that the dolphins had started the fire by vigorously rubbing their beaks together, but then Zuko had dropped this theory in favor of one that centered around Ty Lee led eco-terrorist plot to free the animals of the Sea World.
Unfortunately, Mai was not proving to be a receptive audience to Zuko's many theories about the Sea World fire. In fact, the more Zuko kept bringing his obsession up, the more annoyed Mai seemed to become. Still, Zuko couldn't drop the matter and this was why he had snuck out of Mai's bedroom in the middle of the night, hiding in the toilet while browsing his phone and frantically trying to learn all he could about the Sea World and incidents involving fire.
"Twelve exits," Zuko repeated to himself as he looked at the aerial photo of the Sea World arena used to host the sealion show. "By Agni, there are twelve exits!"
Zuko jumped slightly when the doors to the bathroom tentatively opened and revealed Mai, standing there outside in the hallway and eyeing him with a sleepy stare. "What are you doing?" Mai yawned.
"Huh?" Zuko blinked, struggling to come up with an answer now that Mai had caught him.
"What are you doing on your phone in the middle of the night, Zuko?" Mai repeated her question.
"I'm, uh… masturbating," Zuko blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
"Oooookaaaay," Mai said slowly, staring Zuko down before turning to walk away. "Weirdo."
Zuko let out a breath of relief he didn't realize he'd been holding. "Whoa, I really dodged the bullet there," he told himself before continuing to browse his phone.
Jet was lying on a sofa back at his apartment, curled into a ball and covered with a blanket. The previous day had been the worst in his recent memory, provided he didn't think too far back to the loss of his family back in the Earth Kingdom. As the heavy-duty painkillers were slowly starting to wear off, the dull, pulsating pain in his groin reminded Jet just how horrible the previous day had been, culminating in the loss of both his job and his girlfriend and resulting in an ambulance ride to the hospital and an emergency surgery to save his ruptured ball sack.
Obviously, there was no going back to The Northern Lights even if Jet had wanted to do so, especially not with Azula Nakamura there. Sokka would most likely just throw him out immediately, with Suki, and perhaps even Yue helping him, as they were the ones most protective of Katara. Also, Jet wasn't as oblivious as to not realize that he had hurt Katara beyond a point of possible reconciliation, and he couldn't really blame his now ex-girlfriend for not being in a forgiving mood. As for Azula… obviously, she was to blame for everything that had happened, and also, she had crossed a line by almost ripping his balls off. Jet was already fantasizing about various scenarios where he got to exact his payback on Azula, even if getting back up to his feet was Jet's first order of priority.
"Can you believe this idiot?" Smellerbee sighed, standing over him together with Longshot. "I tried to warn him that it would end like this." Longshot signed something that Jet couldn't see from his vantage point on the sofa. "Yeah, and fleeing from the hospital was just the cherry on top," Bee nodded, shaking her head.
"Hey, they can't issue me with a medical bill if I'm not there," Jet said defensively. "And I didn't want to get saddled with a bill of a few thousand dollars. Screw that."
"I get that, but you could have at least waited a day or two before legging it," Bee groaned. "You literally ran away from the hospital with a needle and thread still hanging from your balls."
Longshot made a face at that. "Did he really do that?" he signed, looking disturbed.
"Well, as good as," Bee sighed. "I think the surgeon did a really good job, but this idiot just made it worse and aggravated his injuries by walking around when he wasn't supposed to."
"There might have been some actual running involved, too," Jet confessed. Bee did not look any happier at that confession.
"Anyway, when he arrived back home, his crotch was all bloody again and the stitching had become loose, so what do you think happened next? That's right, this idiot called me and I rushed over to fix up the stitching," Bee said. She turned a withering glare upon Jet. "I hate you so much for making me look at your penis. I feel like I took 2d6 emotional damage from that."
"I'll buy you something nice, how about that?" Jet grunted.
"Alright, I have some things in mind already," Bee grinned, looking a lot happier. "Anyway, you better hope that an infection doesn't set in, or you'll be stuck with gangrenous, pus-filled balls until you die horribly."
"I'm sure I'll be just fine," Jet said, shuddering from that mental image. He then reached out for a glass of water and some painkillers on the nearby TV table. "Better take some more of this ibuprofen just in case, though," he said, watching Longshot sign something. He didn't get all of the message, but it had something to do with going to the hospital.
"Oh, I think there's about 50% chance that he'll have to go back," Smellerbee snorted. "Hopefully not, though. I think we're running out of places Jet has yet to flee from without paying."
"I fully trust your medical training, Bee," Jet managed an encouraging smile.
"I don't have medical training, Jet," Bee glared. "Working as an assistant for an unlicensed veterinarian for three months doesn't make me a qualified medical professional." The dodgy veterinarian had eventually been picked up by the cops after one too many malpractice complaints. Fortunately, Bee had escaped any fallout by fleeing through the lavatory window and avoiding arrest. And despite what she claimed, during those three months she had picked up some rudimentary medical skills which as Bee herself often said, allowed her to treat Jet and other animals.
"Assuming you're going to survive this," Longshot signed at Jet. "What's the plan?"
"Ugh, well I guess I will have to find another job," Jet groaned. The very idea of working seemed to intensify the pain he was experiencing before the ibuprofen kicked in. "Fortunately, lying around here as I suffer terribly has already given me an idea," Jet spoke dramatically.
"Wait, wait, let me get something," Smellerbee quickly interrupted him before running out of the room and returning moments later with a bucket of popcorn. "Okay, you can begin now."
"Right," Jet rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I know that Azula only came to Caldera City because she is in some kind of stupid competition with her brother that she's desperate to win. It seems like she and her brother don't get along, which isn't surprising because she's a massive bitch. I think her brother's name was Zuko? Anyway, he doesn't like Azula and neither do I, which means we already have so much in common. That's why I was thinking of looking up Zuko Nakamura and offering my services to his restaurant. I can even tempt him with having insider information on The Northern Lights. That should persuade him to hire me."
"What an amazing idea, Jet," Longshot signed, possibly sarcastically.
"Yes, I'll go order more medical supplies right away," Smellerbee sighed as together with Longshot they turned to leave the room. "You want to mess with the bad bitch who can rip your balls off just like that, it's your funeral."
Jet grumbled as he tried to settle in more comfortably on the sofa. Sometimes he couldn't understand why his friends had so little faith in his brilliant schemes, but he was determined to prove them wrong once and for all.
It was a quiet morning at The Blue Spirit restaurant as the skeleton crew slowly prepared the establishment for their grand reopening, scheduled a week from now. Zuko had spent the first part of the morning subjecting On Ji to some basic skill tests, such as examining her knife technique, knowledge of ingredients and also testing her palate. On Ji was far from the ideal assistant that Zuko would have wanted, but she seemed like a potential diamond in the rough, so Zuko had decided that she might be worth the investment of the time and effort required to properly train her.
Once he was done testing his new sous chef, Zuko had given On Ji the task of replicating a couple of items on the restaurant's new menu. On Ji was currently busy tackling this task with great purpose and determination, leaving Zuko to focus on other things, such as perfecting some of the dishes on the menu he was still not completely sold on. Still, try as he might, Zuko just couldn't put the whole Sea World incident out of his head. Instead of providing reassuring answers, the information he had managed to dig up had only raised more and more questions. His thoughts kept spiraling and returning to this maddening mystery and Zuko was frustrated that nobody else seemed to find it as fascinating as he did. He had even shared the story with On Ji, and while she had agreed that the Sea World was a very weird place to go on fire, twenty minutes later she had forgotten all about it. Well, it wasn't as easy for Zuko to forget. Mai's brilliant advice that he simply stop thinking about it clearly wasn't working.
"What are you working on, Zuko?" On Ji asked brightly as she was busy deboning a rainbow trout. "It looks like you're trying to perfect a giant pile of mashed potatoes?"
"Uh, yes," Zuko replied distractedly. "I am giving it a… unique twist."
On Ji approached him to take a closer look. She gasped, pointing at the pile of mashed potatoes. "It's the Sea World, isn't it?" she exclaimed. "You're building the Sea World out of mashed potatoes!"
"There are twelve exits, On Ji!" Zuko exclaimed dramatically. "Twelve exits! And only two hundred people!"
"Whoa, Zuko, you're getting a little obsessed with this," On Ji paled, taking a step back. "You don't want to go close encounters crazy. You need to let it go."
"Just hear me out," Zuko implored her. "To have killed anyone, that fire would have to start here… here… and here," he said, stabbing the mashed potatoes with his fork. "And then it would have to close in like this," Zuko said, using the fork to spread the potatoes towards the center. "But how would it even spread? There's no wood in the Sea World arena. Why there's no wood, you might ask? Because it rots. And why does it rot? Because of…" Zuko grabbed the gravy boat and poured gravy all over his mashed potatoes. "All the water!" he finished off his presentation.
"Ooookaaaaay," On Ji's eyebrows rose as she walked all the way back to her station and resumed working on her trout. "Damn, that mash looks tasty, though," she said a while later.
"Doesn't it just?" Zuko smiled happily. "I know what I'm having for lunch…"
Azula freely admitted that her first day at The Northern Lights had not gone according to the plan. She had made some serious miscalculations when predicting the reactions of her new coworkers, which perhaps was not too surprising considering that a great many people had told her that she was terrible at reading social cues and had very poor general understanding of why her fellow human beings behaved the way they did. Azula definitely did not expect Jet to self-sabotage himself the way he did, and she had also not expected Katara to be as devastated by the fallout as she was.
Katara was absent from the restaurant for the rest of the day, withdrawing to the upstairs apartment. Fortunately, with Azula there, Katara's absence did not have an adverse effect on the restaurant's performance. Yue and Aang ably took care of the front of the house, while Sokka and Suki were assisted by Toph's army of microwaves, allowing them to keep on top of the orders. Azula kept an eye on everyone, helping the two sides of the restaurant communicate effectively, jumping in where necessary to solve any issues. Azula also took over the food manager's job, finding it laughably easy to set up the inventory and compile orders, the whole process taking her less than half an hour.
Still, Azula could not take much joy from the fact that the restaurant seemed to be running smoothly. Thinking about Katara upstairs, heartbroken and crying, evoked unpleasant, sickening feelings in Azula's gut, and it took her some time to identify these feelings as guilt. Sokka, Suki and Yue made frequent trips upstairs and reassured Azula that Katara would be fine, and that she simply needed time and space as she came to terms with what had happened. When Azula offered to go upstairs and talk to Katara, however, Sokka, Suki and Yue all rejected this idea. Azula had very conflicted feelings about being turned away. She felt relieved because she had no idea what to tell Katara, but she was also terrified by the mere thought that Katara might be mad at her. Azula was also disappointed because she hated the feeling that there was something she couldn't fix. Still, Katara wasn't a dysfunctional restaurant, which was pretty much the only thing Azula knew how to fix. Katara was an actual human being, and Azula had a poor track record with their kind.
On the morning of her second day at the restaurant, Azula arrived at The Northern Lights with a brand-new plan of action. If everyone was convinced that it was a bad idea for her to talk with Katara about that whole mess with Jet, then Azula would not insist on it. Instead, she would just move on with why she was here for in the first place, and that was fixing the restaurant. Upon her arrival, Azula immediately informed Suki that she wanted to sit down with the owners at the manager's office and bring them up to speed with her plan of action. Azula then tried not to think about why Suki looked rather unimpressed with her after Azula had made her request. Suki still climbed up the stairs to inform Katara and Sokka, then telling Azula that the siblings would be down in ten minutes.
Ten minutes was exactly the time that Azula needed to finish preparing for the meeting. She sat down at the manager's office, opened her laptop and double checked all of her Excel tables, PowerPoint slides and other presentations she had prepared just in case Sokka and Katara would have any questions. Azula was nearly done when the doors to the manager's office opened and the Enuaraq siblings entered.
Azula's eyes skipped over Sokka almost completely, immediately focusing on Katara. Azula frowned, realizing that Katara was wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Katara also wasn't wearing any makeup, but it definitely was not to any detriment of her looks. It wasn't the first time that Azula had to remark upon how unfairly beautiful her Water Tribe friend was. On this occasion, Katara's beauty was not muted by the lack of makeup, but rather by the profound air of sadness surrounding her as she sat by the desk, struggling to look up at Azula.
"Hey, so… I know yesterday was a very difficult day," Azula began awkwardly. "But for me, spending the whole day at the restaurant was incredibly informative. I discovered so many important details that have allowed me to come up with a nuanced plan of action as we move forward, and I wanted to discuss it with you. I think it would be very helpful if we could do that now. Whenever I have to deal with some kind of an… emotional distraction, I find it best to instead immerse myself in my work so that I don't have to think about it."
"That's exactly how I prefer to deal with my issues, too," Sokka nodded sagely. "Unfortunately, Katara, Yue and Suki always end up yelling at me that it's not a healthy approach. Anyway," Sokka cleared his throat. "I fear that by calling it an emotional distraction, you might be downplaying the issue just a little bit."
"I, uh… was afraid that might be the case," Azula admitted uncomfortably. Katara still wouldn't look at her and the cold treatment was threatening to send Azula spiraling. "I'm not very good at judging how severe the emotional impact of these things is," she confessed.
"I'll say," Katara finally spoke, looking up at Azula. Her eyes seemed to have lost some of their shine and her stare felt tired and a little dull. "You have all these plans of action, while I'm sitting here and thinking how I'm not even sure if I can move past what happened yesterday."
Azula felt her heart sink. "What do you mean?" she asked quietly.
"It's sad that I have to explain it, Azula," Katara sighed. "You learned that Jet was stealing from the restaurant back in September, didn't you?" Azula was backed in a corner and could merely nod at that. "That's… difficult to accept," Katara said in a tired voice. "The past few months have been incredibly stressful and I've often felt like I was going mad. We were all struggling so badly. To know that you could have stopped that with one phone call…"
Azula felt momentarily stunned by Katara's words. She couldn't understand how she had never considered things from this perspective, and the fact that she hadn't was making her sick with guilt. "I had my reasons for keeping silence," she replied quietly. "I'm not saying they were good reasons, especially not from your perspective. But I really wanted your restaurant to succeed. That's why I told you to push Jet to order from wholesalers when I left, but I can see now that I should have done more."
"I didn't know Azula told you that," Sokka looked at his sister.
"She did, and I tried to talk Jet into doing that, but you know how annoyingly persuasive he can be," Katara said. "Anyway, I thought it was just a general suggestion, not a codeword for 'your boyfriend is robbing you blind'," she added bitterly, looking at Azula. "Let's hear the reason why you kept quiet, then."
Azula sighed. "You probably won't like this," she said. "After I looked through the information you gave me, I quickly figured out what Jet's scheme was. And then I brought all of this information to my father because I thought that he would be impressed with me, and that perhaps he would want to use it during the episode. However, my father was not at all impressed, and he also argued that it would not fit with the overall narrative of the episode. My father warned me to keep quiet about it and never tell anyone, especially you. And then he also warned me not to tell you after the filming. I don't know why, maybe he just liked Jet? My father told me that if he were to find out during the revisit that you and Jet broke up because I told you the truth, he would be very angry with me."
"That's fucked up," Sokka muttered.
"Oh… is that why you were asking me all those weird questions if we can hold out until your father revisits us in the summer?" Katara asked with sudden realization.
"Yes, that's right," Azula nodded. "I was going to tell you the whole truth once my father was done with the revisit episode."
"Well, I guess you had the right intentions," Sokka shrugged. "Also, can I just say that your family is pretty fucked up? Your father acts like an insane dictator and you're constantly at war with your brother. That's not how a normal family should function."
"It's not," Katara nodded in agreement. "Azula, I won't pretend that I understand all the nuances of your relationship with your father. It's clearly very complicated and… problematic. For you to fear him the way you do… there's something deeply wrong about it. Just thinking about it makes me feel less upset with you. And yet, at the same time… you have to understand how the idea that we had to suffer for months just because you were afraid of what daddy would think feels a little bit… pathetic?"
Azula cringed at Katara's scathing words, but she could not find it within herself to argue. "When you put it like that, it is pathetic," Azula admitted. She felt utterly humiliated for having to make such an admission in front of Katara and Sokka, but the worst part of it all was that Katara wasn't wrong. "I can't undo it, though," she said. "I can only try and make up for my mistake, if we can move past it."
"I… don't know," Katara admitted. "I'm trying to move past it, but it's hard."
Azula was balancing on the edge of spiraling into a full-blown panic mode by now. "Please, Katara," out of all other options, Azula was reduced to pleading. "I can only save the restaurant if you allow me to stay and work to fix things. Please? I don't want to leave you and the restaurant when things are like this…"
"Kat," Sokka spoke up in a soft voice, giving his sister a pleading stare. Azula had never liked Katara's brother more than in that very moment.
"Alright, fine," Katara finally relented, managing a small smile. "Only because I know myself and I know I would regret not giving you another chance, Azula. Sometimes I'm guilty of giving people too many chances, but I haven't given you even a single one, and you deserve at least that. Very well, let's… let's work together and try to move past this."
"Thank you," Azula managed. She wanted to say so much more, but she was also on the edge of bursting into tears, which was something she desperately wanted to avoid. The relief of having dodged the worst disaster of her career was massive, though. If Katara had kicked her out, it would have meant that she forfeited her contest with Zuko, and she would have lost all of her future opportunities as well as her status as the favorite child. Also, the thought of no longer being friends with the crew of The Northern Lights, and in particular with Katara, Suki and Yue would have been a very bitter pill to swallow.
"Well, I'm glad we got that sorted out," Sokka said, looking relieved. "Can Azula tell us about her plan of action now, please?" Katara nodded at Azula, allowing a shadow of a smile to touch her lips.
"I just wanted to reassure you that there will be no need for any additional hires following yesterday's events," Azula began. She felt hugely relieved for multiple reasons – for being allowed to stay, and for finally being able to move on to something she was comfortable talking about, such as fixing the failing Enuaraq family business. "With my system of ordering from a wholesaler in place, there is no need for a food manager. The process of ordering shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes every day, and it can be done by anyone, a manager or the head chef. I will take it upon myself to do it for now, but in time I will train both of you and Suki how to do it as well."
"That sounds good," Sokka said. "So, we were employing Jet in a role that shouldn't have even existed? That's great to know," he sighed.
"It shouldn't have existed in a restaurant of this size and scope," Azula said. "Many of my father's restaurants have food managers. But we are talking about establishments that have kitchen staff of almost two dozen people." Katara and Sokka exchanged stunned stares. "Anyway, we're becoming sidetracked. I wanted to tell you my plan of action."
"Lay it on us, Azula," Sokka said. "Let me guess, you're overhauling the menu."
"Not just yet," Azula smiled. "Changes are coming, you can be sure of that. However, I want to see where we are financially without Jet's stealing before I make any changes. This is why for the next week and a half I will not be making any changes just yet. I know you're surprised," she added, having seen the siblings exchange confused stares. "You can be sure that I will not stand for this much microwaving. But I also wanted to give Katara enough time to think of an alternative role for Toph."
"Aang and I have actually been brainstorming and cooking up an alternative plan already," Sokka said. "But we need more time before we're ready to present our ideas together with Toph."
"Good initiative, Sokka," Azula said. This wasn't the first time that Azula had noticed Sokka showing some good managerial skills. That was something to keep in mind, especially considering that Azula was very uncertain whether Sokka was a head chef material. "Toph just needs to be pushed out of her comfort zone. She can do so much more around the restaurant even with her disability. Christine Ha won a whole season of MasterChef and she's almost completely blind, so Toph has no excuses."
"That's true," Katara nodded. "I feel like my poor leadership is to blame for Toph becoming so complacent." Azula wished that she could disagree with that statement, but she appreciated that Katara at least owed up to her shortcomings.
"So, for the next week and a half, I would simply ask everyone to continue in their current roles," Azula continued. "I will be making my observations and essentially carrying out an employee audit. This will allow me to make educated decisions on what sort of adjustments are needed. Perhaps some of you simply need extra training," she said, giving Sokka a meaningful stare. "Or perhaps some of you are in the wrong role and need to be rotated elsewhere."
"Employee audit… that sounds exciting," Sokka frowned. "Will you be carrying around one of those menacing clipboards that just stresses everyone out when you take notes on it?"
"That's a great suggestion, Sokka," Azula grinned evilly. "I will make sure to have a menacing clipboard."
"Will you be auditing us as well?" Katara asked, looking a little worried.
"Of course," Azula nodded. "I'm not trying to make this restaurant successful only for the six months that I'll be here. Sure, winning the competition with my brother is everything to me, but I also want to set you up for future success. If I only cared about the competition, I would make myself the head chef, probably like Zuko is doing at his restaurant. Then in six months, when we leave for Ba Sing Se, there will be nobody to replace the star chef."
"That makes a lot of sense," Sokka admitted. "I like this plan. I'm not sure I'll love this whole audit thing, but it sounds like it's for a good cause."
"Audit isn't the only thing I'll be doing," Azula continued. "As you suspected, I'll start reworking the menu. I also want to recalculate some of the prices. They mostly seem right, except for a few items that appear bizarrely overpriced."
"Umm," Katara blushed darkly. "I suspect you'll find that those are the calculations I did on my own without Sokka's help. I'm sure that his prices are the ones that look right." Azula sighed inwardly at Katara's comment. She didn't like the conclusion she was slowly arriving at, namely that Katara had no place being the general manager. And Katara definitely wasn't the only employee of The Northern Lights that seemed to be misplaced in their current role.
"The important thing to remember is that I'm here to help," Azula said. "Anyway, that was me bringing you up to speed with everything that I have planned in the near future. If you have any questions, anything at all-"
"No, that all sounded good and seemed to make sense," Sokka shrugged. "If that's all, then I should really run and join Suki for prepping. Her mood turns nasty when she suspects that I'm slacking off and finding ways to skip on prepping."
"I'll go and see what else needs helping with," Katara added as the two siblings rose to leave the office.
"Katara, could I have a minute with you alone?" Azula blurted out, surprised at her own boldness. Katara froze on the doorstep at her question. Sokka gave his sister what looked like a concerned stare, but Katara gently pushed him to keep walking before turning around to return to the office.
"What is it?" Katara asked simply.
"I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, but… I noticed that last night, Sokka returned almost empty-handed from what I guess was a trip to pick up some of your things?" Azula asked. "I just realized that when I saw you wearing the same dress as yesterday."
Katara blushed lightly. "Yes, Jet's friends chased Sokka off and wouldn't allow him to get my things," she explained. "And we lost the key, so there's no point in going back. Suki and Yue have been texting Jet about giving back my stuff, but he's ignoring them."
Azula felt her blood starting to boil with raging anger, but she forced herself to get a grip and calm down. Perhaps after she had nearly torn off Jet's balls it would be for the best to rein in her violent tendencies, at least in front of Katara. "So, you are left almost without any belongings?" Azula asked.
"I had some things left upstairs, but not much," Katara said. "But yes, right now it feels like I'm left with almost nothing."
"Katara, I want to help," Azula spoke firmly. "And I hope you'll let me, because this is at least partly my fault, too." Katara gave her a curious stare. Azula withdrew one of her credit cards and pushed it towards Katara. "I want you to take the rest of the day off and just hit the stores downtown. Buy whatever you need. The daily limit on that card is… well, suffice to say, it won't be a concern."
Katara looked shocked. "I couldn't, Azula… this is too much," she protested.
"You understand that my father is one of the richest men in the Fire Nation, if not the richest?" Azula asked.
Katara hesitated. "But it's your money I would be spending, not that of your father," she pointed out.
"It all comes from him, anyway," Azula shrugged. "I can always tell him that I needed all of this stuff for my new apartment, and he'd be happy to foot the bill, I'm sure."
This seemed to convince Katara as she reached out to pick up the credit card. "Alright, but I'm going to pay you back every dollar," Katara promised. "Once the restaurant is finally turning profit and I can start paying myself a salary, that is."
"I wish you wouldn't insist on it, but I can't stop you from paying me back," Azula sighed.
"Exactly, you can't," Katara smiled, broadly and genuinely for the first time during the conversation. She looked ready to dash out of the office, only to hesitate at the last moment. Katara turned towards Azula, blushing yet again. "I was just thinking," Katara said, a little shyly. "I'm going to feel very guilty buying all this new stuff for myself when many of my friends are still struggling terribly, especially Aang and Yue."
"Well, buy something for them as well," Azula shrugged. "And if you're buying something for Yue, I trust you won't forget about Kya."
"I won't," Katara promised. She stopped on the very doorstep, turning around to smile broadly at Azula. "You know, just giving me money wouldn't have made me feel any less hurt, but… being so nice to my friends? That goes a long way towards making me forget why I was supposed to be mad at you in the first place," Katara spoke before dashing out of the office, leaving Azula sitting there with the silliest imaginable grin on her face, as the realization that she just might have salvaged her relationship with Katara started to set in.
The evening was turning very late at The Blue Spirit restaurant, but many hours after all the others had gone home, Zuko was still busy in the kitchen, having convinced Mai that his new menu needed some extra work. Zuko wasn't working on the new menu, however. His obsession with the Sea World incident hadn't waned one bit, and he had just finished creating an exact replica of the Sea World arena, made from matches, playing cards and all sorts of garbage commonly found in a kitchen, such as potato peels. He had even carved small figurines of spectators and sealions out of raw potatoes to have a more accurate reimagination of the events.
Ready to finally test his theory about this mystery fire, Zuko started to place the potato spectators in their seats around the arena. "Oh, I'm so excited about this sealion show!" he narrated the excitement of the spectators before taking another potato figurine which he had dubbed Ty Lee, placing it in the center of the arena. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome," he said, throwing his voice to sound more feminine. "Luigi, Joe and Slippery Pete!" with that, Zuko placed the three sealion figurines next to Ty Lee while making exaggerated seal noises.
"Now, let's see…" Zuko spoke to himself as he carefully considered the scene before lighting up a match. "If the fire had broken out here," he said, lighting a part of the arena on fire. "Then the spectators in this part of the arena wouldn't even see it… until it had spread all the way over there, blocking them in! They would have been completely cut off and without any means to escape! So, that's how they must have horribly died in a fire while screaming in agony," Zuko smiled, feeling relieved at having finally solved the mystery. "Damn, that's a real monkey off my back. Ty Lee isn't a master arsonist, after all," Zuko told himself happily.
Zuko's state of happiness quickly turned to concern, however, when he realized that the replica of the arena was quickly being overtaken by roaring fire, threatening to burn down the entire kitchen. Zuko tried to use his bare hands to smother the fire, but it was a ridiculously bad idea because the blaze was too fierce and too hot by now. Yelping in pain, Zuko dashed to retrieve the fire extinguisher before the fire had spread uncontrollably and the restaurant was reduced to ashes.
Thirty minutes later, Zuko was sitting in the back of the ambulance with his hands heavily bandaged as a very worried Mai arrived on the scene. "Zuko, what on earth happened?" she immediately asked, facing him with a deeply concerned stare. "I would think that you of all people would be especially careful with fire!"
Zuko winced at the reminder, not that it was undeserved. He wasn't sure if he could tell Mai the embarrassing truth, however. Besides, Mai's complete lack of interest had led him down this rabbit hole to begin with. "I just had a little incident," Zuko shrugged his shoulders. "It's not a big deal."
"It's not a big deal?" Mai looked incredulous. "The fireman I spoke to certainly didn't think so! You could have died!"
"Well, it doesn't matter, because it's already in the past. In fact, I have a great suggestion for you, Mai," Zuko snapped. "Stop thinking about it. Just try to forget all about it!"
Mai glared at Zuko, but didn't say anything. Instead, she turned towards the nearby paramedic. "Can I take this dumbass home now?" she asked. The paramedic nodded. "Let's go, Zuko," Mai glared at him again. "Or will I have to drag you home by the ear?" Zuko quickly moved to follow Mai at this very effective threat. Perhaps he had spiraled way too deep down this particular rabbit hole and perhaps arguing with Mai right now was not in his best interests, unless he wanted to find himself moving back into a hotel.