Chapter 33 – the gypsy's curse
As was the custom for the crew of The Northern Lights, they often chose to spend their days off hanging out together, usually doing something outdoorsy. On this particular hot June Monday, the group of friends had decided to follow Ty Lee's suggestion to visit an amusement park on the outskirts of Caldera City. Ty Lee insisted that she was feeling a little nostalgic for her days with a traveling circus, and a visit to the amusement park would be similar enough to hit her nostalgia vibes. Nobody, not even Azula raised any complaints about the idea of hanging out at an amusement park, though the poor thing looked terrified at Yue's idea to pick Kya up from the kindergarten early so that she could come along as well.
Katara was very relieved to see that the potential tensions between Azula and Kya eased almost instantly upon them seeing each other. Kya had only recently turned four, and Katara didn't believe that at that age the little girl would truly hold on to her resentment for too long. Also, Azula had plied her with plenty of amazing and expensive gifts, which certainly helped break the ice. It was great to see Azula looking so happy and relieved when they began exploring the grounds of the amusement park while holding Kya's hand, although it did feed into Katara's ugly fears about Azula possibly deciding that she wanted to be with Yue after all.
Still, Katara didn't want to spend their rare day off as a group of friends, wallowing in bitter jealousy and paranoia. She wanted to focus on having fun, and a couple of hours after their arrival at the amusement park, Katara considered her mission thus far being accomplished.
At first, the whole group had tried to stick together, but it quickly became clear that not everyone favored the same activities, and so over time, the group crumbled apart and coalesced again as people split up and then ran into each other again while waiting in queues for various rides.
They had started their day off by invading the bumper car track. Soon enough, their competitive attempts to force each other off track had forced all the other customers to leave in a hurry, making it a private attraction for the group of friends. Of course, not all of them were equally competitive, especially Katara and Yue who were the first to become bored and bow out, frowning at Sokka's comment that they only did so because they sucked at driving. Ty Lee was the next to join them on the sidelines. Ty Lee was really good at driving her little bumper car, but she simply couldn't focus on a single activity for too long before becoming bored.
Even though Aang didn't appear to be having a lot of fun, he stuck with the activity for as long as Toph wanted to do it. Toph was having a whale of a time even if she couldn't see where she was going. Since she could never get a driver's license to sit behind the wheel of a real car, this was the closest Toph was going to experience, and she was making the most of this opportunity, getting into everyone's way and causing chaos and mayhem.
Azula, Suki and Sokka stuck with the bumper car madness the longest, getting carried away by their competitive streaks. Kya had chosen to ride with Suki, strapped in as her excited copilot, and after almost an hour of crazy racing, Suki and Kya declared themselves the winners, an assertion that would be bitterly contested by Azula and Sokka throughout the rest of the day.
Afterwards, the group had gotten together at the main rollercoaster ride of the amusement park. Katara generally liked rollercoasters as long as they weren't too crazy, but this particular rollercoaster had a very nasty full 360-degree roll that quickly made Katara feel very sick. Yue also got off the ride green in the face, while Aang had unfortunately emptied the contents of his stomach during the ride, so the three of them decided to sit out repeat rides. While Yue was looking after Kya, Katara quickly ran off to fetch a bottle of soda for Aang, hoping that it would settle his upset stomach.
Ty Lee, Sokka, Azula and Suki did a few more rollercoaster rides before declaring that they'd had enough. Toph clearly couldn't get enough because she decided to spend the rest of the day on the rollercoaster. Toph clearly loved the sensations and due to her disability, she had no clue as to how terrifying the ride actually was.
The group then decided to split up again because Azula and Suki wanted to do a haunted house, while Katara and Yue weren't interested in scares and wanted to do the Ferris wheel instead. In the end, Sokka decided to go with Azula and Suki, a decision that he appeared to regret because Azula and Suki both later had a ball, sharing pictures of a terrified and faint looking Sokka. Ty Lee decided to join Katara and Yue for the Ferris wheel experience because she was a bit of a scaredy cat. Their Ferris wheel experience was marred slightly when an overzealous attendant refused to let Kya on the ride despite Katara clearly remembering how she had been taken on a Ferris Wheel by her parents at a similar age. With Aang nursing his upset stomach and keeping an eye on Toph, he became the designated babysitter for Kya while she was busy snacking on some consolation cotton candy for not being able to go on the ride.
"This is so much nicer than that crazy rollercoaster," Yue sighed happily as their passenger car ever so slowly inched towards the top.
"I completely agree," Katara nodded. "And nobody is screaming, either. We can just relax and enjoy some girl talk."
"Well, I do love some rollercoaster action, but this is very nice, too," Ty Lee chuckled. "Speaking of girl talk, have you heard the story about Azula getting into a fight at a Ferris wheel?"
"What? We haven't heard that, have we?" Yue shook her head, looking at Katara.
Katara nodded quickly. "Do tell, Ty Lee," she said.
"It happened when Azula and I were both seventeen," Ty Lee began the story. "We were at an amusement park in the Fire Fountain City with Mai and Zuko. I saw Zuko giving the Ferris wheel attendant some cash so that he would stop the wheel when Zuko's car was at the top because he wanted to do some romantic gesture to Mai. I told Azula about it, and can you guess what she did?" Katara and Yue exchanged stares, both shaking their heads. "Azula said that she didn't want to get stuck on the Ferris wheel because of Zuko's romantic bullshit, so she went and paid the ride attendant twice what Zuko had paid to make sure he didn't stop the wheel."
"She did not," Katara burst into disbelieving laughter.
"Spirits, Azula can be so nasty," Yue shook her head, but even so she looked just a little amused.
"She can, but we love her anyway," Ty Lee laughed. "Anyway, you can imagine how pissed off Zuko was afterwards. It was the nastiest fight I had ever seen between them. We tried so hard to keep them apart, but in the melee, both me and Mai caught several punches as well. Azula had a black eye and Zuko had a busted lip, so I'm very relieved that this amusement park visit is going better."
"I don't think anyone will be fighting today," Katara said, shaking her head at the crazy story.
"Anyway, what should we do next?" Yue asked once they were on their way back down.
"Well, I really want to do the log flume ride, but only if someone does it with me," Katara said.
"Hmm, you know I love water slides, bestie, but I'm not sure about getting wet today," Yue frowned.
"I'll go with you, Katara," Ty Lee offered, smiling. Katara was struck with ever growing fondness for the cheerful Fire Nation girl, her ever present cheerfulness and the way she was always up for literally everything. "We can also check out all those smaller stalls on our way to the water slide."
"That's an awesome suggestion, Ty Lee," Yue nodded excitedly. "Maybe we can even win some prizes? I'd love to get something for Kya. For a four-year-old, she has been very patient and understanding about not being able to go on all the rides."
"That certainly deserves a reward," Katara agreed. While Kya had definitely earned a lovely new plush animal, Katara wondered if she could perhaps win something for Azula. Maybe if she gave Azula a cuddly plush, she could then somehow wrangle Azula into going on the tunnel of love ride with her, although Azula probably considered the tunnel of love to be too cheesy for her tastes. Still, Katara reasoned that it was worth a try, anyway.
Soon, they were off the Ferris wheel and on their way to the flume ride, their path sneaking through the various stalls filled with attractions that let the participants win various prizes. Ty Lee stopped at the first stall, retrieving her phone and then starting to laugh. "What is it?" Katara asked, feeling curious.
"I think this is supposed to be my boyfriend trying to impress me," Ty Lee wiped tears of laughter from her cheeks before showing the picture to Katara and Yue. It was a photo of a screaming Sokka being launched over the head of a mechanical bull.
"Well, I suppose he gets A for effort," Katara snickered at her brother's silliness.
"Yes, I don't think he ever tried to impress me this way," Yue grinned.
"Alright, then I guess I'll be impressed," Ty Lee chuckled, posting a quick comment in the group chat that consisted mostly of heart emojis. "Anyway," Ty Lee said, putting the phone away and looking around. She then pointed at a nearby stall, its shelves lined with prize plushies. "Let's try that one! I'm something of a crack shot with airsoft guns," she said proudly.
It turned out that Ty Lee wasn't quite the crack shot as she had let them to believe, but Katara also had to admit that at least Ty Lee did better than she or Yue would have done. With one last shot left, Ty Lee still had a chance to win a prize if she could make her shot count. "So, which one should I go for?" Ty Lee asked, preparing to take aim.
"Kya would love that plush dolphin to go along with her favorite seal," Yue said, tugging on Ty Lee's arm.
"But that plush dragon also looks really amazing," Katara argued, reasoning that if Kya didn't want the dragon, then it would be something that she could give to Azula as a romantic gift.
"Well, I can't go for them both, so make up your minds," Ty Lee laughed as Yue and Katara were pulling her in opposite directions.
"Careful, there!" the gruff middle-aged woman who owned the stall grunted at them, not looking at all impressed with their antics. "And stop waving that gun around like a maniac! You'll take someone's eye out with it!"
"Hey, we have everything under control," Ty Lee argued, with Katara and Yue still all over her, making it hard for Ty Lee to take aim. "If you could just-" a shot suddenly went off as Ty Lee tried to shake herself free. The shot was followed by a piercing scream of pain.
"You stupid bimbos!" the stall owner yelled, clutching the left side of her face. "You shot me in the eye!"
"I'm going to guess there are no prizes for that," Ty Lee gulped, quickly dropping the airsoft gun.
"We're really sorry," Yue apologized frantically, looking frightened. "We didn't mean for it to happen."
"Obviously, we'll pay for everything," Katara added, feeling both ashamed and guilty. She felt slightly relieved when the stall owner removed her hand from the eye, revealing that the pellet had struck her upper cheek close to the corner of the eye, but it hadn't hit the eye itself. Still, there was a nasty bruise and quite a bit of blood pouring down the angry woman's cheek.
"Oh, you're definitely going to pay, assholes," the woman glared at them. "I know ancient magic. I'm going to put a gypsy's curse on you for this." She assumed a stance that made her look like a beginner fencer. "Before the moon rises three times-" the woman proclaimed loudly before making a very long and dramatic pause.
"Yes?" Katara, Yue and Ty Lee asked in unison, leaning forward.
"YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!" the stall owner declared.
"Wait, you can't do that to us!" Ty Lee protested.
"Yes, remove this curse at once!" Yue joined in.
"This isn't fair at all," Katara nodded. "I already said we're going to cover your hospital bill," she added hastily. "Please, pretty please, remove this gypsy's curse from us? Surely, we don't deserve to die?"
"I'll think about it," the woman glared at them, not looking like she had softened one bit. Katara had to concede that the woman's anger was quite reasonable, because she was obviously in a lot of pain. "You better hope that this doesn't leave a scar, or else I'm letting the curse get you! In the meantime, try not to die, I guess!" she added before rushing out through the back door of the stall, ignoring the pleas of the three cursed girls to take pity on them.
"What are we going to do now?" Yue exclaimed, wringing her hands nervously.
"I don't know," Katara admitted. "Obviously, I've never been cursed before. Not to my knowledge, anyway."
"Let's get back to the others," Ty Lee suggested. "They might have ideas on how to solve this. Sokka is so clever, I'm sure he'll have a suggestion."
"Yes, and I'm sure he's going to treat this with the seriousness that it deserves," Katara nodded hopefully as they set out in search of the others.
Ten minutes later, the group had reconvened in the large square at the amusement park entrance, where Sokka, Azula, Suki and Toph were losing their shit, almost falling over themselves after they had listened to Katara, Yue and Ty Lee recounting their tale of woe about getting cursed. The only ones giving their story any credence seemed to be Aang and Kya.
"I don't understand what's so funny here," Yue glared at their friends, weeping from laughing too much. "Clearly, the best approach is to track down this lady and demand that she removes the curse."
"But we need the rest of you to do this," Katara insisted. "It's not safe for us to be running around while cursed. We need to hide someplace safe where nothing can happen to us."
"I'm not too worried about that," Ty Lee shrugged. "Despite the curse, I feel fine. So, I think I'll head to the hospital, try to find this mean lady and ask her to remove the curse. And I'll do it on my own, in case nobody is willing to help me," she added, giving her boyfriend as stern a stare as someone as perpetually cute as Ty Lee could manage.
"Alright, fine… let's go to the hospital and find the wandering gypsy," Sokka sighed. "But I think we'll have better luck finding a curse removal specialist at the hospital."
"Oh, do you know if they have one?" Ty Lee blinked, looking surprised. "That would come in really handy now. We need to look into this," she nodded, heading straight for her boyfriend's car, with a slightly exasperated Sokka following her.
"Alright, can someone drive us home?" Katara asked after Sokka and Ty Lee had already left. "Azula?"
"Sure," Azula nodded. She then hesitated, as if she had thought of something important. "If you want to be all by yourselves, that is. I mean, if the curse strikes, there will be nobody around to help you," Azula pointed out, very logically.
"Damn, that's a good point," Katara said, looking at Yue. "What should we do?" she asked.
"I don't know, we should probably stick together, and it would be even better if our friends could look out for us," Yue mused. "Also, I just realized… I don't want the curse to endanger Kya. Would it be possible for someone to look after her tonight?"
"I'll text my mother," Azula offered. "She and Kiyi could take her in for the night. They would probably have a good time together."
"Baby, would you like to have a sleepover with Kiyi?" Yue asked softly, kneeling next to Kya and tousling her daughter's hair.
"Ooh, can I?" Kya gave her mother a puppy eyed stare. "Kiyi's mom always has so many snacks for us! And we can build a fort in Kiyi's room!"
"You can certainly do all that," Yue agreed, looking relieved at how little persuasion was required to sell Kya on the idea. "I'll come pick you up in the morning, hopefully with this whole curse business resolved and behind us," she added, hugging her daughter and kissing her cheeks. "Suki, I don't suppose you could take Kya to her babysitter?"
"Sure," Suki shrugged. "But I want to go on record saying that you're being really ridiculous about this." Yue glared at Suki. "Although… maybe I shouldn't be so dismissive of something as serious as a curse," Suki quickly amended herself.
"Whipped," Toph snorted, shaking her head.
"Whatever, Toph," Suki glared. "Anyway, where are you going to stay? I'll stop by to help keep you safe."
"I was going to ask Azula to take us back to the restaurant," Katara said. "There's plenty of room in the apartment above. We should be safe there."
"Yes," Aang nodded sagely. "Because, as we know, no strange and unexplained accidents ever happen at our restaurant. It's as normal as any place could ever hope to be."
Ty Lee had always held a great dislike for hospitals. They were not at all cheerful places and their auras were almost universally heavy and grim. Now that Ty Lee also had this gypsy curse to worry about, she really hoped that they could wrap up their business at the hospital as quickly as possible.
After arriving at the hospital, Ty Lee and Sokka had decided to split up in order to cover more ground. Sokka had offered to find the injured stall owner and settle things with her, hopefully getting the surly woman to remove the curse. Ty Lee figured that it was a good idea to let Sokka handle it, because the injured woman didn't hold an unreasonable grudge against her boyfriend.
In the meantime, Ty Lee was left wandering around the hospital in search of someone who could help with removing the curse. The receptionists had given her strange stares after she had made her inquiries with them. One woman had decided that asking for curse removal was a codeword for getting rid of an STD, and she had given Ty Lee completely wrong directions. So, Ty Lee was now trying to find a specialist on her own, thus far without much luck.
After a fair bit of searching, Ty Lee arrived on the floor where several GPs had their practices. This seemed as good of a path to pursue as any other, because surely despite Sokka's skepticism, people probably got cursed on a daily basis, so most GPs probably had experience handling curses. Since Ty Lee had never bothered to choose a GP after coming back to Caldera City, she decided to randomly try the first door she came across.
Entering the large waiting room, Ty Lee groaned upon seeing how full it was. While Ty Lee was normally well behaved and would not even think of cutting in front of the queue, she also couldn't afford to sit there for hours while the curse slowly killed her. Under these circumstances, Ty Lee decided that some trickery was morally justified, and through the use of sweet smiles and sharp elbows, she eventually battled through the crowd to reach the nurse's desk.
"Hey, so I urgently need to see the doctor," Ty Lee spoke up once she had managed to attract the nurse's attention.
"You and everyone else in this room," the nurse rolled her eyes. "Do you have an appointment?"
Ty Lee paused momentarily. She didn't like lying because it left dark and ugly stains on her generally bright pink aura. However, having a dark and ugly aura was surely better than having no aura at all because she was dead. "Sure, I have an appointment," Ty Lee replied cheerfully.
"What's your name?" the nurse asked curtly.
Ty Lee cast a quick glance at all the scattered documents on the nurse's desk, picking out a random name she spotted in the files. "Name's Ishida," Ty Lee said confidently.
The nurse gave her an amused smirk. "Well, aren't you looking great today, Miss Ishida," she said. Ty Lee was about to reply before the nurse continued. "Probably because you have grown two new legs."
Ty Lee laughed nervously. "Did you hear me say Ishida? Because I clearly said Matsuda," she tried again.
"Well, that's even more remarkable, Miss Matsuda," the nurse chuckled. "You died at six o'clock this morning, and also appear to have changed sex."
"Alright, fine, so maybe I don't have an appointment," Ty Lee sighed.
"Well, why don't you make one?" the nurse glared at her.
"Because I didn't know I would need it," Ty Lee exclaimed. "And now it's an emergency because I only have three days left to live!"
"Why, what's wrong with you?" the nurse finally looked interested.
"I don't know, that's why I need to see the doctor," Ty Lee said, deciding not to mention the curse outright because so far everyone she had mentioned it to at the hospital had given her weird stares before walking away at a brisk pace.
"Well, how do you feel?" the nurse continued to question her.
"Honestly, I feel great," Ty Lee admitted the truth. Obviously, in her mind, it proved nothing, because the curse was probably slow acting.
"Look, there are some genuinely ill people here in need of attention," the nurse glared at her. "I can put you down for an appointment next Friday."
Ty Lee stepped away from the nurse's desk, letting out a heavy sigh. "So, this is it, isn't it?" she exclaimed, feeling greatly aggrieved. "The Fire Nation makes such a big fuss about encouraging their expats to come back, but when we do, we can't even get to see a doctor! We're left to be slowly killed while we wait! Don't we all deserve better?" There were mutters of agreement in the busy waiting room as Ty Lee's impassioned speech found receptive ears. "I think we deserve better! I pay my tax-" Ty Lee paused briefly, blinking. "Well, that's not important. What I was saying is that I demand to see the doctor because I'm too cute and too pretty to die!"
At that moment, the doors to the doctor's office flew open and a tall man with a stern looking moustache and bald pate ran out to break up the commotion, doing so by grabbing Ty Lee by the ear and literally dragging her into his office, just like the principal at Ty Lee's high school had done to misbehaving students. In the doctor's office, Ty Lee found herself rather aggressively poked and prodded for several minutes before the doctor finally stepped away, glaring at her. "There's obviously nothing wrong with you, at least not physically," the doctor sighed. "In fact, you're probably the healthiest young woman I've seen over the past ten years. I would be impressed if I wasn't so mad at you for causing all that ruckus and stirring up drama."
"There's nothing wrong with me?" Ty Lee gasped. "Are you quite sure, doc?"
"Yes, I'm sure!" the doctor near-yelled at her. "Now, will you please finally leave, or do I have to call the security?"
"Thank you, doc, I'm leaving, I promise!" Ty Lee exclaimed happily as she skipped out of the doctor's office, bursting with joy as she made her way to the elevators at the end of the hallway. Maybe the curse really was a bunch of nonsense as Sokka thought.
Ty Lee stopped at the end of the hallway and pressed a button to summon the elevator. While she was waiting, an elderly man in a wheelchair rolled up to her. As the elevator doors opened with a soft chime, Ty Lee politely stepped aside and allowed the disabled man to enter first.
"Thank you, miss… yaaaaaargh!" the old man screamed as together with the wheelchair he fell into the elevator shaft and plummeted towards his doom, yelling all the way. Several seconds later, there was a nasty crash, making Ty Lee wince. The elevator doors then closed in her face, revealing an 'Out of Order' sign she had missed earlier.
"How terrible," Ty Lee cringed. "That could have been me!" She thought to herself for a moment, finally snapping her fingers. "Of course! Obviously, I'm not dying from an illness, I'm the very picture of perfect health! The curse will strike through an accident! The only question is… how?"
Azula was having an absolute ball with this whole gypsy curse mess. Watching Katara, Yue and Ty Lee lose their minds while seriously believing that the gypsy's curse was real was peak comedy gold. Together with Sokka and Suki, they were having a hard time not constantly laughing about the way the curse victims were gripped with panic over the smallest things, whether it was someone's phone suddenly ringing or Suki opening a window, with Yue complaining that she might accidentally fall out, or Katara worrying that the window might fall in. In short, the three girls were being absolutely ridiculous and Azula found it the cutest and silliest thing ever, while also immediately sensing an opportunity to have even more fun at the expense of these superstitions.
The cursed trio had spent the last quarter of an hour to clear up the middle of the living space to make sure that nothing would fall on top of them, after which they had constructed themselves a pillow fort of an impressive size, only occasionally peeking their worried noses outside. Meanwhile, Azula and Sokka were sitting on a nearby sofa, watching this comedy unfold over a bottle of Chardonnay. Having dropped Kya off at Ursa's place, Suki was also back at the restaurant, whipping up a meal for the cursed trio. Azula was having a hard time keeping a straight face as she tried to imagine the reactions once the meal was served.
"This is an amazing pillow fort. It's even better than the ones we used to build with Mai and Azula," Ty Lee said, sounding bored. "But the problem is that there's nothing to do in here."
"Why don't you follow our example and read a book?" Katara asked. She and Yue were both busy reading. Sokka had grabbed a couple of desk lamps and an extension cord to make sure the girls had plenty of light inside their pillow fort.
"I'm afraid Ty Lee isn't one for books, Kat," Azula laughed.
"Yeah, Azula is right," Ty Lee admitted. "I once tried to read a book and ended up falling into coma."
"I don't believe it," Yue said. "What was the book, do you remember?"
"I'm not sure," Ty Lee replied. "Oh, wait… I think it was called 'Under the Bridge with Dick and Harry'."
Azula sighed. "No, Ty Lee, you tried to read the Unabridged Dictionary. That's why you almost fell into coma because it was so boring."
Sokka burst into laughter. "I could find you some fun audio books to listen to," he suggested. "Maybe that'll be better for you than reading?"
"That might work," Ty Lee said. "As long as they have plenty of pictures."
Azula and Sokka exchanged stares, having to bite down on their fingers in order not to burst into laughter. "Sure, Ty, I'll get you one with the most pictures," Sokka chuckled. "Something with princesses and dragons should work perfectly fine."
"You're catching on quickly," Azula grinned at Sokka. "But don't make the mistake assuming that Ty Lee only loves wholesome things. She has layers, too."
"Yes, I'm just like an ogre," Ty Lee agreed. "Also, I seem to have an appetite of an ogre, because I'm starving. Are you sure Suki hasn't forgotten about us?"
"Yeah, I'm also getting very hungry," Yue echoed Ty Lee's statement. "Could one of you please go and check up on Suki?"
"Will do," Azula offered. Normally, she would have never agreed to move from the comfy sofa and would have simply bullied Sokka to do it, but Azula was very curious to see how the meal was coming along, so she got up from the sofa and proceeded downstairs to the kitchen, where Suki was busy operating a huge industrial blender to mix up something that looked like particularly foul grey sludge. "Whoa, that looks even worse than in my wildest nightmares," Azula remarked.
"I know, right?" Suki grinned. "The funny thing is that the taste actually is not that bad. And why would it be, there are only delicious things in this, right? But the texture and how it looks visually makes all the difference."
"Yes, it looks suitably gross," Azula said as she peeked at the grey sludge. "I feel like you've blended it more than enough by now. You've reduced everything to the consistency of a cream."
"Yeah, it's probably enough," Suki agreed. "Grab some bowls and let's make sure our sludge has a nice presentation. I'm thinking mint leaves."
"That should make for a nice touch," Azula grinned. Soon enough, Suki was carrying a tray with three bowls of foul looking slop up the stairs, with Azula trailing her.
"Ladies! Dinner is served!" Suki called out in a singsong voice once she had placed the tray on a coffee table near the pillow fort.
Katara, Yue and Ty Lee carefully poked their noses out from the fort, eventually daring to approach the coffee table, lured by their hunger. The three girls were left bewildered, staring at the bowls of unappetizing grey slop. "What is this?" Yue asked uncertainly. "You agreed to make us cheeseburgers with fries."
"And I did," Suki replied proudly. "These are your cheeseburgers and fries."
"Is this a joke?" Katara looked unimpressed and even a little bit angry.
"Yeah, this doesn't look like any cheeseburger I've ever had," Ty Lee frowned.
"Well, obviously," Suki sighed. "I had to put it all through a blender, didn't I?" The cursed trio stared at Suki as if she had lost her mind. "You're worried about deadly accidents, right? Have you any idea how many people in the Fire Nation die every year from choking on their food? More than a dozen! Cheeseburger and fries are definitely choking hazards, so I had to blend your food because I care about my friends."
Katara, Yue and Ty Lee exchanged stares. "You know what? That's good thinking, Suki," Katara was forced to admit. "You did the right thing," she added with a sigh, grabbing her spoon and preparing to dig in, with Yue and Ty Lee reluctantly following Katara's example.
"This is… lovely," Yue shuddered, having managed to swallow a spoonful of the slop. "You're very thoughtful, Suki."
The three girls were still far from being halfway through their meal when they were starting to turn green in their faces. "I don't think I can have any more of this without throwing up," Yue groaned, pushing her bowl aside.
"Same here," Ty Lee nodded. "Also, I think we were promised some milkshakes? I really need one to wash down… whatever that was."
"It had the consistency of wallpaper glue," Katara winced. "A milkshake would really hit the spot right now."
"But you've already had your milkshakes," Suki pointed out innocently. "I blended them in with the burgers and the fries." The cursed trio all as one fell over, making retching sounds.
"So, this is how we die," Yue exclaimed dramatically. "Poisoned by Suki."
"I feel like you're being a trifle unfair to Suki here," Azula pointed out, trying to hold back her laughter. "She was trying to help you, but all you're doing is criticizing her."
"No, you're right," Katara admitted, once she had gotten the grip on her nausea. "I'm sorry for being ungrateful, Suki. It's just that we need some solid food. I'm prepared to take a risk and order pizzas for us all."
"That hardly seems safe," Sokka shook his head. "Remember, you only have to go like this for three days. If you make it through safely, the curse will just expire on its own, right?"
"Right," Yue nodded. "But since when you're such an expert or believer in curses, anyway?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at Sokka.
"Well, I was convinced by my girlfriend almost falling into an elevator shaft," Sokka replied smoothly. "Anyway, people have survived without eating for up to a week, so three days shouldn't be that hard as long as you keep yourself hydrated."
"Of course, then there's the matter of potty breaks," Suki pointed out, struggling to contain her glee.
"That's right, the staff toilets are downstairs," Ty Lee sighed. "That trip could be dangerous. We could fall down the stairs and break our necks."
"True, but we'll have to chance it at some point anyway," Yue admitted reluctantly. "We can't last for three days without going to the toilet."
"Ugh, all this talk about toilets is reminding me how much I actually need to go," Katara groaned, wincing as she crossed her legs, looking very uncomfortable. "You know what, I'll just take that risk because I'm about to burst," she said, getting up to her feet and heading for the stairs.
"Just be careful, Kat," Azula called out after her. Katara turned her head to face Azula, smiling, and then promptly walking into a piece of furniture, stabbing her toe on a table leg.
"The curse is real!" Katara squeaked, dashing back to the pillow fort and diving inside. "I'm so going to hold it in." Ty Lee looked to be in agreement with Katara, also disappearing into the fort to hide.
"It can't be healthy to hold back from peeing for days," Yue shook her head. "Maybe that's how the curse is going to kill us by having our bladders explode?" she wondered, giving Azula, Suki and Sokka a deeply concerned stare. "Listen, you have to find that woman from the amusement park and convince her to remove the curse," Yue pleaded. "I know she wasn't at the hospital Sokka and Ty Lee checked out, but it's not like Caldera City has that many hospitals she could have gone to. If you three were to split up, I'm sure you would find her quickly enough."
"I'm sure we would," Azula said. "But I wouldn't feel right about leaving you unprotected. What if something happens to you while we're gone?"
"If the curse is really going to kill us, then you sticking around isn't going to make much of a difference," Katara argued from within the pillow fort. "You trying to remove the curse and leaving us unprotected is a risk I'm willing to take."
"Alright, if you say so," Azula said, trying to sound ominous. "Suki, Sokka, shall we be off? I'll make a list of all the Caldera hospitals and plan our routes if one of you takes the wheel." Suki caught on immediately, while Sokka seemed reluctant to follow, reacting only to Azula's furious winking.
"Let's take my car and I'll drive," Sokka said once they were outside the restaurant.
"Fair enough," Azula nodded. "But I hope you realize we're not actually going to waste our time chasing shadows around the city's hospitals, right?"
"I knew you had some kind of a plan," Suki rubbed her hands.
"I wasn't so convinced, because remember how much of a simp Azula is for Yue and Katara," Sokka chuckled. Suki burst into laughter at that, making Azula frown. "Anyway, what are you thinking?"
"I figure that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to really prey on the superstitions of our gullible but very cute friends," Azula grinned. "So, I was thinking that we could go over to my place and put together a scary Grim Reaper costume. Then we could pretend that Death itself has come to claim the souls of these three cursed victims."
"Devious," Suki smiled, licking her lips. "If we could stop at my place, I have this Grim Reaper skull mask from Halloween a couple of years back."
"And I know where we can borrow a scythe," Sokka grinned, looking to be all in on the plan. "A word of caution, though," he warned. "Those three are going to be really pissed once they discover that we have pranked them. Now, I don't think Ty Lee would be mad enough to break up with me-"
"She won't," Azula confidently shook her head. "She's always been a good sport about things like these."
"Katara and Yue might not be, though," Suki pointed out. "Those two can hold a grudge."
"Don't worry about it," Azula replied nonchalantly. "If you're that worried, I'll be happy to claim all responsibility. Let them be mad at me."
"Do you want Katara and Yue to torture you or something?" Suki chuckled.
"Oh, don't threaten me with good time, Suki," Azula smirked.
"Wait, are you hoping for them to torture you?" Sokka started to laugh. Azula felt her cheeks becoming very warm. "You're one kinky bitch, Nakamura."
"No comment," Azula managed a curt reply, glaring impatiently at the chuckling Sokka and Suki. "Let's be on our way already, shall we?"
A couple of hours later, their work on the Grim Reaper costume was complete. With Sokka's help, Suki had done most of the work by sewing a cowl onto a large black makeshift robe. Azula had been mostly useless throughout the whole process, although she felt like she had done important work feeding Katara fake information about searching the various hospitals and coming up short. Also, she had almost peed herself while laughing at Katara's story about how the three cursed girls had valiantly braved a toilet run. It sounded like peak drama, with Ty Lee slipping on the stairs and the paper towel dispenser inexplicably falling on Yue's head, further strengthening the belief of the three girls that the curse was real.
It was already close to midnight when Azula and her co-conspirators arrived back at the restaurant. Obviously, Azula wanted for it to be dark outside to amplify the scariness as the Grim Reaper made its appearance. It took some effort for them to get ready with Suki riding piggyback on Sokka, and Azula then climbing onto Suki while draping the large Grim Reaper costume over them. The extra height now made the figure appear more otherworldly, although Azula was a little worried that they looked a bit more like Slenderman than the Grim Reaper, but she supposed that the skull mask and the scythe helped.
Making up the stairs in their getup was definitely a challenging proposal and Azula was concerned about Sokka's back giving out, but apparently Sokka's practice of carrying around fully grown sea lions had given him the necessary stamina to endure. Huffing and puffing, the Grim Reaper arrived at the top of the stairs to face the pillow fort. The upstairs apartment was sinking in darkness, with the cursed trio seemingly having fallen asleep. Azula grabbed her phone to play a previously prepared record with ominous sounds on a loop, like creaking floorboards, doors opening and terrified screams in the distance.
"Anyone else heard that ominous creaking sound?" Katara was the first to react, speaking up worriedly.
"I sure did," Ty Lee replied nervously, her head poking out of the pillow fort, followed by the two equally concerned Water Tribe girls. "Is… is somebody there?" Ty Lee exclaimed, having spotted the tall shape hanging around near the stairs. "W-who are you?"
Azula burst into villainous laughter. "I am Death!" she roared, throwing her voice to sound more terrifying.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know!" Ty Lee apologized politely. "WHO ARE YOU?" she yelled at Azula.
Azula rolled her eyes. Sokka and Suki were cracking up inside the costume, under her. "I'm Death, not deaf!" Azula roared.
"Oh no!" Yue exclaimed. "The Grim Reaper has come for us!" She tried to pull back at the same time as Katara and Ty Lee, so they ended up crashing into the pillow fort and it collapsed all around them.
"That's right!" Azula roared. Her throat was going to be ruined come tomorrow, but it was definitely worth it for the laughs. "I have come to claim your souls!"
"Please, Death, we're too young to die!" Katara whimpered, reemerging from the ruined pillow fort. "Is there anything we can offer instead of our souls?" Katara begged.
"Hmm, let me think," Azula paused. She hadn't prepared anything for this kind of bargaining, so she needed to improvise. However, she wasn't quick enough to come up with an idea before Suki beat her to it.
"You can save your souls if all three of you start making out right here and right now," Suki spoke in a gruff voice.
"Hey, that's not what we agreed on," Sokka hissed inside the suit, with Azula finding herself in agreement with Katara's brother.
Meanwhile, the cursed trio appeared a little stunned by the request, staring uncertainly at the Grim Reaper. "Oh well, I've been wanting to do this for a while now, anyway," Ty Lee reacted the first, grabbing Katara's shoulders and starting to kiss her. Soon enough they were full-on making out with hands unashamedly all over each other.
"Hmm, you sounded different just now," Yue remarked, appearing a little suspicious as she stared at the Grim Reaper. "Still, I want to keep my soul, so save some sugar for me, girls," she decided before yanking Katara away from Ty Lee and starting to kiss her ex-girlfriend. Ty Lee wasn't going to be content with just watching, because she kept getting in between Katara and Yue, stealing passionate kisses from both of them.
"That's my girlfriend making out with my sister," Sokka grumbled unhappily. "It's wrong and it needs to stop."
"Oh, don't be so uptight, Sokka, it's just a bit of harmless sexy fun," Suki hissed. Azula was very conflicted about what she was witnessing. On one hand, she was definitely becoming very hot and bothered because the display in front of her was incredibly arousing. But on the other hand, Ty Lee wasn't a part of their agreement of casual fun, so seeing her childhood friend moving in on what Azula considered her territory filled Azula with bitter jealousy.
"I'm telling them to stop," Sokka warned. His next words came out muffled and Azula assumed it was because Suki had slapped her hand across Sokka's mouth to silence him.
What followed was Suki making a very sudden and sharp move that almost threw Azula off her back. "Ow!" Suki yelled. "He bit me!"
Katara, Yue and Ty Lee stopped their passionate making out session to stare at the Grim Reaper. "Is, uh… is everything alright?" Ty Lee asked.
"That voice sounded very familiar…" Yue remarked, appearing even more suspicious than before. "I could have sworn-"
Meanwhile, Suki and Sokka were still struggling, with Suki clearly annoyed at having been bitten. "Keep it steady, you two! You're going to make us-" Azula's sentence remained unfinished as the struggle between Suki and Sokka eventually unbalanced them, and after a lot of very dramatic flailing at the top of the stairs, the Grim Reaper ended up tumbling down the steps. "Fall down the stairs," Azula summarized, spread-eagled on the floor below, with Suki and Sokka lying next to her, looking dazed.
"I don't believe this!" Ty Lee exclaimed, appearing at the top of the stairs. "It's Azula, Sokka and Suki!"
"I knew those voices sounded familiar!" Yue shouted.
"They were the Grim Reaper?" Katara asked, looking incredulous. Then her lips contorted into a wicked grim. "Let's get them! It's revenge time!" The trio had clearly forgotten all about the curse as they charged down the stairs and pounced on their helpless victims. Ty Lee fell on Sokka, Yue pinned Suki to the ground and Katara tackled Azula before she could get up. "Let's tickle torture them to death!" Katara yelled.
"Ugh, Suki isn't at all ticklish," Yue sighed after her efforts to torture Suki weren't producing any meaningful results. "But also, she has a bleeding headwound so maybe she doesn't need any more punishing."
"Thanks," Suki groaned weakly in response.
Meanwhile, Ty Lee was having a little more success in tickling Sokka, although Sokka seemed to be graciously allowing it before eventually seizing Ty Lee's hands and stopping her. "Okay, that's enough," he said before fixing his girlfriend with a glare. "Anyway, what was that about having wanted to kiss my sister for a long time?" Sokka asked.
"Oh, that… that may have come out wrong," Ty Lee chuckled nervously. "It's just that I have been dying to know what it is about Katara and Yue that has made Azula so fixated on them. And, well… now I definitely know the answer to that," she grinned. "But don't worry, Sokka, my curiosity has been satisfied. You're my one and only teddy bear, I promise," Ty Lee added softly, reaching out and shutting down any further complaints by kissing her boyfriend.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm having a great time with my victim," Katara grinned, mercilessly tickling Azula and getting some impressive results because Azula was ridiculously ticklish. Tears were pouring down Azula's cheeks as she couldn't stop laughing while begging Katara to stop.
"Please, enough," Azula begged. "I actually have something for you that might soothe your anger."
"Speak, lowly worm," Katara ordered as she sat on top of Azula, pinning her victim to the floor.
"Remember that nice cabin we rented a month ago? And the asshole owner who later canceled our reservation?" Azula asked. Katara nodded curtly. "Well, he called me earlier to apologize, and to make us an offer. Apparently, someone canceled on him, so he's offering the cabin this weekend for us at half price. I took him up on the offer, because I figured you'd want to go."
"That sounds amazing," Yue spoke up. "I'll be happy to go back there."
"Me too," Suki echoed the girl on top of her, still sounding a little dazed.
"Can we go, too?" Ty Lee asked, giving Sokka a hopeful look.
"If I hadn't just seen you making out with my sister, I might have said yes," Sokka replied. "Anyway, I think we'll be looking after Kya while her mother gets up to acts of wicked depravity." Yue burst into giggles at that.
"Sounds like everyone is excited about this cabin trip," Azula gave Katara a hopeful smile. "Does that mean I might be forgiven?"
"Hmm… yes, well played," Katara admitted with a reluctant smile before leaning in to give Azula a quick kiss. "Consider yourself forgiven."