Chapter 1 – introducing northern lights
"It's RAW!"
Sokka cringed inwardly at the shout coming from the dining room. He could already envision Yue hurrying back to the kitchen with yet another returned plate, barely holding back the tears.
"Are you doing it on purpose?" Yue asked in a trembling voice as she shoved the returned plate back in the window. A few tears had already spilled out across her cheeks even if it was just the third returned plate of the evening. Usually, Yue lasted at least until five returned plates before she had a breakdown.
"Well, what's the problem with it?" Sokka asked, even if he could see the issue a mile away. The fucking burger was as pink as a cat's tongue.
"It's pink! Sokka, it's pink!" Yue exclaimed desperately. "I know you've given up, but could you just stop throwing me under the bus out there?"
"I haven't given up," Sokka snapped defiantly.
This was an old song and dance between him and Yue. They'd been dating for several years already by the time Sokka had come to work at the restaurant, bringing Yue with him. He'd been a semester away from earning his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering before putting it all on hold because his family needed his help. Two years ago, their grandmother back in Cape Kuruk had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and his father had moved back to the Water Tribes in order to take care of Gran-Gran.
Together with his sister Katara, they both had been forced to put their dreams on indefinite hold in order to save the family business. Their father had managed to kept the restaurant just above the water on his watch, and Sokka wasn't going to let the whole thing go down in flames and ruin their family with crippling financial debt. So, Yue was wrong to accuse him of not caring, but Sokka was sure that Yue didn't even mean it. She was just frustrated and seeking an outlet.
Sokka's problem was not that he didn't care. Sokka's problem was that he cared too much, and yet it still wasn't enough. Whatever magic his father had spun to keep the place barely profitable didn't seem to be working with Sokka in the kitchen and Katara overseeing the restaurant as a manager. Sokka had placed his own dreams on hold only to fail miserably. He cared, but he was also becoming deeply disillusioned.
"Could have fooled me," Yue muttered bitterly. She looked deeply resentful, and it filled Sokka with an overwhelming feeling of guilt. This job had poisoned and ended their relationship, but at least they had managed to remain on good terms for Kya's sake. The restaurant couldn't fail for that reason alone. If he couldn't help Yue provide for their daughter who was about to turn three years old, then how was Sokka anything else but worthless?
"Everyone's all about eating fresh these days, anyway," Sokka grumbled. Internally, he had already accepted the blame. He simply had trouble showing it.
"Not that fresh, though," Suki piped up, approaching the window to take a look. Suki Arya was the sous chef at Northern Lights, and also Sokka's current girlfriend. They'd been together for almost a year and along with Kya, Suki was one of those rare bright lights in Sokka's life that kept him going. "Any fresher, and this burger would go moo at the customer," Suki chuckled, then looking over at Yue. "Do we need to redo the plate?"
"No, they walked," Yue sighed, shaking her head and walking away. "Anyway, I'm taking a break. Aang can handle things on his own for now."
"Damn, that's rough," Suki said, shaking her head. "I feel so bad for her."
"I know, but I'm not doing it on purpose," Sokka replied. He then let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head. "Sorry, that came out more defensively than I intended."
"Don't worry about it," Suki smiled at him. "Reset and start again, okay?"
"Okay," Sokka nodded, smiling back at her. Suki wasn't part of their friend group back in high school. It had been him, Katara, Yue, Toph and Aang all the way. Suki had befriended Yue and Katara in college, and Sokka had come to know her through his sister and his girlfriend at the time. It was only after Sokka had been dragged into the family business and Suki had somehow ended up helping out, that they had begun to develop a tighter bond, and it had come at the exact same time as his relationship with Yue had started to break apart.
Sokka had never intended for this relationship with Suki to become something more than just being close friends, but with Suki going through her own breakup at the same time, things had simply… happened. Sokka was aware that with Yue still at the restaurant, things could have become very awkward. And things had been awkward for a good while because Sokka and Suki tried to hide their relationship from Yue, not wanting to upset her. When the secret eventually came out, both Suki and Yue had offered to resign to make things less weird, but in the end, they had all agreed to try and work through the awkwardness. Unfortunately, success at diplomacy didn't translate to successful running of the restaurant, as hard as they might try.
"Move on to the next ticket?" Suki spoke up a while later, having decided that Sokka was good to resume working. "What are we having?"
"Two lasagna, two burgers," Sokka read the ticket. "Alright, it's redemption time," he said, reaching for the burger patty.
"You can do it," Suki gave him a thumbs up before returning to her own station to start working on the sides.
"Maybe we should start boiling the burgers," Sokka chuckled, throwing the flattened patties onto the hot grill. "I've heard it's a new fad."
"That sounds so gross," Suki shuddered. "We are not boiling the burgers."
"Yeah," Sokka chuckled. "I figured you wouldn't be a fan of that idea."
Suki Arya sighed inwardly as she sneaked a peak at her boyfriend working the grill nearby. Sokka was literally playing with fire again. He was simply running the grill way too hot and so the burgers ran an increased risk of being charred on the outside while still remaining pink and stone cold inside. The frustrating part was that Suki had shown Sokka what he was doing wrong, and yet, Sokka was stubbornly refusing to take criticism or suggestions. Suki didn't even believe that it was arrogance or misogyny that made her boyfriend act in such a frustrating manner. Sokka was clearly suffering from a savior complex, Suki had realized that much. Sokka believed that it was his mission to save the restaurant from bankruptcy and he was convinced that he could only do that as the head chef.
Of course, it wasn't that Suki was some kind of experienced or well-educated chef, but she certainly had a lot more experience than Sokka. Her foster parents had owned a diner and she'd spent plenty of time in the kitchen while growing up. She was not just a college dropout, she was also a culinary school dropout, but she'd picked up a thing or two during her time at the culinary school. And most of her part time jobs as a student had been with various restaurants around Caldera City, so she definitely felt a little more qualified for her current job than Sokka. Sokka's qualifications for a chef basically amounted to being enamored with fast food of dubious quality.
"Are we falling behind?" Suki asked after Aang, their busboy, dishwasher and prep cook in one person had brought up more tickets to the window. It appeared that Yue was still busy getting her nerves under control. Usually that involved either poring her heart out to Katara in the manager's office or sneaking out back to roll up a joint and let the devil's lettuce soothe her pain. Suki definitely didn't judge Yue for struggling to cope. This job could get very stressful at times, and Suki would occasionally sneak out to join Yue behind the restaurant for a quick smoke.
"Five tickets, I think we're still on top of it," Sokka replied, sounding a little strained. Tonight, food wasn't coming back as much as on some other nights, but still, Suki could tell that Sokka was taking it too personally. The financial burden hanging over their heads didn't help.
"What do we have going next?" Suki asked. "Talk to me. We need to stay on top of things." With only sixteen tables, Northern Lights wasn't a large restaurant. Suki knew that the only way to make a profit at a place like this was to turn the tables quickly, and yet they still often struggled with that. Suki wasn't completely sure what exactly was slowing them down, though. Perhaps they just weren't good enough and had bitten off more than they could chew.
"We have two crab, one lasagna, two chicken burger," Sokka replied, reading the next ticket. "Can you pass me some more chicken from the fridge?" Sokka asked. He then walked over to the wall and stuck his head in a chute. "Two crab and one lasagna please!" he shouted.
"Heard!" Toph, the blind girl working the microwave station, yelled back. Suki wasn't a big fan of microwaving half the items on the menu, but Sokka insisted that it was needed to make them faster. Most of the kitchens Suki had worked at had microwaved some of their food, so she didn't necessarily saw anything wrong with the practice.
"Sokka, I don't see any chicken breasts in here," Suki replied, having checked the fridges. "I think we might be out. This is really bad."
"I'm sure there are more in the walk-in fridge," Sokka said, looking at her. His stare turned a little pleading. "Please? I really don't want to deal with Jet right now."
"I'll talk to him," Suki sighed. Jet apparently had a lot of local contacts and thus he had been hired as the food manager, keeping the restaurant supplied and maintaining the cold room inventory. He was also Katara's boyfriend, which was the main reason why Sokka didn't harbor particularly warm feelings towards the guy, believing him to be poorly suited for his little sister. Suki understood Sokka's protectiveness, but she didn't agree with it. Katara was very much an adult and capable of making her own rational decisions. And even if Suki and Jet didn't always see eye to eye, Suki wanted to think that it was only because of professional reasons. Suki thought that the cold room was way too messy and she also didn't like how Jet became really ticked off when someone took stuff out of the walk-in fridge without informing him and messing up his inventory.
"Let me know if he gives you any lip," Sokka said as Suki was about to leave the kitchen.
"Don't worry about me, I can handle Jet just fine by myself," Suki snorted. "Provided I can find him," she sighed quietly, referring to one of Jet's least endearing qualities of always conveniently going missing whenever he was most needed around the restaurant.
"I feel like I'm at the end of my rope, Kat," Yue sighed, burying her head in her hands as she sat in the office of her best friend and the somewhat frazzled manager of Northern Lights. "I feel as if on nights like these I could really do with some help out there. Aang is trying, but he's already overworked."
"I want to help, I really do, but I'm buried here," Katara replied, both sounding and looking guilty, which wasn't a reaction Yue had been going for. "And you know that Jet thinks a manager shouldn't also be running the front of the house."
"I don't give-… I don't think that Jet knows more about running a restaurant than the rest of us," Yue replied, only barely managing to stave off a surge of anger and frustration. She didn't really blame Katara for her personal issues. Yue knew that her best friend was also struggling with her leadership role, suffering mentally when her efforts didn't seem to be pulling the ailing establishment out of the mire it was sinking into. It was unfair to expect that Katara would also tend to the front of the house. Besides, Yue desperately needed all of her tips. She just wanted a little extra help during the peak hours.
"You're the best waitress I know, love," Katara said softly, reaching out across the desk and taking Yue's hand. The gesture made Yue feel warm as she was briefly reminded of the days when she and Katara were dating. They'd gotten quite serious, or at least as serious as high school couples would, making all sorts of exciting plans for the future. But when Yue and Sokka had left for the college, leaving Katara behind, distance had eventually undermined their relationship.
Feeling alone and homesick, Yue and Sokka had started to gravitate towards each other, eventually finding comfort in each other's arms. Yue still felt horribly guilty every time she recalled the conversation in which she had revealed the truth of dating her brother to Katara. Katara hadn't wanted to see her face for months while she rebounded with a dorky guy from her class, a boy by the name of Haru Tamang. That romance had survived a couple of months into college before falling apart, and soon thereafter, Katara had finally forgiven Yue. They had been inseparable since, and their friendship was the main reason why Yue could never quit this job even if it threatened to drive her insane. She owed intense loyalty to the Enuaraq siblings and she loved both Katara and Sokka so much, even if their romances had failed.
"Kind of you to say, especially when I really don't feel that way," Yue sighed. Objectively, she knew that she was a good server. Most people really liked interacting with her and they left generous tips. Where Yue really struggled was with customers who were rude, nitpicky and looking to cause drama. Yue knew that she often caved in too fast under the pressure of such customers, and it was often a point of contention between her and Sokka. Yue knew that some of the plates she returned to the kitchen were actually perfectly fine and she had just given up on arguing with a rude customer. But more often than not, the customer complaints about the food were valid, at least as far as Yue was convinced.
"You'll get the hang of it, I know you will," Katara insisted passionately before her expression turned guilty again. "Believe me, I would like to hire another waitress, but-"
"No, please, I don't even want you to do that," Yue said hastily. She really couldn't afford to share her tips with anyone else, not unless business really picked up. She was already living paycheck to paycheck, barely able to afford a small two-room apartment in a seedy neighborhood for herself and her daughter. She knew that Katara and Sokka were doing all they could to help her. Katara hadn't paid herself anything in over a year, and Sokka only took out enough to pay his share to support Kya.
"I still want to do something," Katara insisted. "It's been a while since we last got together and did something. You know, outside of work. Let's make the next Sunday a day just for us, girls. We can take Kya on a picnic."
"That would be lovely," Yue managed a grateful smile. "Maybe Suki and Toph could join us for a proper girl's day out."
"Good idea," Katara nodded. "I know this job feels like it's too much at times. You don't need to tell me that. We all need an escape from it now and then."
"Indeed," Yue smiled in agreement. "Anyway, I should get back before even someone as patient as Aang is driven to exasperation by a customer who wants to argue about the arrangement of their Caesar salad. Besides, I think Jet is lurking at the door, so I'm guessing he wants to speak with you," Yue added with a sly wink.
"Only good news, I'm sure," Katara sighed, struggling not to roll her eyes and failing.
"We're out of… chicken breasts?" Katara groaned, gently massaging her temples in a doomed effort to fend off a headache. "Jet, we can't eighty-six the chicken. That's a death sentence for any restaurant." Especially this failing one, she thought to herself, electing not to say it aloud.
"I understand that, Kat," Jet tried his best charming smile. Katara hated how hard Jet's charm made it to be angry at her boyfriend, even if there was a real case for going off on him. For a food manager, responsible to keep the kitchen well supplied with ingredients, running out of chicken breasts seemed like a huge oversight. "I don't want to say it, but I don't exactly have the biggest budget to work with," Jet added.
Katara cringed at the subtle accusation in Jet's words. Of course, the restaurant wasn't bringing in enough money so they had to be frugal and cut costs, but in order to make money, you had to spend money. That was one of the rare things Katara had learned in collage which she saw actually reflected in lived reality. "Can you sort it out quickly?" she asked, reaching for the safe where all their cash takings were being kept.
"Not without money I can't," Jet replied with a shrug.
"Well, how much do you need?" Katara asked, removing what paltry amount was left in the safe. Jet leaned closer, counting the banknotes she was holding and then removing most of them. "That is some expensive chicken," Katara sighed.
"Hey, don't blame me, blame the economy," Jet shrugged again. Katara fell silent, wondering what to say to that, but nothing came to mind. She didn't want to start an argument. Katara had seen how the restaurant had eroded the relationship between Sokka and Yue, and she was determined not to let the same thing happen to her and Jet. "Anyway, I thought you didn't want me to get the cheap stuff," Jet continued a while later. "You're always going on about how our customers deserve only the best."
"I genuinely believe that," Katara nodded earnestly. "We already have enough complaints about the food. I don't want to considering cutting the quality further, even if we really need to find a way to cut costs."
"You're the boss, babe," Jet gave her one of his patented winning smiles. "You pick the direction and we'll follow."
"Right," Katara chuckled. "Maybe I'm coming at it from the wrong angle. I need to recalculate some of our prices. Maybe we can hike them just a little bit?"
"That's a terrible idea," Jet shook his head adamantly. "When was the last time you went out to eat at a rival restaurant? Or just looked at the menus on their websites? We already have higher prices than most places in the neighborhood."
"But how is that possible?" Katara let out a heated breath full of frustration. "I know that other restaurants have way more staff than we do. We're running the place with a skeleton crew and we're all so exhausted that we're pretty much becoming skeletal. How can these other places offer such low prices? It makes no sense!"
"Don't look at me, babe, I don't have all the answers," Jet shrugged. "But I suspect they lay in the way our kitchen is being run."
"Maybe," Katara muttered. Of course, Jet would point at Sokka's domain first and foremost, just as Sokka would point at Jet. She had given up on those two ever having a warm relationship. At least they had gone from actively threatening each other to something resembling a cold war, and that was probably as good as it was going to get. "Or maybe I just suck at being a manager," Katara sighed. "Let's face it, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't have any skills for this. I'm a medical school dropout, not a restauranteur."
"Don't get so down on yourself, Kat," Jet tried to soothe her. "You're better than you think. Besides, it's not like you don't have some skills for this. You told me that you had to take a statistics course at the med school, right?"
"Yeah, I also told you that I completely sucked at it and Sokka pulled me through the course," Katara groaned. "Anyway, this isn't helping."
"Come on, cheer up," Jet insisted, moving a little closer. "Let's see a smile on that pretty face, shall we?" he asked before leaning in with the intent to kiss her, but Katara turned away at the last moment, allowing only for a kiss on the cheek.
"Shouldn't you be making sure that our restaurant doesn't run out of something as basic as chicken breasts?" Katara forced herself to say.
"Aye-aye, boss lady," Jet offered flippantly, leaving the office with an unrepentant smile on his lips as Katara returned to glare at the excel sheet on the screen of her laptop, all the numbers only making her head spin, instead of offering solutions.
Jet emerged from the back entrance into the restaurant, quickly looking around to make sure that Suki or Yue weren't around, having come out for a quick smoke. Once Jet had made sure that he was alone, he pulled out his phone and selected Longshot from the shortlist of his most frequent contacts. "Hey, how's it going, dude," Jet spoke as soon as Longshot accepted the call. "More importantly, how's Bee?"
It took a while for Longshot to type his reply and for Speechify to do its text to speech conversion. "Bee took her pills. She's sleeping now," the robotic voice replied.
"Good, that's good," Jet breathed a sigh of relief. Life in Caldera City wasn't easy for a young trans woman and Smellerbee was really struggling with frequent bullying. It didn't help that the shrink had put her on an antidepressant which had resulted in Bee showing signs of suicidal behavior. She was now getting used to another antidepressant, but the side effects were so nasty that it had to be supplemented by benzos which left Bee sleepy and tired the whole day. The whole debacle was also costing them a pretty penny and these were all out of pocket expenses that they couldn't hope to get reimbursed.
"Did you call just to ask about Bee?" the robotic voice translated Longshot's text.
"No, I need you to run down to either Walmart or Aldi and pick up fifty pounds worth of chicken breasts. But don't go to Costco, they're too expensive," Jet lectured. "Anyway, do that and get them to the restaurant as quickly as possible. There's at least forty bucks for Bee's fund in it."
"You are playing with fire, Jet," Longshot replied.
"I know, but it's for the greater good, okay?" Jet said quickly. It was becoming harder and harder to convince himself that what he was doing really was for the greater good, though. Still, whenever he watched Smellerbee struggling like she was, Jet felt like he had no choice. Bee was as good as his little sister. He had to look out for her. Gender reassignment surgery was the best way to help Bee, and the doctors had set the costs for it at around twenty-five grand. Jet and his friends were slightly more than halfway there, but it was slow going and they were all praying that Bee would hold out long enough to see her dream come true.
"I don't understand how Katara and the others haven't noticed yet," Longshot commented.
"Kat may be the best girlfriend I've ever had, but she's not exactly good with numbers," Jet chuckled. "The only ones that could maybe catch on to my scheme are Sokka and Aang. But I've made sure to stoke Katara's pride just enough so that she won't ask the others for help with the finances."
"Devious," Longshot's Speechify voice replied. "I am in the car. See you in twenty."
"Alright, thanks buddy," Jet said, ending the call and leaning against the wall as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
Jet didn't exactly feel good about taking money from the restaurant, but once he had started doing it, Jet felt like there really was no way back. He couldn't very well tell Katara the truth now and expect her to remain with him. Also, when he had started this scheme, he and Katara weren't together yet and he hadn't been sure whether they would ever become a couple. Katara was aware of his reputation as a womanizer, and she'd been very reluctant to date him. It had taken many months of wearing down her resistance before she had finally agreed to go out with him, and the rest was history.
Also, Jet couldn't be sure that even if he had been honest about the reasons why he needed the money, Katara would have been able to do anything to help. She would definitely feel very sympathetic towards Bee because Katara was a true bleeding heart. But Katara's sense of justice and fairness would have demanded that the staff were paid in full before she allowed any extra funds to be used for charity, and Jet could tell that even without him running his schemes, there were no guarantees that this business wouldn't be in the red.
So, Jet had to continue the scheme until the goal had been reached. It was a delicate balancing act, taking out just enough money that it didn't outright kill the business. The Enuaraq home had already been foreclosed upon. Sokka and Katara had moved into the space directly above the restaurant, space that hadn't exactly been designed as living quarters. Sokka was still spending most of his free time a year later, trying to fix the place, with Suki now living with him and helping out. Unable to afford an apartment of her own, this had hastened Katara's decision to move in with Jet, much to his selfish approval.
Still, Jet was eager to raise the funds for Bee's surgery as quickly as possible so that he could put these lies behind him and stop endangering his relationship with Katara. At the rate they were raking in the cash, it would take more than a year to raise the twenty-five grand. What Jet really needed was to come up with a new scheme that would draw more customers to the restaurant, and hopefully generate more income he could help himself to for Bee's sake.
The evening was slowly drawing to a close and the kitchen at the Northern Lights restaurant was starting to wind down their operations. With his feet burning from exhaustion like every other evening, Aang Jetsun was busy loading up the industrial dishwasher while humming a cheerful tone and trying to keep his spirits high. Still, as much as he tried to maintain his optimism, it was becoming increasingly difficult not to ask himself the important question of just how exactly he had wound up here, helping his friends prolong the survival of a failing restaurant while not doing anything for his own future prospects.
Aang was far too loyal to ever leave his friends in a bind, and he could never imagine bailing on Katara, Sokka, Toph and Yue, his friends going back as far as the middle school. Toph was his best friend in the whole wide world and Katara was his first serious crush, one that had proved very difficult to get over. Even now, Aang still occasionally wondered if maybe he might get another chance once Katara finally realized that Jet was not good for her.
Of course, considering that Aang's first attempt at dating Katara in his freshman year of high school had lasted exactly two weeks before Katara unilaterally decided that they were better off as friends, Aang knew that his chances of getting with Katara were not realistic. Katara had gone on a date with a girl from her class, Siku Ikuma, only four days after breaking up with him, and they'd continued dating for the rest of that year. Still, Aang saw nothing wrong with indulging in some innocent daydreams of what might have been.
Aang was still struggling to accept the way his dreams of higher education had come crashing down. He'd been excelling on his way to a degree in social work, but then he'd been undone by his own activism. The Caldera University was stubbornly refusing to include any vegan options on its cafeteria menu, seemingly only to spite the growing number of students demanding these healthier options. This continued refusal had sparked a wave of protests, and when the campus security had tried to break up one of these protests, things had descended into a riot. Aang had no idea what exactly had caused a fire to break out, but it had spread through the cafeteria like wildfire, trapping dozens of people inside.
Most of the rioters had made a run for it, but Aang had not been able to force himself to flee when people trapped inside the cafeteria were crying out for help. Unfortunately, staying behind to help meant that Aang and a few other of the more compassionate activists had been apprehended by the pigs once they showed up. This was how Aang had ended up not only getting kicked out of Caldera University, but now he also had a misdemeanor charge and 250 hours of public service to his name. More than a year later, a minimum salary job that combined the duties of a busboy, dishwasher and prep cook was the best that Aang could do.
Aang finally finished loading up the dishwasher and pressed a button to start the washing cycle. He leaned back and looked over at the other side of the kitchen where Sokka and Suki were busy cleaning up, although much of their time went into cracking silly jokes and goofing off. Seeing his friends still being able to laugh and be merry despite the stress they were under warmed Aang's heart.
"You two need any help?" he asked, walking over to Sokka and Suki.
"Not really," Sokka said, shaking his head.
"Take it easy, Aang," Suki smiled. "You already do more than enough around here."
"I don't really mind," Aang shrugged completely earnestly.
"You can always go and help Yue?" Sokka suggested.
"Sounds good," Aang nodded with a smile. After the dinner service was completed, it was Yue who cleaned everything up in the dining room, including light mopping of the floors. Katara usually helped her best friend before they retreated to the manager's office to count the takings of the service, adding up cash register money and the credit card payments. "Looks like they're done with the cleaning, though," Aang said, having taken a peek into the dining room. It was sinking in darkness, but there was a pale light coming from Katara's office.
"Feel free to grab a beer and head upstairs, then," Sokka said, referring to their tradition to spend some time together in Sokka and Suki's living space above the restaurant following the evening's service. Destressing together and bitching about the particularly annoying customers felt very therapeutic and definitely brought them even closer as a group.
"Nice try with the beer, Sokka," Aang snorted, shaking his head. "I'll be upstairs in a bit. Let me just check on Toph first, though," he said, heading for the stairs leading down to the basement.
Toph let out a massive yawn as she leaned back and settled in more comfortably down in her little basement cove where she was surrounded by an almost a dozen of microwaves. It had been a fairly busy service, at least for Northern Lights, but it wasn't that Toph felt overly exhausted. It didn't take much effort to grab a piece of frozen food from one of the freezers, unwrap and shove it on the plate and then stick it into the microwave whenever Sokka or Suki shouted for service.
Of course, it was still a strange choice of occupation for a member of the wealthy Beifong family, but Toph had as good as burned the bridges with her parents and she knew it. She had been sent to Caldera City as a twelve-year-old to get a better education than what was available in Gaoling, and that was how she had met Aang and the rest of their friends. After finishing high school, Toph had been expected to go back to Gaoling, marry well and then spend the rest of her days wallowing in her disability and maybe popping out a baby or two. Needless to say, Toph preferred anything else over such a grim future. Working at a restaurant ran by her friends was actually something that suited Toph well, even if 'the microwave girl' was not the most glamorous of job descriptions. Then again, Toph also knew that hardly anyone else in Caldera City would care to hire a blind girl.
The minimum wage she was earning allowed Toph to barely get by, however, because of her disability it wasn't that she could particularly appreciate living in splendor anyway. Working at a restaurant meant that there was always food on Toph's plate, and with her and Aang renting a studio apartment nearby, they had a roof over their heads, which was all that Toph really cared about. The arrangement with her best friend was working perfectly, and would continue to do so unless one of them became serious about dating. Toph didn't really care about that, while Aang had made a few attempts at dating, but they hadn't lasted for too long. Toph had a theory that despite claiming that he was over Katara, Aang still kept using his first crush as a measuring stick for his dates and living up to Aang's idealized version of Katara was obviously an impossible task.
Still, while it was a tough and not at all glamorous struggle, Toph actually liked where she was at this point in her life, because it was so much better than any alternatives she could think of. So, when Aang climbed down the basement stairs to join her after the evening's service, he found his best friend resting with a smile on her face.
"So, do you think we did well tonight?" Aang asked, sitting down with Toph in her lair. Aang had helped with the setup down here, arranging the microwaves so that everything was comfortably within reach for Toph, and generally making her workspace as ergonomic as possible. "At least the place was really busy. It seemed like we were doing better than most evenings."
"You asking for the perspective of a blind basement dweller whose only job is to shove frozen food in the microwave?" Toph laughed. "I can't tell a bad or good day from a pimple on my butt cheek."
"Gross," Aang chuckled.
"I don't actually have pimples on my butt cheeks, I was just speaking figuratively," Toph snorted. "Anyway, I hope we did well. It's about time business picked up or else I'd have to start thinking we're incompetent or something."
"I think we probably are," Aang sighed.
"Shh, don't say that," Toph smirked. "As long as we don't say it aloud, I might be able to hold on to the delusion that this business will survive and I won't lose the only job that will probably hire a blind girl like me. Because if it all fails, I'll have to go back to my parents and do penance. It will probably involve crawling around on my knees and begging them to take me back."
"We'll make sure that doesn't happen," Aang promised. "Anyway, want to go hang out upstairs? I overheard Jet telling Katara that he has some kind of an amazing idea that will save the restaurant, and I think he'll probably want to tell us about that," Aang added with just a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Sounds exciting," Toph said, getting up to her feet. "I know you'll hate to hear this, Twinkletoes, but Jet sometimes has some pretty good ideas. Maybe the others should listen to him more." Aang didn't say anything, but just from his breathing, Toph could tell that the look on his face was most likely disapproving. "I know you don't like the guy and think he's bad news, but I think he's cool. Sorry. Do you think Katara really has such a bad judgment to get involved with someone shady?"
"I would never say that about Katara," Aang said defensively. "But she's made some bad choices before, right? I mean, Haru was a disaster."
"Oh, I thought you were about to put your own name forward as an example of her bad judgment," Toph chuckled.
"Hey!" Aang protested. "That's mean!"
"That's me," Toph only laughed louder. "Anyway, I think I was promised a party upstairs, so let's go? And there better be beer. I'm not behind the wheel tonight."
Katara stood before her friends, hands nervously linked behind her back as she waited for everyone to sit down. They had gathered in Sokka and Suki's place above the restaurant, space she'd called her home for almost half a year after their house had been foreclosed upon. It hadn't been the most enjoyable of experiences. It wasn't that she minded sharing with Sokka, but the wide-open space simply didn't feel like home to Katara. Sokka had started to break up the large space into individual rooms, but even a year later it was still a work in progress.
"Anyway, I'm sure you're all eager to find out how much we took in tonight," Katara said, managing to summon a smile. "We made one thousand and one hundred bucks overall," she said, her words prompting smiles and loud cheering.
"That's good news, isn't it?" Aang spoke up.
"It's… encouraging," Katara admitted. After having a terrible time of it lately, she didn't want to get too carried away just because for the first time in six months they were not in the red. "We're fifty dollars over our… what was it called again? Break-even point, that's right. I think it was at ten fifty."
"Seems like a cause for celebration!" Yue did a cheerful fist pump.
"Maybe, but you have to keep in mind that this was Saturday, the busiest evening of the week," Jet said, looking a little wary. "And we were in the red throughout the rest of the week. We shouldn't get carried away."
"I think Jet is right," Katara nodded in agreement. "But it's a step in the right direction. We can compare this to most of the past Saturdays and call it an improvement, and that's important."
"True," Sokka admitted. "But also, I really don't think we can do much better than this. I felt like we were hitting our ceiling in the kitchen."
"I don't know about that," Suki muttered. Katara could see that she clearly disagreed, but Suki probably didn't want to contradict Sokka in front of everyone. Katara resolved to probe Suki for details later, when she caught her friend in private.
"But I think we are all in agreement that we could do with some help, right?" Jet asked.
"That depends what you mean by help," Sokka frowned.
"Does this have anything to do with the idea you mentioned having, Jet?" Katara asked. "Would you like to tell us more?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Jet grinned. He pulled out his phone to start a YouTube video. It was an intro of a certain very popular cooking show that involved a bunch of knives being tossed at a celebrity chef, with energetic music playing in the background. The show's title appeared on the screen of Jet's phone, reading simply Ozai's Kitchen Nightmares. "Get it?" Jet asked, smiling broadly.
"You want us to go on Kitchen Nightmares?" Katara blinked. She had expected some crazy idea, because crazy ideas were Jet's domain, but this was wild even for him.
"Why not?" Jet shrugged. "It would really put us on the map. Just think of the crowds it would draw!"
"Yeah, because everyone would want to come and watch the freak show," Sokka groaned. "I don't know about this. I mean, I kind of see the point, but…"
"I don't like this," Yue sighed. "I think Ozai Nakamura is a horrible human being. I don't know if I would be able to serve him, especially if he starts to insult me or any of my friends."
"I'm not a fan of how that show is so drama focused," Aang frowned. "Ozai Nakamura would probably try to stir up some conflicts between us and I would hate to see that. Or he'd just do some deceptive editing."
"Those are all valid concerns and I share them," Katara nodded in agreement with Aang and Yue. "But it's also true that being on the show would help us fill more seats. And while I agree that Ozai Nakamura doesn't seem like a nice person, he is a very successful chef. Maybe he will actually give us some useful advice on how we can make our business profitable." Nobody had anything to say to that.
"Also, as an extra argument, you know that Ozai usually does some quick renovation work on every restaurant he helps. That would really help with boosting the property value in case-" Jet began only to be cut off by Sokka.
"Don't say it," Sokka snapped. "It brings bad luck." Katara didn't need to guess what Jet was about to say. Renovation would boost the property value in case they were forced to sell the business. Katara was not willing to discuss this possibility, though. Selling the restaurant would break her father's heart and Katara would never be able to do that. The restaurant had to succeed for the sake of her dad and for the memory of her late mother.
"Well, you know what I mean, anyway," Jet shrugged. "Also, sometimes he brings in new kitchen equipment if he sees that the kitchen is struggling because they don't have the tools to succeed with. And I think we could do with an upgrade, right?"
"Tell me about it," Suki muttered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "You know what, you've won me over, Jet. I know that Ozai will probably chew me and Sokka out more than anyone else here, but fuck it, it's going to be worth it for the sake of the restaurant. I'm in."
"Are we putting this to vote?" Katara wondered. She felt that as a manager this should be her call. Maybe some of the whispers going around the restaurant about her being too soft as a manager actually had a point. Katara didn't know how to treat her friends as staff and not as her friends, however. "Anyway, I know that the criticisms and the insults will be painful, but I think that if we can get over our hurt feelings, it should benefit the restaurant. I'm saying yes."
"Ugh, I guess I see the benefits, too," Sokka sighed. "Fine, let's do it. But if Ozai Nakamura pisses me off, I'm going to knock him out."
"Sure, you are, big boy," Toph snorted. "Also, I don't know anything about this show, nor do I care. I'll just sit quietly down in my basement and wait for the whole thing to blow over."
"Very well, Toph," Katara said, wincing inwardly. If Ozai Nakamura discovered that they had a microwaving station downstairs, he'd probably blow his lid and cuss them out. Katara hoped that maybe they could keep the microwaving on the down low, though.
"If everyone else is going along with this, then so will I," Aang nodded in agreement.
"I guess I will as well," Yue sighed reluctantly. "And hey, maybe Ozai will bring his daughter with him. She's such a snack, am I right?"
"She really is," Katara laughed. "Azula, that was her name, right? She's so glamorous and pretty. And slightly infuriating."
"Yes, but in that way where you want to bend her over your knee and spank her for being an entitled rich brat," Suki added, winking at Katara.
"That's exactly how I meant it, Suki," Katara winked back at her friend.
"Alright, keep it in your pants, ladies," Jet rolled his eyes. "As far as I know, she has a boyfriend. As do some of you, actually."
"I think he's talking about you, Yue," Katara smirked, enjoying Jet's brief annoyance as she, Yue and Suki burst into laughs. "Anyway, it seems we're in agreement. Jet and I will put together our application for Kitchen Nightmares and then on Tuesday we'll run it by you before submitting it. And then, with some good fortune, Ozai Nakamura will soon show up to scream at us."
"Come in, my favorite offspring, and take a seat," Ozai Nakamura spoke, sitting behind a large mahogany desk in his office. "Oh, and Zuko, you may also enter."
"I hate you," Zuko muttered under his breath as together with Azula they quickly took seats at their father's desk. The legs of their seats were at least a couple of inches shorter than Ozai's, so that they would always be looking up at their father like humble supplicants.
"You're way too thin skinned, Zuko," Ozai berated his son. "You know I only pick on you because you make it so easy for me, right? Whenever I emotionally torment your sister, she takes it so stoically even if she looks like she's dying inside, but that's no fun, is it?"
"Can we just move on to the reason why we're here?" Zuko asked, sounding a little desperate.
"I'll decide that," Ozai snapped irately. "With how much I've invested in both of you, you would think that I'd be allowed to enjoy a few minutes of abusing you both for my selfish entertainment."
"Your investment in us is not under the question, father," Azula spoke politely, as always keeping her cool when Zuko couldn't. "It is appreciated as always, but I'm certain I can help the family business more effectively than by simply being a tool for your entertainment."
Azula and Zuko had been raised to eventually take over Ozai Nakamura's culinary and entertainment empire from a very early age. They both had been studying under the best chefs of every culinary school on the face of the earth. On top of that, Ozai had made sure to drill ruthless business acumen into his children. Azula and Zuko had carefully curated public images and social media presence, crafted to appeal to their target audiences.
And even if Ozai privately spoke of Zuko as a disappointment and of Azula as his favorite golden child, Azula was yet to see any benefits of this favorable disposition – aside from being subjected to less verbal abuse. Ozai kept tossing scraps to both of them, stringing them along with promises of more substantial rewards in the future. Azula understood the ruthless tactic of their father. Even if he favored her, he didn't want Azula to become complacent, which was why he made sure that the competition between Azula and her brother remained fierce. Ozai was not above adding some extra oil to the fire between her and Zuko. On some level, Azula appreciated that their father only wanted her and Zuko to remain hungry for success. She had managed to convince herself that in his own way, her father wanted only what was best for her.
"Fine, but I want you both to know that you are no fun," Ozai sighed before pushing two identical looking tablets towards Azula and Zuko. "Shooting for the next season of Kitchen Nightmares will begin in a month. Since neither of you really convinced me with your appearances last year, I'm giving you another chance."
"Thank you, father," Azula said, while Zuko merely made a face. Azula and Zuko weren't being tested only in various roles at Ozai's many restaurants all over the world. Ozai was also getting them involved with his most popular TV show, Ozai's Kitchen Nightmares. The reward of being awarded with their own spin-off TV show was a very effective hook for both Azula and Zuko. Azula was sure that if judged purely on merit of her cooking skills and business acumen, she would have long since won the contest and had a successful show of her own. However, when it came to screen presence, Azula was worried that Zuko might have an advantage. Azula had read the internet comments on many of the previous episodes. There were many fans who considered her cold, heartless and fake, while her brother was seen as more authentic and sympathetic in a pathetic kind of way. Azula was determined to really crush it in this upcoming season of Kitchen Nightmares.
"On this tablet, you'll find information about the twelve restaurants which I have selected for the new season," Ozai said. "Both of you will join me for three episodes. In my infinite kindness, I will allow you two to select the restaurants you want to take on together with me. Azula, as the superior sibling, you will be allowed to pick first," Ozai grinned.
Azula smiled as she picked up the tablet and began browsing it. Deep inside, she knew that the way Ozai treated her brother was cruel and wrong. She knew it was sick to feel a warm elation in her chest at being called the superior sibling, but she couldn't stop her heart from swelling with pride.
Still, Azula quickly shut down all these thoughts, instead focusing on selecting the restaurants for the episodes she'd be a part of. Azula knew that she had to be strategic about this. She had to consider which of the episodes might draw the most viewership, which was why she went with choices that promised the juiciest and most scandalous episodes. By the time Azula flicked over to the final restaurant on the list, she already felt very secure in her choices.
The last establishment, called Northern Lights, was a small Caldera restaurant ran by a Water Tribe family. Their ancestors had probably been settled in the Fire Nation during the great war, which was not a terribly unusual story in itself. Choosing this restaurant didn't make too much sense because nothing suggested that this episode would be particularly fascinating. From the outside, the restaurant didn't appear too terribly maintained. It simply needed a little touching up. Still, Azula found it impossible to move away from the page, because all of a sudden, she was stuck staring at the attached picture of the restaurant.
In the picture, standing outside the restaurant was quite possibly the most beautiful girl Azula had ever laid her eyes upon. She had the largest and bluest eyes Azula had ever seen and they seemed to cut straight to Azula's very soul. She also had a beautiful, impossibly welcoming smile, and her dark hair appeared soft and silky, making Azula daydream about how wonderful it would be to run her fingers through this girl's hair, tangling it and messing up her cute traditional Water Tribe hair loops.
It was only a while later that Azula was brought crashing back to reality when she realized that the girl in the photo was leaning in against a young Water Tribe man who had an arm around her shoulder. They both appeared of a similar age. Azula briefly chided herself for being so easily distracted. Of course, such a beautiful girl would be taken, and besides, why was Azula even thinking about that?
Still battling her feelings of disappointment, Azula began to read the letter that had been included with the restaurant's submission. My name is Katara Enuaraq and together with my brother Sokka, we have been running-… Azula felt herself being jolted with utterly illogical hope yet again. Brother? The guy in the picture was Katara's brother? Azula had learned everything she needed to learn. She instantly ticked Northern Lights as one of her choices, quickly selected the two others and then handed the tablet back to her father.
"Interesting choices," Ozai remarked, having looked at her selections. "And slightly unexpected. Let me just remove them from your pool of options, Zuko," he said, taking back Zuko's tablet and tapping furiously before handing it back.
"Well, that's great," Zuko muttered irately. Apparently, at least a few of his choices had been the same as hers, which meant that he was now forced to pick again. Azula pettily felt validated, but she was also feeling a little conflicted because she knew that one of her choices had been purely emotional, and she usually didn't allow herself to act like that. She'd made her selection just because she'd been instantly taken in by a pretty face. Azula almost felt ashamed for acting so unreasonably and she briefly considered telling her father that she wanted to change her selections, but she also didn't want to risk angering Ozai.
"Alright, that only took a lifetime," Ozai sighed after Zuko had finally confirmed his choices. "And to think that you were complaining about me wasting your time earlier."
"Whatever," Zuko groaned. "Can we go now?"
"Abandoning your father at the first opportunity, how rude is that?" Ozai looked disapproving. "Well, I suppose I do have a busy schedule, but we really must arrange for some family time soon. We'll have a family picnic next Sunday, it is decided. And bring Mai and Chan with you, it's been a while since I've seen your SO's."
"Uh… very well, father," Zuko spoke, looking uncomfortable. Azula had to guess that his on and off whirlwind romance with Mai was in an off-phase, which fit with what little details she'd been able to press from Mai. This probably meant that Zuko would be crawling on his knees and begging Mai to take him back in time for next Sunday's picnic. On her part, Azula really hoped that Chan's football team had a game next weekend so that she would have an excuse for not bringing him.
"Anyway, get out of here, you two," Ozai said, shooing them away. "And remember, you two are in a direct competition. Don't go easy on each other just because you are siblings."
"I'm sure we can keep things civil, right Zuko?" Azula asked, offering her brother a hand. "And may the best girl win," she grinned while shaking Zuko's hand.
"Oh, I like that," Ozai nodded approvingly, much to Zuko's annoyance. "May the best girl win!"