Chapter 16
Sota slurped on his second bowl of seaweed noodles happily. As much as he loved Pema's cooking, he could never get tired of good ole water tribe cuisine.
"Well, someone is clearly enjoying themselves," Mai-Ling joked before slurping more of her own from her bowl. "Bet you're glad you came now."
"Climbing into restricted areas, grand theft from your own cousin, who also happens to be the heiress to a fortune, and now, bribery. Is there anything you won't do to get what you want?" Jun asked as she picked up a piece of fish they ordered as well.
"No, not really," she replied with a grin. "Besides, those are harmless crimes that not only can't be proven but are victimless in the long run."
"Uh, what about you Asami?" Sota asked. "Isn't she gonna be mad?"
"Oh, that's an understatement," Jun interjected. "Furious would be a better word, especially since this isn't the first time she's done this, so idk why Mai-Ling acts like she's gonna get away with it."
"Gee, you two are sounding real concerned. Yet, I don't remember any money being offered, nor any of that concern when the offer was made. In fact, I recall you both drooling with your mouths hanging open, until we left the Stadium, where you then spent the entire ride here talking about all the food you wanted to order," Mai-Ling retorted testily as she looked at them in annoyance.
"Though everything you just said is true, my rebuttal is: what kind of idiots do you take us for?" Jun asked.
"Hungry ones, clearly."
From her spot to his right, Jun pointed her chopsticks past Sota's face, aiming them at Mai-Ling, and said, "Don't forget, I live with you. And since this is definitely gonna end up in some kinda noisy fight with your cousin, consider this pre-payment for my suffering."
"Oh please. And what make you so sure you're gonna be safe from her? She'd literally peg you as an accomplice by default" Mai-Ling replied, knocking Jun's chopsticks away from her face.
"Because I'm ratting you out the second we get home."
"Excuse me!?" Mai-Ling- nearly shouted, narrowing her eyes at her best friend as she slammed her own chopsticks down on the table. "Then you can pay for you own damn food!"
"Keep it down, you two," Sota reminded, looking across the room, seeing Korra and Bolin as they too ate. The two seemed to be laughing, meaning that they hadn't been noticed. "They haven't seen us yet, but if you two keep going at each other like this, then we're gonna end up diving out the window behind us."
"This isn't over," Mai-Ling threatened before turning back to Sota, calming herself as she asked, "And I thought you weren't interested in your sister's love life?"
"I'm not. But I would never hear the end of it, and about how I was "butting into" her business," he said, grimacing at the thought. "You ever been hit with a water whip? Imagine getting water whipped by the Avatar. I had welts on my back for nearly a month the last she hit me."
"Ok, fair enough," she said, trying not to giggle at the frustrated boy. Looking back to Korra and Bolin, her giggling stopped as the smile dropped from her face. "Uh oh."
"Uh oh? Why uh oh?" Jun asked, before looking as well as a group of people walked toward Korra and Bolin led by a very pale man and swearing under her breath. "Crap, of course they'd be here."
"Do you guys know them?" Sota asked, now focusing on his sister again.
"Yeah. The pale guy with the bad hair doo is Tahno. He's the captain of the Wolfbats," Jun said, glaring at them. "They're the reigning champs of Probending for the last three years, and rumor has it that they're real scumbags. They totally cheated my favorite team out of a win last year in the mid-season."
"What do you think they want with Korra and Bolin?"
"No idea," Mai-Ling said, watching as Korra leaned away from Tahno as he got into her space. "You think we should do something?"
"Nope," Sota said, returning to his food, eating it at a much quicker pace. "I think you should hurry and finish your food."
"How can you think about food right now?"
"Because in about 30 seconds, my sister is gonna make a scene, and the second she does, I plan to be out that window," he said before slurping up the last of his noodles, washing them down with the rest of his tea.
"Enough with the window joke, Water-Boy," Jun said, looking to Korra as she stood to her feet and stared Tahno down, a mocking smirk on his face. "She knows if she hits him and starts a fight, they're gonna kick them out of the tournament, right?"
"You wanna go toe to toe with me, Pretty Boy?" Korra asked as she frowned at Tahno. Raising her hand, she brought her fingers to her lips, and whistled loudly. From across the room, Jun and Mai-Ling looked on in confusion, though both soon shrieked as the window behind Korra crashed open loudly, Naga's large head and paws reaching into the restaurant. The Polar Bear dog roared loudly, startling the Wolfbat team and causing them to back up.
Tahno, who had fallen backwards into one of his teammates, righted himself and raised his hands with a smirk, signaling them to all leave. As they walked away, Korra and Bolin broke out into laughter, while Naga sniffed the air, her nose filling with the scent of both food, and familiarity. Turning her head, Naga began to bark loudly, pointing straight to the back of the room where the three younglings were.
"What is it, Naga?" Korra asked, turning toward that direction to see what her companion was looking at. Her eyes instantly fell upon them, calling out, "Jun? Mai-Ling? What are you two doing here?"
"Oh crap!" Jun said, turning to her friends, only to notice –
"Where the hell is Sota!?" She whispered as she and Mai-Ling ducked under the table.
"I don't know! He just here a minute ago!" Mai-Ling replied, looking to see Korra coming their way. "What are we gonna-"
"That bastard! He actually jumped out the damn window!" Jun said, pointing to the open window, a cool winter breeze blowing in. The two said nothing, both coming up from under the table and onto the bench they had been sitting on. Jun quickly climbed out the window, falling into a pile of snow, while Mai-Ling quickly pulled out a few bills and left it on the table, jumping out headfirst, and rolling into snow as well.
"Ah! It's so cold!" Mai-Ling said, jumping to her feet and following Jun down the street. They quickly turned the corner just before Korra could stick her head out the window, losing sight of them.
The two girls ran half another block before coming to a stop to catch their breath. Mai-Ling held her stomach, wishing she didn't have to run so hard after eating so recently. Jun was rubbing her hands together, trying to bring back some warmth to her hands while also looking around to see where they had ended up.
"It doesn't look like we're too far from where we told the driver to wait. We should head back that way so we can get outta here and go home." Jun said. Mai-Ling turned to her and held out her hands to which Jun accepted, placing her hands in hers and feeling a bit of warmth coming back to her own.
"Good idea. But shouldn't we look for Sota first?" Mai-Ling asked, giving Jun's hands a small rub to help warm them.
"He couldn't have gotten far and I'm sure he remembers where the car is. But when I get my hands on that jerk, I'm gonna- "
"Learn to take my advice?" Sota said as he jumped off an awning above and landed in front of them. The waterbender smirked, sticking his hands in the pockets of his parka and said, "Glad to see you guys didn't get caught."
"Yeah, no thanks to you, Water-Boy. How did you even get out the window that fast without anyone noticing?" Jun asked, taking her hands back and putting on her gloves.
"Yeah, now that I think about it, we didn't see any footprints in snow or anything," Mai-Ling said as she also put on her gloves. The trio began to start walking back to where the driver was waiting, Mai-Ling asking, "How did you get up there? You've got to be really quick on your feet."
"Yeah,I guess you can say I've always been kinda fast on my feet. When I lived in the South Pole, I just kinda had to be. And to answer your question, when I jumped out the window, I waterbent the snow into water and wrapped it around my arm, like this," Sota said, stopping to bend some snow from the ground and turning it into water. The liquid swished and flowed as it encased itself up to his bicep. Turning, he whipped it to a light pole across the street, before whipping it back to him and dropping it to the ground.
"Whoa! That's really cool!" Mai-Ling complimented, causing him to blush and smile. "How did you come up with that?"
"Actually, it was Jinora's idea. She and I were looking through some waterbending techniques she read about, and said she remembered seeing something about it and I asked Korra to teach it to me," he said, turning to her and seeing a frown on her face. "What?"
"Nothing," Mai-Ling said, turning her head away from him.
"No, it's something. You did that the last time I mentioned Jinora too. Is something wrong?"
"It's nothing, so let it go," Mai-Ling said, getting more annoyed. Turning to him, she said, "You still haven't told us why you don't have any friends in the South Pole."
"Wha-that's not the topic right now!" Sota said flabbergasted as he was suddenly put on the spot while they turned the corner. They quickly spotted the car and made their way to it as the driver, noticing them in the rearview mirror, stepped out and stood near the door to let them in. "It has nothing to do with what we're talking about."
"Yeah? Well, I say it does. So, how's about you drop it, get in the car and I'll give you a ride home, or you can stand out here until you either decide to walk home or freeze," she said, stopping in front of him while Jun rolled her eyes and climbed into the warm cabin of the car as the driver opened the door for her.
Sota looked at the gold in her eyes, wanting to pry more, but deciding against it as he walked past her and climbed in the car next to Jun. Mai-Ling climbed in after, allowing the driver to close it and make his way back to the driver's seat.
"Where to, Madam?" he asked, starting the car.
"The port to Air Temple Island, please," she said before going quiet. The ride was silent, neither she nor Sota saying a word to each other. Jun looked out the window, watching the two in the reflection, but also kept quiet until they reached the port.
The car came to a halt as they reached the station, and the driver quickly put it into park. Climbing out, he opened the door, allowing Jun to climb out so Sota could as well. As he stepped out, he turned, opening his mouth to say his usual goodbye of "raincheck", but noticed that Mai-Ling wasn't looking at him, her head still turned the other way.
Sota closed his mouth, turning away from her in both hurt and irritation, but stopped to say, "Raincheck, Jun?"
"Yeah, raincheck," she said, side eyeing Mai-Ling before placing a hand lightly on his shoulder and turning him away from the car. "I'll talk to her about all that back there. She just gets kinda hot under the collar so don't take it to heart."
"If you say so. See you guys tomorrow for the Quarter-Final round?" He asked as they separated and started to make his way up the stairs.
"Obviously," she replied back before climbing into the car. The driver closed the door behind her, waiting for him to go inside before climbing back in and starting the car. As he turned onto a main street to head back to the Sato Mansion, Jun turned to her best friend, starting, "Well that was really smooth, huh? Nothing like bratty behavior when you don't get your way. That's how you win a guy over."
"I don't wanna hear it, Jun" Mai-Ling said, still refusing to turn around as she crossed her arms and moved further away. Her face had gone red after the entire argument, and in hindsight, she knew that she was acting dumb, but it wasn't something she was readily going to admit.
"Oh no, absolutely not," Jun said, crossing her own arms. "You don't get to make a scene like that and think we're just gonna sweep it under the rug. You let your jealousy and anger get the better of you, and just like always, it ends badly."
"I know, alright? But what do you want me to do!? If I could control it, we wouldn't even be out here in Republic City!" Mai-Ling shouted at her as she looked at her in anger. Jun was silent as she stared at her, letting her huff in, and out, slowly calming down. As she did, Mai-Ling took a deep breath and looked to the ground before mumbling, "Sorry…"
"Well, at least you didn't destroy anything this time."
"You're not funny."
"Good because I wasn't trying to be. You do know that you're gonna have to apologize to him, right?"
"Yes, mother," Mai-Ling replied sarcastically with an eye roll. "Though I'm not sure what I'm gonna say to him about it."
"You could always just try the truth and tell him you're jealous of her."
"You must have hit your head or something because you're insane if you think I'm saying that," Mai-Ling said as they passed the gates to her estate. With a sigh, she asked, "Do you think he's mad at me about bringing up his past again?"
"Not sure. I can't say I've ever seen him really get angry before, just outrageously annoyed. That was a pretty low blow though, so who knows," Jun said as the car came to a stop.
"Ugh, I know," Mai-Ling said, sliding down into her seat. "What am I gonna do?"
"Right now, I would worry more about what you're gonna do about her," Jun said, pointing out the window to a very upset looking Asami standing in the doorway, arms crossed as she looked into the backseat at her cousin.
Mai-Ling sank further into her seat, wondering how this whole night had gone so bad so fast.
Sota wander the halls, making his way to the common area where he found just who he was looking for.
"Hi Nora," he said, walking over to the table she was sitting at as she read.
Looking up, Jinora smiled and greeted him.
"Hi, Sota. How'd Korra's Probending match go?"
"It was great! They dominated and won with basically no problem," he replied as he sat across from her. "I wish you could have been there to see it."
"So that means they move on to the next round right?"
"Yep. Tomorrow is the Quarterfinals. Which means Korra needs to speed up her date with Bolin so she can rest up."
"Korra's on a date with Bolin?" Jinora asked, surprised. "But I thought she liked Mako?"
"And why exactly are you two discussing my love life, again?" Korra asked as she walked in, taking her parka off. "And it wasn't a real date. It was just a friend date. A friend date that, apparently, was interrupted by my nosey little brother and his friends."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sota said nonchalantly as Korra stood over him with a hand on her hip and a look of disbelief on her face.
"Uh huh. Is that what I watched both of your friends jump out from under a table and take off out a window earlier?"
"I fail to see what that has to do with me. I've been here since after you guys headed to that Water Tribe place he mentioned. Right, Jinora," Sota asked, looking to her.
"That's right. He was telling me all about how your match went, and that the next one is tomorrow. Are you excited, Korra?" Jinora asked. Sota would have to remember to grab her an extra bag of candied leechee nuts from the city when he got chance as a thank you for covering for him, something he knew she would understand as he only ever called her Jinora when he needed a favor.
"You bet. And Sota, you should ask Mai-Ling and Jun to take you to that restaurant. But tell them to use the door, next time," Korra said before taking her leave to head to her room. Sota shook his head while Jinora giggled.
"Do I want to know what happened?" She asked him.
"No, not really. Let's just say, the two haven't quite figured out the art of not getting caught," he said, shaking his head with a smile, though it quickly fell as he reminisced on the night. Looking to Jinora, he asked, "Hey Nora?"
"What is it?" she asked, noticing his change in demeanor.
"Is there…I mean…did something…happen between you and the girls?" he asked, awkwardly.
"No, not that I can think of. Did they mention something?"
"Not exactly. For some reason, Mai-Ling gets annoyed whenever… you're brought up, and it kinda worried me, so I wanted to see if maybe there was a reason."
Jinora smiled a small smile. She knew what was going on. Mai-Ling had been jealous of her for a long time, and Jinora had noticed her attitude toward her. Having talked to Jun, Jinora had known that it wasn't personal, though she didn't specify what the cause of it was other then she crush on Sota. But of course, she couldn't tell him that.
"Nope, not that I can think of. Maybe try talking to her about it."
"I tried, but she just got upset and then brought up that I still hadn't told them about why I don't have any friends in the South Pole," he admitted.
"You're worried about how they'll react if they find out the truth," Jinora deduced, receiving a nod from him. "I suppose it makes sense. But I'm sure they would understand if you explained what happened to them. And the sooner you tell them, the sooner you can have the weight of this secret off your chest."
"You think so?" he asked, receiving a nod.
"Friends trust each other with their secrets, and I'm sure that they'll understand. Everyone has secrets, but that doesn't mean you have to deal with them alone."
Korra and Sota walked up toward the entrance to the Arena, surprised to see Mako waiting with a not so pleased look on his face.
"Korra, can I talk to you for a second? Alone," Mako asked as he stood up. Korra looked to Sota, who shrugged his shoulders, but obliged and continued inside without them. Once inside, he found the stairwell that granted access to the owner boxes, showing his pass to the attendant, and making his way up.
Reaching the door to the Sato box, Sota brought his hand up to handle, but paused as a sudden wave of nervousness hit him. What was he going to say to Mai-Ling? Should he apologize for being so secretive? He had made up his mind about telling them the truth, but now that he was here, what if what Jinora said was wrong?
"You'll never find out just standing here like an Arctic Hen," Sota mumbled to himself before taking a breath and opening the door.
"Hey, Water-boy," Jun said as she reclined in her seat and looked backward, her braided pigtail draping down. "Nice of you to show up."
"Well, yeah. I wasn't gonna miss this for anything," he said, looking around nervously as he saw no sign of his other friend. "So…is Mai-Ling not coming tonight?"
"No, she's here," Jun said, turning back to face the arena stage. Sota looked at her in confusion before feeling a tap on his shoulder. Turning, he stood face to face with Mai-Ling and yelped as he flinched back. Mai-Ling smiled as she tried to hold in a giggle.
"Where in the name of the Spirits did you just come from?" Sota asked as he caught his breath and tried to slow his pulse down.
"I was just hiding behind the door," Mai-Ling laughed. As she composed herself, she sheepishly also said, "Sorry about yesterday. What I said was really mean and put you in an awkward position. Friends shouldn't make friends uncomfortable like that."
"Wow. I really appreciate that, Mai-Ling," Sota said, surprised as he expected to be the one doing all the talking. Looking down, he clutched his hands in determination before looking back at her. "But what you said is true too. Friends are supposed to be able to trust each other, but I've barely told you guys anything. Which is why I want to tell you about why I've been keeping my past so quiet."
"You really don't have to," Jun said, sitting up in her seat. Planting her feet, she turned to look at them, saying, "We're not gonna pressure you into telling us."
"And if this is about the whole Jinora thing, you shouldn't feel obligated to tell us," Mai-Ling said, her face heating up in embarrassment. "That's my fault, and-"
"No, its not about that," Sota interrupted to reassure them. "This has been something I've wanted to explain. You guys deserve to know." Walking to his seat, Sota sat next to Jun while Mai-Ling took the empty seat on his right.
Sota took a moment to steady his nerves, closing his eyes as the memories started to come back to him. His palms were staring to get sweaty and his heart was beating against his chest furiously. This was it.
"Back in the South Pole, things were really different then they are here in Republic City," Sota started, opening his eyes to stare off into nothing. "Growing up there, people always asked me about Korra, and if I was "training to be a strong bender like her". The question never really bothered me because I always hoped I would be. But then things changed when I started my classes.
"Some of my teachers had really high expectations of me. They wanted me to be as good as Korra was. If they couldn't teacher her, teaching her brother was the next best thing, right? I wasn't sure I could keep up with it, so I started to do extra practicing to get better. Soon, I was the best in my class. But that was when everything got worse.
"The other kids thought I believed I was better than them or that I was getting special treatment because I was the brother of the Avatar. They started to resent me and pick on me. Some thought that if they beat me bad enough, it would get Korra's attention and they could prove how tough they were against her. But no one was worse than Urroq," Sota explained, narrowing his eyes in disgust at the thought of the boy.
"Let me guess; big, dumb and real stupid looking?" Jun asked, receiving a nod.
"And then some. He was a few years older than me, but we were in the same class because he struggled so much with the advanced forms. So, when he saw me, a kid half his size and younger than him, doing better then him, well, it didn't sit well with him. Being related to the Avatar was just an extra excuse.
"After that, I started learning how to watch my back and to be quicker on my feet. I had to start thinking of ways to avoid them. As you can imagine, it's kinda hard to make friends when your public enemy number 1."
"That sounds terrible, Sota," Mai-Ling said as she looked at him sadly. Reaching out, she hesitantly clutched his head, surprising him. Sota Looked at the contact they made and then her, giving her a small thank you smile as well as squeezing her hand appreciatively. "Did you ever speak up to anyone?"
"I did once, but that was a mistake. Nothing was done about it, and it just led to more problems. Urroq definitely wasn't thrilled, so that just gave him more incentive to hit me," Sota muttered, his grip on Mai-Ling's hand tightening at the memory. "That's when things really took a turn for the worst. I started coming home later than normal, but I made my parents believe that I was just spending extra time practicing like I had been before. The truth was, I was spending time healing my wounds.
"I didn't want my family to know about it. Especially Korra. It felt like if they knew, it would be like bringing shame on us. What kinda of look is it that the brother of the Avatar lets someone beat him up all the time?"
"Jeez. No wonder you came to Republic City. I'd wanna get outta there too," Jun commented. "Did you ever try to fight back?"
"Sometimes. If he was alone, I every now and then I would attempt to hold my ground. He was all power but no technique. But mostly I would just try to run away. I had hoped that if I didn't fight back, he'd eventually give up. Urroq proved to be relentless though, and eventually- "Sota stopped as the lights went out and the crowd began to cheer. Looking down, he could see that the competitors were on their platforms as they extended toward the area and turned back to Mai-Ling and Jun. "Looks like the match it about to start. Raincheck?"
"Raincheck," Mai-ling agreed, squeezing his hand and smiling at him. Sota smiled back turning to Jun who also agreed on the raincheck, before looking to the stage as the match began.
As the matched ended, the three could only shake their heads in disbelief at what they had just seen.
"What the Fire Flakes was that? Someone please explain to me what was going on out there," Jun said as they watched the Ferrets return to their locker room. Turning to her friends who were just as confused, she said, "If it wasn't for Bolin, they'd have been sunk out there."
"I have no idea. They were on fire yesterday," Mai-Ling replied, looking to Sota. "Maybe this team was just better than they thought?"
"Maybe? We did run into Mako when we got to the stadium, and he didn't look happy. Maybe that's what he wanted to talk to Korra about," Sota theorized as they all stood and made their way to the door. "I'll talk to her about it and see what I can find out." Reluctantly, he let go of Mai-Ling's hand, waving to the two before making his way out towards the stairs and eventually, outside of the arena where he waited for Korra.
After almost 20 minutes of waiting, Sota began to get worried and made his way back inside, looking for his sister before catching a glimpse of Mako making his way outside through another exit. As the firebender made his way outside, Sota started down the hallway, going into a light jog to try to catch up to him and see if he knew where Korra might be.
As he broke through the new exit, finding himself outside once more, Sota calling out, "Mako? Hey Mako?" He looked around before noticing two people not far in the distance that appeared to be kissing, as well as a third who stood a few feet before him, flowers in hand and fire ferret on his shoulder.
"Bolin, this isn't what you think," Mako said, reaching after his brother who had turned heel and started running away, tears and wails of despair coming from him as he ran past Sota. Turning back to Korra, Mako said, "Great! Look what you did!"
"You're blaming me?" Korra shouted at him.
"You kissed me!"
"You kissed me back!" she retorted, leaving him to growl in frustration before taking off after his brother, also passing Sota who had yet to move as he was still standing in stunned silence, mouth agape. Korra's eyes fell upon him, and she suddenly felt even worse now. "Well played, Korra. Sota, I- "
"ARE AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT!" the pre-teen shouted as he ran up to her, startling Korra before she looked away in embarrassment and her face flushed pink.
Yeah. She really screwed up this time, didn't she?
To be continued…