Chapter 19

(Feel free time comment)

(Confession time! Only now did I realize it says 'Feel free time comment' but now I don't feel like changing it so now it's just gonna be a place comment all your random shit)

Word count 4315 words

(Y/n) POV

As the sun began to set we landed in a forested area to camp for the night.

"Hey! You guys picked a great campsite," Toph exclaimed wriggling her toes in the thick mat of fur covering the ground around the bison. "The grass is so soft"

"Uhh Toph?" I cringed.

"That's not grass. Appa's shedding" Sokka sighed.

Katara crinkled her nose, "Oh, gross!"

Aang smiled, "That's not gross, it's just a part of spring! You know, rebirth, flowers blooming and Appa gets a new coat"

"And become even fluffier!" I yelled hugging the beautiful bison.

"Ah, the beauty of spring," she rolled her eyes before Appa sneezed making a large sum of clumps landed everywhere. "Stop! Appa, stop! Ugh!" She coughed.

"It's not that bad, Katara," Sokka turned to us revealing a wig made of fur, done up in a towering beehive making me chuckle getting an idea. "It makes a great wig!"

Aang ran over and put it on his face, "And a great beard!"

"Hey guys?" I shook.

"(Y/n)? W-what's wrong?" Katara ran over to me.

"It-it's my... face" I cried making her gasp.

"What happened?!"

"I got a... SCAR!" I yelled showing fur surrounding my face resembling Zuko's scar making her scream before realizing it was fur.

We all started to laugh as Katara huffed, "That's not funny (Y/n)"

"Yeah it is"

She crossed her arms, "You know if you keep making scar jokes, we're not gonna believe you when you get on"

"When?" I chuckled lightly pushing her, "Nobody's gonna scar me. Nobody"

She sighed, "You're right.." she then peaked up, "I'm just glad we finally have another girl in the group, because you three are disgusting" she pointed to my fur scar.

"What?" I smirked, "Are we too weird for you?"

"Yes"

"...Oh"

Toph snickered, "Excuse me, does anyone have a razor? Because I've got some hairy pits!" She showed her pits with Appa's fur sticking out making us all but Katara laugh.

After our laughing session we all started to unpack. I took all of the food and fire supplies off while I watched Katara strut over to Toph who was sitting down.

"So Toph, usually when setting up camp, we try to divide up the work" she told her.

Toph casually shrugged, "Hey, don't worry about me. I'm good to go"

"Well, actually what I'm trying to say is, some of us might fetch water, while someone else might set up the fire pit, or put up the tent. Even Momo does his fair share" Katara explained.

"Katara, I'm fine. I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire, I've already collected my own food and look," Toph used her Earthbending to make a rock tent. "My tent's all set up"

"Huh.. well she makes a compelling argument" I shrugged setting up the fire pit.

From the look of the back of Katara's head I could already tell she had an eye twitch, "Well, that's great for you, but we still need to finish-"

"I don't understand what's the problem here!" Toph spat cutting her off.

Katara waved her hand dismissively and walked away, "Never mind"

She then looked to me and I shook my head, "Don't even try to get me involved" I pointed at her before lighting the fire.

—————

"Night guys" I smiled before drifting off to sleep.

***
"Sozin I don't know about this" Roku sighed looking in the mirror.

"What's wrong?" I chuckled elbowing him as we both got dressed in our new traditional red and gold robes.

"Don't you think they're a bit... much?" He chuckled rubbing his neck.

"You don't like them?" I frowned, "I-I'm sorry. I knew they were to much, I just thought since it was your- well our sixteenth birthday I thought I'd treat us" I sighed.

He shook his head, "No, no! It's not that! I think the outfits cool, I was talking about the..." he trailed off.

I sighed, "The party tonight? Why?"

"I-it's just why are we combining them? I understand why you are doing this for me?" He asked.

I raised a brow, "Because we share a birthday, and you're my friend?"

"Why? I mean you're you and I'm... me" he sighed.

I groaned falling back onto my bed, "Are you serious right now?"

"What?"

I looked up to him, "I don't want to hear about how you 'aren't good enough'. It's our birthday and I don't want to hear anything bad about yourself," I pointed to him. "I wanted to do this and that's why I did"

"Sozin, you're a prince.. I'm a peasant. There's a differen-"

"Difference-shmifrence! It's a party!" I cut him off.

"Sozin" he groaned.

"Nope that's it" I shook my head.

"What's it?"

I sighed, "I didn't want to do this, but you left me no choice... I'm playing the Prince card" I smirked.

"You bitch" he whispered.

I smirked, "As Prince to the Fire Nation and heir to the throne, I order you to attend your own birthday party"

"There's days I hate your guts"

"My royal guts," I corrected him before we both began to laugh. "Oh that reminds me..."

"What did you do now?" He asked looking a mixture between scared and annoyed.

I smiled, "I invited Ta Min"

"YOU WHAT?!" He yelled running at me before shaking me.

"I invited Ta Min" I repeated myself.

"W-why?!"

I chuckled, "Because it's about time you asked her out. You're sixteenth spirits dam it!"

He sighed before collapsing onto the bed, "What did she say?"

"What?" I raised a brow.

"What did she say? Is she coming?"

"Oh... I believe her exact words were, 'Oh Prince Sozin, he really wants me there?! I would absolutely love too!'" I exclaimed in a girly voice.

He began to blush like mad, "This is why you're my best friend"

I chuckled, "Because I'm your wingman. You better make me your best man when you get married" I smirked.

"I haven't even asked her out yet!"

"So?" I asked as we both began to laugh.

***

I gasped jolting up. I immediately groaned smashing back down onto Appa's tail. It's the most comfortable place to sleep don't judge me.

Not another dream of that man again. Why was I getting these? They've been every night since the swamp and I hate them!

I yawned closing my eye again and as I was about to drift of Toph came running out of her tent, "There's something coming toward us!"

"What is it?" Aang jolted up.

Toph pressed her hand to the ground, "It feels like an avalanche, but also not an avalanche"

"Makes sense" I sarcastically shrugged.

"Your powers of perception are frightening" Sokka rolled his eyes.

Katara looked around, "Should we leave?"

Aang looked to me as I nodded, "Better safe than sorry"

We all quickly packed up and jumped onto Appa. Good thing we did, because when we looked back we saw a weird vessel following us. I've never seen anything so complex before, not even in any of my books. It was like a ship, but with weels and had smoke pumping out.

"What is that thing?" Katara asked.

"Beautiful. It's beautiful Katara" I stared in awe of the vessel before we lost sight of it and landed for the night.

Toph jumped off immediately and yawned, "Ah, land sweet land! See you guys in the morning!" She walked away from us as we all jumped off of Appa.

"Actually, can you help us unload?" Katara calmly asked.

"Really? You need me to help unload Sokka's funky-smelling sleeping bag?" Toph asked making me snicker.

Katara sent me a glare and I stopped. She looked back to the Earthbender, "Well, yeah. That and everything else. You're a part of our team now, and-"

Toph pointed a finger at Katara in irritation, "Look! I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff! I'm carrying my own weight" she walked away.

This is when Katara got angry, "That's not the point," she ran after her. "Ever since you joined us, you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful!"

Toph gasped, "What? Look here, Sugar Queen, I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang earthbending. So don't you talk to me about being selfish!" She yelled before making her rock tent.

"'Sugar Queen'?!" Katara spat as Toph used earthbending to close the door of the tent. "D-did you just slam the door in my face?! How can you be so infuriating?!"

Aang turned to Sokka and I, "Should we do something?"

Sokka smirked, "Hey, I'm just enjoying the show"

I flicked him, "Ow!"

"That's what you get," I then turned to Aang "It's best if you stay out- op there he goes" I sighed as he walked over towards the line of fire.

"Okay, okay, you both need to calm down" he told them.

I facepalmed. Idiots! I'm surrounded by idiots!

"Both?!" She then rapidly turned to face Aang, her expression was crazed and had bloodshot eyes, "I'm completely calm!!"

Aang stepped back, "I... can see that"

———

We all settled in for the night and I closed my eyes, but Katara decided to be a bitch and talk, "The stars sure are beautiful tonight. Too bad you can't see them, Toph!"

"Oh Yue, it's gonna be one of those nights isn't it?" I looked up to the moon.

I heard a yelp and saw Katara fly up before landing on Sokka, "Hey, how's a guy supposed to sleep with all this yelling and earthquaking?"

Toph reopened her tent, "That thing is back!"

"Yue. Give me the strength to not kill them tonight. Please!" I yelled to the moon.

Sokka sighed lying back down, "Well, how far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes just for a few minutes"

I walked over and picked him up, "Hey! Put me down!"

"Get on the dam bison!" I glared at him. I was too tired to deal with this shit today!

I saw him flinch, "O-o-ok"

—————

We looked over the saddle of Appa to see the smoke following us.

"Seriously, what is that thing?" Katara asked.

"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph finished.

"I don't know. But this time, I'm going to make sure we lose it" Aang exclaimed.

"If it comes to it.." I pulled out my fans, "I can take them. I've dealt with more people on less sleep before"

We then landed on top of a mountain and collapsed onto the ground, "Okay, forget about setting up camp. I'm finding the softest pile of dirt and going to sleep" Sokka sighed.

"That's good because Toph wasn't going to help anyway!" Katara scoffed.

"Oh, I didn't realize the baby still needed someone to tuck her in bed" Toph mocked her.

"Both of you just SHUT UP!" I yelled at them.

"Come on guys, there's something after us and we don't even know what or who it is" Aang sighed.

Katara nodded, "It could be Zuko. We haven't seem him since the North Pole"

"Who's Zuko?" Toph raised a brow.

Sokka shrugged, "Oh, just some angry freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all over the world and who has an unspoken romance with (Y/n)"

"Excuse me?!" I shot up.

Katara chuckled, "We all know you like him (Y/n)"

"I do not! He's tried to kidnap me for months!"

"Your heart rate did go up when Sokka mentioned his name" Toph chuckled.

"Oh yeah right!" I laid back on the ground, "I don't like him"

"Is that why you two have matching bracelets?" Katara smirked.

I looked at her dead in the eyes, "Katara I know who you like, so keep it up and I'll tell them"

She gasped, "You wouldn't dare"

"Try me bitch!"

"Ok enough on your love lives," Sokka thankfully interrupted us. "Whoever's chasing us couldn't have followed us here, so, now would everyone just shhh?"

We then heard Momo start to freak out, making me groan, "Oh spirits, please no!"

Aang got up, "That's impossible. There's no way they could have tracked us"

"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph exclaimed.

"Let's get out of here" Katara looked around with fear in her eyes.

"I agree. It's safer if we leave. Now"

"Maybe we should face them. Find out who they are. Who knows, maybe they're friendly" Aang calmly expressed.

Sokka sighed, "Always the optimist"

We all ran to the edge of the mountain and looked over to see the same three girls we encountered in Omashu.

"Guys... it's those weird girls again" I sighed.

"We can take them. Three on four" Toph smirked as we all presumed fighting stances.

I took out my fans as Sokka turned to Toph, "Actually Toph, there's five of us"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't count you. You know, no bending and all" she shrugged making me gasp.

"Oh! Katara can't even heal that burn!" I chuckled.

"I can still fight!" He yelled in raged.

"Okay, three on four plus Sokka"

Sokka's face turned red, "Errrgh!"

I saw the girls easily dodge Toph attack, "Yeah no.." I sighed grabbing my family and throwing them on Appa.

"What are you doing?!" Toph yelled at me.

"Saving your fucking lives! Get on!"

—————

We all laid on the saddle as Toph sulked, "I still think we could have taken them"

"Are you kidding me?" Katara scoffed pointing her fingers upward repeatedly in gesture, "The crazy blue firebending and the flying daggers are bad enough, but last time we saw them, one of those girls did something that took my bending away. That's scary"

Oh yeah... I forgot about that. But who cares, it's not like that will ever happen again.

"Wait. What about crazy Firebending?" I snapped at my sister.

"Oh no, the sun is rising. We've been up all night with no sleep!" Sokka yelled at the sky changing the subject.

I groaned listening to everyone's voices, "Everyone just shut. Up!"

—————

We all abruptly landed after Appa passed out and the gaang and I slumped off the bison.

"Appa's exhausted" Aang sighed.

"Okay, we've put in a lot of distance between us and them. The plan right now is to follow Appa's lead and get some sleep" Sokka told us.

"Works for me!" I smashed onto the ground not even bothering to make a bed.

"Of course, we could've gotten some sleep earlier, if Toph didn't have such issues" Katara scoffed.

"What!?" Toph yelled.

"Katara!" I jumped up and ran in between them.

"All right, all right, everyone's exhausted! Let's just get some rest" Aang tried/failed to help.

"No, I want to hear what Katara has to say. You think I have issues?"

Katara scoffed, "I'm just saying. Maybe if you helped out earlier, we could have set up our camp faster and gotten some sleep and then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"Oh spirits no" I mumbled under my breath.

"You're blaming me for this?" Toph pointed at her.

"No! No, she's not blaming you" Aang tried to help again.

"No, I'm blaming her!"

"Hey, I never asked you for diddly-doo-dah. I carry my own weight. Besides, if there's anyone to blame, it's Sheddy over here!"

Oh no. She brought the bison into this. You never bring Appa into the fight.

"What? You're blaming Appa?" The Avatar gasped.

"Yeah, you want to know how they keep finding us?" She grabbed a clump of Appa's fur and let the sheddings blow away with the wind, "He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!"

"How dare you blame Appa! He saved your life three times today! If there's anyone to blame it's you! You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you're not. He is! Appa's carrying your weight. He never had a problem flying when it was just the four of us!" Aang got in her face making her grunt.

"Aang!" I yelled at him.

Toph stomped on the ground, launching her pack into the air which she caught, "I'm out of here"

"What?! No!" I tried to run after her.

"Wait!" Sokka ran with me as we tried to block her exit, but she moved us out of the way.

I snapped my head into their direction. Sokka saw the anger build up into my eyes, "(Y/n)..."

My eyes begin to twitch should I could feel a little bit of fire forming around me, before it vanished.

"Are you two seriously this stupid, or is it all just an act? You just let your fucking Earthbending teacher go off into the forest alone. I told you to drop this conversation multiple times and what do you do? You kept it up going. Katara I understand you're trying to be the mother here but you need to understand that she has been in our group for a total of five days, five. Do you really think she's going to trust us now with that little stunt you pulled? She left her entire family, she left her home and life to help us. Yes she did leave of her own free will, but it's a completely different reason then you and Sokka. She left because if she stayed in that hellhole she would've been treated like a second class citizen for the rest of her entire life. I wonder who knows exactly what that's like, oh wait I do!"

"(Y/n) you left to help Aang because you wanted to!" Katara spat at me.

"Of course I did! I'd do anything to protect him because he's my family! But do you think I had a choice to come on the adventure?! Of course I would've come no matter what, but I didn't get a chance to leave properly! I left because I was kidnapped! I didn't even get to say goodbye to Gran-gran! I'm only here to protect the true family I have left," I turned to Aang tears streaming down my face as I though of Gran-gran. "Aang. I am very disappointed in you. Same goes for you Katara," I sighed. "Now. I'm gonna go find Toph and drag her ass back here, so you two can apologize to her. Okay?" I fake smiled.

They sighed, "Ok"

I grabbed my fans, "Good"

"Wait! Where are we gonna meet you?!" Aang ran over.

I shrugged, "There's an abandoned village I saw when we were flying over. Meet me there" I explained walking away.

Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots!

—————

"Toph?" I yelled. "Toph I know you can here me!"

I grunted walking through the trees. My entire family is just completely stupid no matter who you look at.

No matter what Katara always have to be in the right. Help unpack do this do that do everything Katara you're not my mother, stop trying to act like you are.

I also though back to my little outburst. I might've been to harsh. I shouldn't of compared my life to Toph, I mean they all probably have worse backstories.

I then thought of Gran-gran. Uggggg I was such an idiot! I never got to tell her goodbye. I never got to hug her. I never even got a chance to apologize to her. The last thing I ever did with her was fight.

I wonder how she's doing now. I wonder if Pakku told her I was ok. Spirits she was probably so scared!

Whenever we get somewhere safe, I'm gonna immediately write to her. I need her to know I'm ok, and I hope she is too.

I then heard a pitter-patter in the distance and sighed in relief, "Toph! Thank Yue I found yo-OH SHIT!" I yelled jumping back seeing Zuko.

"(Y/n)?" He raised a brow.

I pulled out my fans as he jumped off his animal he was riding, "Wheres the Avatar?"

"We departed. Where's your ponytail?" I smirked.

"We departed" he copied me as he took out his duel swords.

"Oh so your copying me now, huh?"

He smirked shrugging, "Think of it as payback for Kyoshi Island"

I let out a chuckle, "I'm surprised you remember that"

"A Prince always rememberers"

I rolled my eyes charging at him. My fans met both his swords as we began to duel.

I kept blocking with my right fan, while attacking with my left. While Zuko did the opposite with his swords. Neither of us dared to use our bending for some reason.

"So when'd you get a hair cut?" I asked.

He shrugged blocking my attack, "About a couple weeks ago"

"Hum," I shrugged dodging his blades. "It's nice"

"Thanks. Did you do something to yours?"

"Uhh... unless falling out of the sky and no sleep counts?"

"Oh. Well it looks nice"

"Thanks" I smirked as our weapons intertwined together.

We both began to try and pull ours out, but they were stuck, "What's going on?!" He yelled.

"Get your lame ass swords out of my fans!"

"What!? Lame?! Coming from a girl who uses fans!"

"What's wrong with my fans?"I became red in embarrassment and look up to the prince, "Break?"

He nodded, "Yeah"

We both dropped what we were doing and pulled our weapons away, slipping them back where they belonged.

"So what are you doing here anyways? Shouldn't you be surrounded by your royal guards?" I asked.

"No. I'm not accompanied by them anymore" he sighed.

I raised a brow, "What about your ship? You look like you've been living in a cave," We made eye contact and I could tell there was a glint of sadness in his eye. "Wait. You were living in a cave!?"

He let out a long sigh, "Zhao. Before we defeated him he stole my entire crew, then blew up my ship with me inside"

"So that's why you were covered in bruises and gashes when you captured me"

"Yeah. Now's even worse though"

"Why and how? How the spirits did it get worse than it already was?!"

"My father thinks i'm a traitor. He sent my sister to capture me-"

"Did she by chance have blue fire?"

"How did you know"

"I've brief encounter here before and my smart ass pick up on because she looked like you"

"Oh"

"So why are you out here?"

"....you know why"

I nodded, "Yeah.. I should've guessed"

We both became silent before I sighed, "Do you wanna truce?"

"What?"

"Do. You. Want. To. Truce?" I asked again slower.

"No. I heard you. Why do you want to truce?" He face palmed.

I groaned, "I'm running on no sleep and I really wanna ride that animal" I pointed to the animal he was just on.

"Really?" He said almost disappointed.

"What? You got something against truces?"

He sighed jumping on his animal, "Just hop on"

"So is this a truce, or a kidnapping?" I smirked crossing my arms.

He rolled his eye putting out his hand, "Just get on"

"I guess we'll find out later" I grabbed his hand before being pulled onto the animal. I put my arms around his waist as we began to move.

As we were moving I felt my eyes tire, before drifting to sleep on Zuko's back.

——————

"(Y/n)! Wake up!" I heard being yelled in my face.

I opened my eyes to see Sokka, "What?" I raised a brow.

"You were just sleeping on this random animal, in the middle of a battle!" He told me.

I looked around to see Zuko, Aang and Zuko's sister fighting, "Oh"

"Just come on!" He helped me to the ground as we joined in the fight.

The entire group then surrounded Zuko's sister and I got a good look at the group. There was me (obviously), Aang, Toph, Katara, Sokka, Zuko and his Uncle Iroh. Pretty solid group if you ask me!

We all prepared to strike as the Princess lifted her arms up, "Well, look at this. Enemies and traitors, all working together. I'm done. I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor" she smirked before blasting Iroh across the field.

Zuko horrifically gasps as I glare at the Princess, "You bitch!" I yelled sending a swarm of flames in her direction.

Everyone gave it all they had to beat her, even Sokka who threw his boomerang at her.

As we all stopped, we saw that she vanished, "What is she a ninja?!" I spat as Zuko ran to his Uncle.

"Zuko!" I gasped running next to him as he tried to help his Uncle.

"Get away from us!" He yelled at my family as they tried to approach us.

"Zuko.. we can help" I told him.

He shook his head, "Zuko," I sighed putting my hand on his shoulder. "We can help"

He shook his head, "Please just... leave"

I saw Katara try to step forward but I stopped her.

I looked down as I got up, "Ok" I softly said.

As we all began to leave I kept looking back at Zuko and his Uncle, but every time I looked away I felt like someone's eyes were on me.

—————

We all landed on a random hill far away from the action and just died!

I held my left hand up and just stared at my ribbon before losing consciousness.

As we drifted off to sleep I realized that when I briefly fell asleep on Zuko, was the first time I didn't have a nightmare.

•••