Path Ahead

Journeys

"Hey, Sokka," greeted Aang as his friend sat beside him on Appa's head. "Do you really think we'll find Suki in this colony?"

"I sure hope so. We don't have time to search the whole Earth Kingdom." Sokka sighed. "I should never have let her leave after I found her again."

"You can't blame yourself, Sokka."

"I didn't even really try, though. Maybe I could have convinced her to stay with me."

"Like you convinced Katara not to get herself put on that Fire Nation prison ship? Or to give that waterbending scroll back to the pirates?" asked Aang archly. "From what I've seen, once a woman makes up her mind, you might as well give in." That comment broke through Sokka's melancholy, and he managed a wry grin.

"I see your point," he conceded. "It's just hard not to think that I could have changed things somehow."

"I know exactly what you mean," Aang told him fervently. "Even if Suki had stayed, her warriors might have been taken prisoner, and then we'd be making this same trip. There's just no way of knowing."

"Yeah." Sokka paused. "Do you ever - oh, never mind. It's silly."

"What?" Aang could never stand it when someone ended a sentence that way. It left him burning with curiosity.

"It's just...sometimes I feel like I'm cursed or something. Every girl I care about ends up dead or captured."

Aang felt a surge of sympathy, but he wasn't quite sure what to say. Technically, Yue hadn't died, she'd become the moon spirit, but he had a feeling Sokka wouldn't find that very comforting at the moment.

"We'll find Suki, and she'll be fine," he said at last, trying to project more confidence than he felt. "Lots of people have lived for years, even decades in Fire Nation prisons. It's only been a couple of months for her."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right," Sokka replied, but Aang could still hear the doubt in his voice. Sokka gazed out at the approaching shoreline, marked intermittently by Fire Nation watchtowers. He pointed to a section of mountains. "Let's go between those beacons and try to find a place in there to land. There's bound to be a cave we can hide in while we get our bearings."

"And get some sleep," added Aang, nodding as he fixed the location in his mind. Then he decided to broach a new topic. "Sokka, are you really okay with me and Katara?"

Sokka turned back to look at Aang but did not otherwise respond for several seconds. Just when Aang was beginning to wonder if he hadn't heard or understood him, he spoke.

"Weren't we just talking about how I tend to lose the girls I get close to?" he answered wryly. "Do you really think I'd wish that on you, let alone my own sister?"

Aang blinked in astonishment. He'd never thought about it that way.

"No," he said slowly. "No, you wouldn't."

"Sure, I might have preferred for you two to wait a little longer, but deep down, I think I always knew how this would go," Sokka continued.

"Really?"

"Well, yeah. I saw the way you looked at her that first day. And she was willing to leave me - her whole tribe - to travel the world with you."