My Weeks Of Love and Pain

The Ember Island Players

I watched Aang and Zuko practice their Firebending together. We were all dressed in our Fire Nation outfits. Toph napped next to me and Sokka and Suki went into town. The boys bended back and forth and then relaxed. They bowed to each other and stretched. I looked around the courtyard.

"Doesn't seem kind of weird that we're hiding from the Fire Lord in his own house?" I said.

Zuko sat on the fountain in the middle of the courtyard and wiped the back of his neck with a towel.

"I told you, my father hasn't come here since our family was actually happy. And that was a long time ago. This is the last place anyone would think to look for us," he said.

"You guys are not going to believe this!" Sokka cried happily and ran into the courtyard.

"I'm not going to get a decent nap?" Toph asked annoyed as she rubbed her eyes and sat up.

"No. There's a play about us," Sokka continued.

"We were just in town and we found this poster," Suki explained.

Sokka unraveled a scroll to reveal a poster of Aang, Sokka, and I. Zuko's eyes were in the background but his scar was on the wrong side. Sokka was extremely muscled, Aang had makeup on along with some girlish features, and I was overweight and had huge lips. Some artist.

"What? How is that possible?" I asked Sokka.

"Listen to this," he said. "'The Boy in the Iceberg is a new production from the acclaimed playwright Pu On Tim, who sourced the globe gathering information on the Avatar from the icy South Pole to the heart of Ba Sing Se. His sources include singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war and a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage.'"

"'Brought to you by the critically acclaimed Ember Island Players,'" Suki finished.

Sokka rolled the scroll back up.

"Ugh. My mother used to take us to see them. They butchered 'Love Amongst the Dragons' every year," Zuko grunted.

"Sokka, do you really think it's a good idea for us to attend a play about ourselves?" I asked.

"C'mon, a day at the theatre? This is just the kind of wacky times wasting nonsense I've been missing!" Sokka replied happily grinning widely.

I rolled my eyes.

"Wait, if we're going to see a play in public, I need to cover my arrow," Aang pointed out.

"I'm already ahead of you," Suki said pulling a hat from behind her back.

"It looks like Xu's hat from when I was the Painted Lady," I said with a smile.

Aang groaned. "He was so confusing. But whatever."

We paid for our tickets and went over the second floor. We sat in a private booth. I was next to Toph and Sokka and Suki were behind us. Aang was about to sit next to me but Zuko made it first.

"Hey, um... I wanted to sit there," Aang said.

"Just sit next to me, what's the big deal?" Zuko said.