Kya Maiden of the Sea Book 3 ATLA

Chapter 14

We spent the rest of the day searching for Aang. I looked around the temple, still thinking about Zuko and Kaito, wondering if they both made it out okay. After the night of the war meeting I never saw Zuko again, and Kaito fought with Azula the last time I saw her. I held my temple blinking my eyes that were stinging a bit from exhaustion. My sleep deprivation was finally catching up to me. Katara placed a caring hand on my shoulder offering me some water. I pursed a smile at her. At least she wasn't being openly angry at me anymore. At this point that's as much I can ask of her.

"Aang. Can we talk about you learning fire bending now?" Katara asked as we caught up with Aang's gliding.

"What? The wind is too loud in my ears," Aang lied,"Check out these loops!"

"Aang, I think we should be making some plans about our future!" Sokka chimed in.

"Okay we can do that while I show you the giant Pai Sho table," Aang replied.

I looked down thinking about how I used to play Pai Sho with Iroh. I still kept the White Lotus tile he gave me from the night Zuko and I went to visit him in prison. I wondered if he was okay too. We got off Appa as Aang guided

"Oh and you're gonna love the all day echo chamber," Aang added.

"I think that'll have to wait," Toph said as Appa moved revealing Zuko and Kaito.

"Hello, Zuko here," He raised his hand awkwardly and smiled.

Kaito groaned as Zuko continued.

"Hey, we heard you guys flying around down there so,, we just thought we'd wait for you here,"

It was amusing how awkward he was. Everyone was ready to attack except for me who just watched softly clenching my fists. I had mixed emotions seeing Zuko. I told Zuko not to follow me but deep down I was happy to see him again. But Kaito, she's never done anything wrong to me. It just felt wrong to harbor this level of hostility.

Appa roared happily and licked Zuko, Aang loosened a bit after Appa's reaction.

"I know it's not ideal to see us here," Kaito said.

"You must be surprised," Zuko added still awkward.

"Not really," Sokka said,"Since you followed us all over the world,"

"Right, well uhh, anyway," Zuko looked away in shame,"What I wanted to tell you about, is that I've changed and I, uh, I'm good now and well think I should join your group,"

Kaito sighed, knowing this conversation was going little to no where.

"We can also teach the Avatar to fire bend," Kaito said hoping Zuko would just shut up.

I was frustrated but also relieved, we had no one else to turn to to help Aang. This was a good thing.

"You wanna what now?" Toph asked.

"You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? I mean how stupid do you think we are?" Katara argued.

"Yeah, all you've ever done is try to hunt us down and capture Aang!" Sokka added.

"To be fair most of that was Zuko not me," Kaito replied.

"It doesn't matter," Katara spat,"We can't trust either of you,"

Kaito and I sighed in unison.

"I've done some good things! I mean could have stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free, that's something," Zuko defended as Appa licked him again.

"Appa does seem to like him," Toph said.

"He probably covered himself in honey or something so that Appa would lick him," Sokka said, "I'm not buying it!"