Balance | Old Version

Chapter 69

Elua's POV.

"Suki, you know about giant sea monsters. Make it go away!" Sokka shouts.
"Just because I live near the Unagi doesn't mean I'm an expert!" Suki yells at him angrily.
"Oh great and powerful sea serpent," Sokka begins to say as he picks up Momo and holds him out to the Serpent. "Please accept this humble and tasty offering. Thank you," He says.
"Sokka!" I shout disapprovingly at him as Momo gets away from Sokka and flies over to me, landing on my shoulder. Aang sends a blast of air at the serpent, making it stagger back.
"I'll distract him. Katara, get everyone across," Aang orders as he opens his glider and flies off, starting to distract the sea monster.

"I'll go help Aang," I tell the others.
"Nope," Sokka says as he grabs my arm. "You're still hurt," He tells me, I go to argue but Katara interrupts me.
"Sokka is right. Let us handle this," Katara tells me as she quickly makes an ice bridge for everyone to walk across and then she goes to help Aang. We all make it across, excepted Toph who is still standing on the tiny bit of rock in the middle of the water.
"Toph, come on. It's just ice," Sokka shouts to her.
"Actually, I'm gonna stay on my little island. Where I can see," Toph says, but the Serpent hits her rock and it begins to crumble. "Ok, I'm coming!" She shouts as she starts to walk across the ice.

"You're doing great! Just follow the sound of my voice!" Sokka shouts to her.
"It's hard to ignore," Toph says in annoyance as she continues to walk.
"You're almost there," I tell her, but right as I say that the Serpent's tail crashes on top of the ice bridge, shattering it and sending Toph plunging into the lake.
"Help! I can't swim!" Toph shouts as she tries to stay afloat, but begins to sink.
"I'm coming, Toph!" Sokka shouts as he begins to take off his shoes, but before he can Suki jumps in. She swims as fast as she can and dives for Toph. When she resurfaces she has Toph in her arms, I sigh in relief. We look up and see that Aang and Katara have fought off the Serpent.

Everyone gets back to shore and we all continue our journey, we were all exhausted but we had to keep moving. As we come over the mountain, we can see the smallest bit of the Ba Sing Se outer wall.
"There's the wall!" Sokka says as he points to the wall smiling. "Now it's nothing but smooth sailing to Ba Sing Se," He says. Suddenly, Ying gasps in pain.
"Oh no!" Ying says as she doubles over.
"What's wrong?" Sokka asks her.
"The baby's coming!" Ying says in pain.
"What! Now?! Can't you hold it in or something?" Sokka asks in a panic.

"Sokka, Calm down. I helped Gran-Gran deliver lots of babies back home," Katara says calmly.
"This isn't the same as delivering an arctic seal! This is a real. Human. Thing!" Sokka shouts.
"It's called a baby and I helped deliver plenty of those too," Katara says as she glares at him.
"Aang, get some rags. Sokka, water. Toph, I need you to make an earth tent. A big one," Katara instructs, Toph bends a pretty big tent out of the earth around the family. "Suki and Elua, come with me," Katara says as we walk into the tent. After a few hours, lots of pain on the mother's part, and Sokka fainting, the baby was born. A healthy baby girl.
"Aang, you have to come see this," I hear Katara tell Aang as the others all walk into the tent.
"She sounds healthy," Toph says smiling.

"She's beautiful," I say looking at the very small baby.
"It's so...squishy looking," Sokka says tilting his head and looking at the baby.
"What should we name her?" Tahn asks his wife as he smiles down at his daughter.
"I want our daughter's name to be unique. I want it to mean something," Ying states.
"I've been going through a really hard time lately. But, you've made me...hopeful again," Aang says with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face.
"I know what I want to name our baby now. Hope," Ying proclaims as she looks down at her daughter lovingly.

"That's a perfect name. Hope."

Later.

We all stand outside, Aang had made the decision to go to Ba Sing Se ahead of us and we were all saying our goodbyes.
"I promise I'll find Appa as fast as I can. I just really need to do this," Aang tells us.
"See ya in the big city," Sokka tells him with a smile.
"Say hi to that big fuzzball for me," Toph tells him as she punches his arm.
"You'll find him Aang," I tell him with a smile as we hug each other.
"I know. Thank you, Elua," Aang says as we let go of each other. He opens his glider and takes off into the sky. Suki had left so she could get back to the other warriors and we were all packing up and making sure we had everything.

I look over to Sokka, who is looking through his bag. I look away, unsure if I should do what I was thinking. I shake my head and take a deep breath, before walking over to him.
"Hey," I say nervously, he looks up at me and smiles as he stands up.
"Hey," He says. "You okay?" He asks with a frown, seeing my nervousness.
"I wanted to, um uh, talk to you," I stumble.
"Okay, what is it?" He asks kindly. I gulp nervously.
"You see I-I've been wanting to, uh..." I take a deep breath as I try to find the words I need
"Is this about the other night? You stormed off, did I do something?" Sokka asks.
"No, no," I say shaking my head.

"I've wanted to tell you this for a while now, but, I haven't had the courage to say a-anything," Oh this is awkward, why was this so difficult? "The thing is that I-I, uh..." He looks at with a look of 'continue'. "I-I'm in love w-with you," I stutter out, his eyes slowly go wide. Oh, great. I've ruined everything.
"I-I understand if you don't feel the same. I just really needed to tell you, it's been so hard not-" I start to ramble but, I'm cut off as he leans down and captures my lips. He pulls away for a moment, I look at him in shock.
"You talk too much," He whispers with a smile before kissing me again, wrapping his arms around my waistline. I close my eyes and smile as I put my arms around his neck and kiss back, embracing the moment.