Learning Experiences Zukka

Interlude II

Katara was a little cranky. First Sokka had tried to get her to leave Aang when the young monk was helpless as his spirit traveled away from his body. Then he had run off with Appa claiming he would do something about it himself, and even though he annoyed her, she was still cranky that her big brother was trying to get himself killed. Not to mention that she'd had to sit alone in that creepy cave, which Aang said contained enough spiritual energy to allow him better access to Roku but she just thought was annoyingly damp.

Then, when Aang had come out of his trance, he had insisted on summoning Appa so that they could go get some gift that a spirit had found for him but couldn't bring all the way to the cave for whatever spirit reason. Which Katara hoped would at least stop Sokka from trying to save that village on his own, but he didn't come back with the bison, so he'd probably already killed himself. Though, Appa had seemed too cheerful for that. Then they'd flown to what would be better described as a big rock than an island where Aang found his 'gift' sitting just above the tide line with seaweed tangled in it. It turned out to be some Fire Nation topknot decoration, which Aang thought might have been Roku's. Well, that was nice and all but it was past sunrise by then and they still needed to find out what her stupid brother had gotten himself into.

Luckily Appa seemed eager to take them to where he had left Sokka and an hour or so before noon they approached the Earth Kingdom shore again, only for the bison to circle and land directly on the beach. Katara slid down from the saddle and spotted a burned out campfire and, surprisingly, two figured sprawled out beside it asleep. One was wearing a blue tunic and was sprawled on top of the other figure. She marched up to find out what was going on.

When she got up to them, both boys started to stir. Without looking up, Sokka whispered to the other figure, a pale teen dressed in black, "Is it the Fire Nation? Do you think they'll kill me?"

The pale boy looked up, wincing in pain at the sunlight and Katara gasped at the sight a familiar scar. What in the name of all the spirits...

"No, it's your sister. See if you can get her to kill me." Zuko whispered back. Sokka let out a soft giggle.

"What is going on here?" She demanded, causing both boys to curl up slightly and cover their ears. "Are you..." she turned Sokka's face towards her, noting the unusual paleness and bloodshot eyes. "Are you two hung over?"

"Zuko, are we hung over?"

"We had a skin of Yu Yan rum each and didn't eat or drink anything before passing out. We may need to invent a more serious term to describe this than just hung over."

"Like... dead over... or hung dead?"

"Oh good, Zuko's here!" Aang floated over cheerfully, again causing both boys to try to hide. "I have something for you!"

"Will it kill me?" The prince's voice was slightly hopeful.

Sokka snorted softly. "You had a better shot with my sister, I think we're gonna have to live."

Katara was getting cranky again. "I'm sorry, I thought you were saving a village, exactly what part of getting drunk on the beach with the guy trying to kill us was meant to accomplish that?"

"I already saved the village, with my brilliant plan and... you know weapon skills and boomerang and good looks and..."

"Ehem."

"And Zuko helped too," Sokka patted his chest, "But then Zuko felt bad because I had my first time when we were in the woods and he thought it was rougher than it should have been, so he stole some rum to apologize and wow this is coming out wrong..."

The firebender stole a quick look up at Katara's darkening face. "On the bright side, she might kill me now."

"Oooookay, maybe we should get Zuko back to his ship," Aang said quickly. "And then we'll get moving again and never ever talk about this..."

"I didn't mean that kind of first time, it's a warrior thing! Zuko, tell them!"

A very, very small smirk started to cross the prince's pained face.

"Tell them!"

He whistled slightly.

"If I could move without puking I would totally cut off that ponytail..."