Agni Kai [2] Zuko

10

   UZUME AND SUKI sat on the steps of Zuko's beach house, gossiping. The two girls tuned out the sound of Zuko and Aang sparring as they compared their fans with each other. Uzume admired the gold lining on the warriors' fans while her boyfriend and adoptive brother roared at each other.

"Who wants a nice, cool glass of watermelon juice?" Katara stepped out of the house with a tray of glasses with straws. Uzume immediately perked up to help Katara hand out the juice when Aang suddenly came running at her.

"Ooo, ooo, me, me, me!"

Zuko grabbed at the little boy frustrated, "Hey, your lessons aren't over yet! Get back here."

Uzume zoned out of the conversation as she passed a glass of juice to Toph and Sokka. She heard Zuko yelling in frustration but only chose to listen when Sokka stood abruptly.

"Beach party!" The Water Tribe genius yelled, throwing off his coat, revealing a pair of shorts as he ran towards the beach. Uzume and Suki calmly laid themselves down on beach towels while Katara surfed and Aang, Toph, and Sokka built sculptures in the sand.

Aang raised his arms to present his sculpture, "Check out my Appa sand sculpture." Toph looked at them blindly, "Not bad, baldy. But I've been working on my sandbending. You're gonna love this." Toph cracked her fingers and stretched her arms. She began to move her arms around, gathering a bunch of sand. She paused her movements to reveal a miniature replica of Ba Sing Se.

Uzume lowered herself to the ground to observe Toph's masterpiece and let out a coo at the blind girl's creation.

"Toph, is this us?" Uzume asked the blind girl. On a mini sand bridge stood Toph and Uzume standing next to each other with wide smiles. The earthbender nodded enthusiastically while Aang observed her sculpture.

"Wow, you even made a little Earth King and Bosco." Uzume's attention was quickly averted from Aang and towards Sokka who carried shells and seaweed in his arms.

"Try and top that, Sokka," Toph gloated to the water tribe boy. Sokka ignored the girl and raised his arms towards his lump of sand.

"Is that a blubbering blob monster?" Aang looked at the sculpture in disbelief.

Sokka stomped his foot on the ground. "No, it's Suki." Uzume studied the sculpture with judgemental eyes as she tried to compare the sand with her friend.

"Suki we'll all understand if you break up with him over this." Toph said to the warrior. Uzume nodded her head in agreement as she continued to stare at the ugly blob.

"I think it's sweet,"  Suki defended her boyfriend. Sokka ran towards the girl and slid on his knees to kiss her on the cheek

Aang looked at the girl in disbelief, "But it doesn't even look like-" the monk was quickly cut off by a blast of fire coming at him.

The fire hit Sokka's sand sculpture sending a cloud of sand into the bystanders eyes. When the dust cleared everyone looked towards the cliff where the fire came from.

Uzume looked at her boyfriend in disbelief when she saw his angry face staring down at them. They barely had enough time to react before Zuko ran and jumped off the cliff fire bending at Aang, who at the same time dodged the flames and jumped into Toph's sand sculpture.

Uzume ran towards the ocean where Katara was surfing back to shore in a panic, "Katara, don't freak out-"

Katara pushed past the girl as she raced to aid Aang, "What happened?"

"Zuko's gone crazy! I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it." Sokka blubbered out as he tried picking up the remains of his sculpture, "Oh and Zuko's attacking Aang."

Suki rolled her eyes and quickly picked up Sokka with the help of Uzume. The group ran back to the beach house just in time to see Aang send a tunnel of wind and fire towards his attacker.

"What's wrong with you?" Katara asked the fire prince in fury.

Uzume ran towards Zuko who laid on the ground holding his head in pain. She helped the boy up as he responded to Katara, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's comet is only three days away?"

Uzume awkwardly looked around the group as they thought about what Zuko said. Zuko noticed how his friends wouldn't look him in the eye, "Why are you all looking at me like I'm crazy?" he asked.

Aang stepped up towards the boy, "About Sozin's comet. I was actually going to wait to fight the fire lord until after it came." Aang looked at his friends unconfident, "I'm not ready. I need more time to master firebending."

"And frankly your earth bending could still use some work too." Toph added unhelpfully. Uzume nudged the short girl in the side with her elbow and placed a reassuring hand on Aang's shoulder, "We think it's the best course of action for now."

"So you all knew he was going to wait?" Zuko looked at the group shocked. Uzume avoided his hurt gaze as he glanced over them.

"Honestly, if Aang tries to fight the Fire Lord right now, he's gonna lose. No offence." Sokka gestured to the little boy.

Uzume shook her head at Sokka's unhelpful words, "No, we just think it would be safer."

"The whole point of fighting the Fire Lord before the comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the war. But they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se. Things can't get any worse." Katara explained fully to Zuko. Uzume looked away from the group as she remembered her part and taking down Ba Sing Se.

"You're wrong. It's about to get worse than you can even imagine." Zuko looked at the group solemnly. He begin to explain how Ozai and Azula were planning on wiping out the entire earth kingdom.

Uzume could feel her heart break at the mention of her past best friend suggesting to wipe out an entire nation. Her entire life she tried to stop Azula from making decisions like this and the second she leaves, Azula reverts back to her cruel ways.

Katara dropped to the ground on her knees in despair and put her face in her hands, "I can't believe this."

"I always knew the fire lord was a bad guy but his plan is just pure evil." Sokka held onto Suki as the warrior looked at the group worried.

Aang stared at them heartbroken, "What am I going to do?"

Uzume took in a deep sigh as she held her scarred hands close to her chest, "I know it's a lot to ask of you Aang. But they've hurt people. You have to kill him." Aang shook his head defiantly at her words.

"I know you're scared. And I know that you're not ready to save the world. But if you don't defeat the Fire Lord before the comet comes, there won't be a World to save anymore."

short update. i wanted to get this part outta the way because it was giving me such a block.