Carved In Rock || ATLA

If It Means A Lot To You

Bitter Work

Trigger Warning: Depictions of fishing/catch preparation for consumption in the chapter below. This description may be upsetting to some readers, continue at your own discretion.

"You know you can't give me what I need, and even though you mean so much to me I can't wait through everything. Is this really happening? I swear I'll never be happy again, and don't you dare say we can just be friends. I'm not some boy that you can sway, we knew it'd happen eventually." - A Day To Remember

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Fuck, these people were more dysfunctional than Toph's family but damn if this wasn't a little entertaining. Still, part of her felt bad for Aelita having to even deal with it all. Spirits strike the earthbender down if she ever wanted to date after seeing this. The younger girl offered a hand to her friend and helped pull her to her feet, Sugar Queen and Twinkle Toes flocking around her like a pack of hens.

"Aelita I'm so..." Sokka rambled, guilt wracking his nerves.

"I'm fine." The firebender snapped, wanting nothing more than for everyone to shut up right now. "I've about had it with overdramatic men and their fragile egos that think everything is about them." She hissed, ripping Zuko and Sokka apart and standing between them. "This isn't about you, or you." She jabbed at them both. "This isn't even about me. This is about war. This is about survival. We don't have time for petty bullshit and male dominance. Spirits help me I will cut off every person in this damn camp if it means everyone will act like they have a lick of sense." Her voice was threatening and serious. She dared anyone to challenge her, but no one did. "I'm going to train." She said stalking back towards the village, Mushu scurrying a long hot at her heels. "I suggest everyone else do the same."

Both Sokka and Zuko found themselves reaching for Aelita as she walked away from them, but Toph was quick to stop them. "Let her go." She explained, her arms held out in front of them. "I could feel her heart rate, unless you're trying to put her into cardiac arrest I'd let her calm down."

Sokka pushed back the stray hairs that had fallen into his face and sighed. "Fuck." That wasn't how that was supposed to go. "Yeah, you're probably right. Hey." He called out to Zuko, the Prince stopping without a glance already on his way back to hell. "This doesn't change anything. She may trust you, but we don't and we outnumber you. If she's not back before nightfall, if there's as much as a scratch on her body, I promise you'll wish you had never met her."

"Funny." Zuko chuckled drily. "Most days I already do."

Iroh was surprised when Aelita stormed into the clearing on the other side of the village without Zuko in tow. He worried when he noticed how disheveled she was, her skin flushed and her fists clenched tightly. She sank onto the ground across from the campfire he had made and watched as the flames danced. The little red ferret she adopted all those months ago crawled into her lap and licked her face, but only a sad, forced smile graced her lips.

"Something on your mind, my friend?" Iroh asked.

"Why did life have to get so complicated?" She asked quietly.

"Because you, my dear, are meant for greatness, and great people are built, not born." His voice was calm and soothing, his demeanor kind. Aelita wasn't sure she deserved any kindness from Iroh after everything that had happened these past months.

"I don't feel great." She admitted with a small, pathetic laugh. "Hell, I haven't felt great in a long time. Every day I'm faced with new choices to make and it's like there's never a right answer, no matter what someone's gonna get hurt and it's gonna be my fault. Like when I found out the truth about who I was sure, I had options but they all sucked. I could've denied it and let an innocent child face a war on his own, used my strength to help our country slaughter and control millions of innocent people or abandon everyone I had left that I cared about and break my best friends heart. I feel like I've been trying to do the right thing for so long and where has it gotten me? A dead Princess on my conscious, new friends I wake up every day terrified of losing, and the one person I never thought I'd have to live without hates me now."