Ba Sing Se Boarding High

Sokka is NOT Happy

*Aang POV*

I walk into the dorm. If I say this right, Sokka won't punch me out. Deep breaths. I close the door.
"Where have you been?" Sokka looks up from his book.
"JetrapedKatarapleasedon'tkillme," There goes gently. I panicked.
"HE DID WHAT TO MY SISTER!?" I duck under his arms and jump into my bed.
"Calm down Sokka," Zuko stops writing to look at Sokka going nuts.
"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! I'M GOING TO MURDER JET,"
"Toph already beat him good. And he's in jail. But maybe you should go see Katara? She's in her dorm,"
"I will go do that," Sokka storms out of the dorm and slams the door.
"Well, that went horribly,"
"I'm kinda glad he's so upset. It shows he cares," Zuko seems to contemplate this for a minute, and nods. 
"Why were you scared then?"
"Because I don't want to be on the receiving end of Sokka's wrath,"
"Fair point," Zuko gets it. You don't mess with Katara. I've seen what Sokka does to people who hurt Katara. It is not pleasant. It's like he isn't even human anymore.

Zuko and I sit in silence for a bit until he speaks up. 
"Hey, the news says they're going to announce the Avatar a year and a half early," he says.
"They're what!" This is bad. Very bad. No. Nonononononononono.
"Well, it won't be news to you I guess, but I'm kinda curious,"
"Yup. I know the identity of the Avatar already," I gulp. Should I tell him or not. He'll find out in three months anyway. 
"Can you tell me? It'd be cool to know early," I guess I have to tell him. Agh. Think Aang think.
"Yeah, but do you know why they're doing it early?" Distraction.
"The Earth Kingdom says that they won't keep the Air Nomad refugees unless they tell the world early.
"Seriously? What a bunch of shitheads. They went through enough,"
"So, you said you would tell me," Zuko is staring at me.
"Yup. And I can tell you that... that the Avatar is sitting directly across from you," My voice strains at the end. Zuko looks around for a minute before catching on.
"It's YOU?!" Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
"Yup. Undeniably and definitely me,"
"Why didn't you tell me,"
"Well, for one, people always look at me differently once they know, and two, I don't like it very much," 
"I guess that's fair. But it's not exactly cool," I glare at him. Seriously.
"Yeah, yeah. Big deal. Why the heck are the Earth Kingdom officials being shitheads?" 
"Information is costly. If it gets out that the Earth Kingdom found a way to reveal the identity of the Avatar early, they will definitely be having many more meetings and distracting away from wars. It's a political strategy," 
"Politics are stupid. Why doesn't everyone just get spiritual leaders based on their achievements in the world?" 
"Not everyone is as highly enlightened as the Air Nomads, Aang,"
"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it works,"
"Really? Because those fires happened,"
"Information got leaked. No one is supposed to know the locations but the Air Nomads and very few trusted allies...." Wait. Spies. This is all my fault. If I had just decided to stop being such a wuss and tell the world, then maybe that wouldn't have happened. Aaaaaaaaaaaah.

I'm rolling around in my bed and mentally broken when Sokka walks back in. He seems slightly less peeved than before.
"How'd it go?" Zuko asks.
"The cop says that she'll have to make a testimony if it goes to trial. But why would it? There is so much proof incriminating Jet,"
"If he pleads innocent and the defence can show reasonable doubt, a trial is very likely to occur. There aren't any cameras in the hotel rooms and Jet could say that they were roleplaying. Unfortunately, the justice system is very skewed,"
"Damn Aang, you know an awful lot about court stuff and the law," Sokka raises his eyebrow at me.
"He has to, don't you Aang?" Zuko looks up at me.
"Shut up," I smack his good side with airbending.
"Fuck off,"
"What the hell happened while I was gone?"
"Aang can tell you," Zuko throws the blame at me. I'm still panicking. Why the hell is he pissed again? I throw my phone at Sokka, with the article on the screen.
"Read this," I tell him. He looked shocked when he's done.
"And why is Zuko mad then?"
"Because this IDIOT didn't tell me sooner,"
"Tell you what?"
"Oh! This is rich! You didn't tell him either?"
"TELL ME WHAT?"
"I only told Toph, but she figured it out on her own. She's helping me with earthbending," Sokka's eyes go wide.
"You! It's you! I thought it might've been, but it was more of a hunch. Why didn't you mention it,"
"Because being the Avatar is basically all political bullshit at this point. In the past, it might have been interesting, but now all I do is stop old guys from attacking each other and their land,"
"But isn't there spirit world stuff?" Sokka asks.
"The spirits basically abandoned us after Kuruk was an idiot and didn't care about keeping balance. The only ones left are Tui and La, the moon and ocean, Agni, the sun, and Raava, the Avatar or Light spirit. The Avatar hasn't made a trip to the spirit world since Kyoshi was born," 
"Why were you supposed to wait till sixteen then?"
"Well, that's when I'm supposed to be done learning the elements and spiritual training. I'm supposed to start dealing with the political bullshit then. Now I have to start early. I had to read so many law books. It was exhausting. Gyatso thought that my first year in Ba Sing Se could be time to be a normal kid, and the rest of it could be training time. I would still go to school, but the rest of my time would be training,"
"And now you get no time," Sokka's eyes go wide.
"I'm sorry I got mad at you. That's a lot of stress to be under. I escaped most of mine because I'm not really the Fire Prince anymore," Zuko speaks up.
"Your apology is appreciated," I get super formal when I'm tired. It's kinda been drilled into my head from the training.
"Maybe you should get some sleep. We can talk about this more in the morning. You have to do the rest of your goofing off in these three months," Sokka says. Sokka takes nothing seriously. But goofing off for three months sounds like a good plan. I just have to keep my grades up too.