Wandering Firebender

Sixty Six: Who You Can Trust (Part 2)

"I can't believe you're here!" Elio exclaimed in disbelief, "I thought it was gonna be at least another day or two."

"I told you we'd meet you here, didn't I?" Aang said with a laugh, "Hey, do you have any extra rooms where Katara and I can stay?" He requested.

"Yeah yeah of course! Delun, could you give Aang and Katara rooms to stay in, please?" He called to Delun, who was standing at the other end of the hall. He nodded and ran over.

"Yeah! Yeah, I got it, captain." Delun said with a nod, leading Aang and Katara to their own rooms.

"Come in, Cindra, have a seat," Elio invited her to sit with him on the edge of his bed. "Is that all of your stuff?" He asked, gesturing to the large pack that she had with her.

"Yep! I'm all packed up! What's going on, Elio?" She asked.

"Well, you remember how we talked about possibly getting to travel together again?" He brought up.

"Of course." She answered with a nod.

"Well, that's what this is basically," Elio said with a chuckle. "When I got back home, the new Fire Lord, Zuko, asked to see me. He kinda gave me a job, heheh. He phrased it as being a kind of 'special agent' for him, handling very important assignments." He explained.

"Really?! That's amazing! Is this Fire Lord Zuko guy good?" She asked.

"Yeah, he's friends with Aang, so I trust him. He's made it pretty clear that he wants to help the world recover from the war. We've had several conversations about what that'll entail for us now." Elio said with a nod.

"Wow, that's amazing. That's really good, Elio! I'm so proud of you." She said with a giggle.

"Proud of me? What?" Elio repeated with a confused chuckle.

"Yeah! You're doing everything you can to help people, and now you have this big position and an airship! That's awesome!" Cindra exclaimed with a laugh. Elio smiled warmly at her.

"Yeah, that's true. I'm really glad you're here. I told Zuko that I really wanted to have you on my team if I was going to be traveling the world like this." He said.

"Really?" Cindra smiled, feeling touched by this, "Well I'll help however I can, you already know that."

"That's why you're here," Elio chuckled and stood up. "You can unpack in the room right here next to mine. I'm not sure how much time we'll be spending in here." He said.

"Okay! Sounds good. Ooh, this is so exciting!" Cindra said with a giggle as Elio took her to her room.

Elio watched as Cindra walked into her room. She looked around curiously before setting her pack down on the bed. She opened it up and pulled out some of her blankets and personal belongings, setting them down either on top of the bed or on the nightstand next to the bed.

Then she turned around and realized that Elio was watching her.

"What?" She asked with a chuckle.

"Nothing, nothing. Just let me know if you need anything else, alright?"

"I will," Cindra smiled. She walked back to him and gave him another hug. "Goodnight, Elio. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow." Elio replied, rubbing her back with one hand before letting her go and going back to his room...

The next morning, Elio was woken up early by a knock at his door, "Captain? It's Mila! Are you awake?" She called through the door before knocking again.

"Mmm...what is it?" Elio sleepily called out.

"One of those Earth King Dai Li guys is outside asking for you. I told him I would come and get you." She said.