Wandering Firebender

Eighty Eight: Unfair

All of the supplies had finally been delivered to Fire Nation colony two. The Huang family had been safely retrieved. Elio and his crew were just finishing up the last of their preparations so they could take flight and return to the Fire Nation tomorrow morning.

To ensure that the Huang family would not be put in any danger from outsiders, Elio instructed them to say within the confines of the airship and away from the exits for now. Now it was nighttime again, and the crew was settling in early for the flight tomorrow.

"Hey, Cindra. Could you do me a favor?" Elio asked, calling to get her attention as he was passing her in the upper hallway. She stopped to look at him and saw that he was holding a thick blanket in his arms.

"Hm? Yeah sure, what's up, Elio?" She asked curiously, approaching him and eyeing the blanket.

"I need to go over some things with the flight operators, can you bring this over to Chaya?" Elio requested, holding the blanket out to her.

"To Chaya? What, did you have a tough time keeping her warm yourself last night?" Cindra let out a snarky comment as she took the blanket from him.

"I'm not entertaining that." Elio rolled his eyes at her.

"What? Just asking a question. She's pretty, maybe not as pretty as Azula, but you know." Cindra spoke once more before turning around and walking towards their quarters with the blanket tucked under her arm.

"Alright, look, you know what? We'll hash this out after I'm done." Elio decided before making his way to the control room.

"Oh yeah? Fine." Cindra huffed. She made her way to Chaya's room and knocked on the door. After a minute, Chaya answered the door.

"Oh hello again, Cindra. How are you today? Did everything go well?" She asked politely, managing a smile while folding her hands in front of her.

"Yeah, everything went fine. We're leaving tomorrow for the Fire Nation so you and your family can finally go home." Cindra said, doing her best to speak kindly to her despite her irritation. She wasn't sure how much of it was still apparent.

"That is good to hear. Thank you for finding us, Cindra. We're very grateful. I hope that in the future I'll be able to repay you." Chaya said, bowing her head for a moment.

"You don't have to do that. We're here to help. It's what we do. Uh, here's that blanket you asked for." Cindra changed the subject. She held out the blanket to her. Chaya took it carefully and set it down on the edge of her bed.

"Thank you. It was cold in here last night." Chaya commented.

"Eh, it wasn't that bad to me, but I guess I'm more used to the cold than you would be." Cindra thought aloud.

"Perhaps. I've never had to do without like this before. It...I've taken a lot of things for granted, and I look forward to having them back." Chaya expressed.

"I understand that," Cindra acknowledged with a nod. "You've got a pretty nice family." She added.

"Thank you. Uh...we do our best. It has been difficult lately, having to flee from our homes and finding out that father is gone..." Chaya admitted sadly.

"Right, yeah...how long has it been?" Cindra asked.

"We found out a few months ago," She answered. "We were struggling then, but when we heard the news...I truly thought that we had lost hope of getting back." She said.

"Hey, it's okay. You'll be home this time tomorrow, and the four of you will be able to start over." Cindra said to be reassuring.

"Thank you, Cindra. I will do my best." Chaya said, managing a smile. She clearly had a lot of weight on her shoulders, but Cindra couldn't think of anything else to say or do.