Falling for the Enemy (Sun and Moon Book 1)

Chapter 65 - Silence

We are silent.

Always silent.

Sokka and Suki stayed in the North Pole for their honeymoon. They're going to take a trip around the world, starting next week. It's just me, Lia, Aang, Toph, and Dad on Appa, heading back to the South Pole, I guess. Or maybe we're dropping Aang off at an air temple or something, I don't know.

I think we're dropping someone off.

I don't know- I didn't pay attention when they were making plans. I won't explain what happened. I won't talk about it.

And it's all they want to talk about, so we are silent.

Always silent, as the air rushes past and Appa groans occasionally, and the world slips by beneath the clouds we fly over.

And we are still silent.

"Katara." Suddenly Aang is in front of me, and there is a look in his silver eyes that I don't understand. He holds out his hand and drops something into my lap.

"This is yours. I shouldn't have kept it so long, but..." He shakes his head and returns to his place on Appa's head. And I stare down into my lap, at the necklace that rests there.

Memories fill me- my mother's face, the smell of her. The feeling of horror at the realization that it was gone, Zuko's arms around me as he says "I'll save you from the pirates." Zuko holding it to my neck, his breath soft and warm against my ear, as he whispers that one word: understand.

That was all he said.

Understand.

I clench the necklace for a moment, thinking how he never understood. How he didn't know what it was like to stare into the mirror and see a stranger. How he could have fixed that, fixed all of this.

And he didn't. I sigh and close my eyes for a moment, then I put it on, clipping the little clasp into place. It feels familiar and safe, unlike the memories it brings. I shift and return to staring out over the clouds.

I keep my feet crossed underneath me, to hide my ankles. I need to get some tall boots, instead of the slippers I used to wear. It doesn't help, of course. There are blue waterflames beneath the outside corners of my eyes.

They flicker when I'm angry, as if they're alive.

I need to buy some makeup, to hide them.

I can only pray that it will work, but seeing as how it's the spirits that did this to me, it probably won't.

I sigh and stare out over the shifting sea of white that is the cloudbank below us, and try to focus on other things.

Try to forget the spirit's words, because it does'nt matter what she said.

Zuko and I will never be.

_________

I wake to the jarring sensation of landing. We just left camp a few hours ago, why are we stopping again?

I sit up and stretch, peering over the side.

I freeze.

Because I know where we are.

"Come on, Katara, let's go." Aang touches my shoulder, then leaps over the side. I don't want to follow him I don't want to I don't-

But Dad hauls me up.

"Come on, sleepy head." He drags me down with him and I am numb, I don't know how to tell him no, that I can't, that I can't, that I CAN'T-

And it's too late, anyway.

Sokka and Suki and Toph are hugging him, and they're all laughing, and he steps towards us and I can only stare as I meet his amber eyes, so like his nephew's. He starts in surprise, and his eyes widen, then fill with tears.

"Kara! You came back!" He hugs me, and I stand here stiffly, unable to believe this unable to think.

Then I hear Aang's voice and it rips me out of my numb state, throwing me headlong into rage.

"Kara? Who's Kara?"

I rip away from Uncle and I run, because I don't know what else to do.

**__**

Sokka stared after her, confused and wondering what by the spirits was going on. "Iroh?"

Uncle looked lost, standing there, and he just shook his head. "It is not for me to explain."

Then the old man entered his tea shop, leaving the others standing out front, staring at each other. Kara?

And then it hit Sokka, and he took a step back from the force of it.

Well, I did have a girlfriend.

Her name is Kara. You don't know her.

Kara.

Sokka's mind flashed even further back, to that night in the Di Lee's headquarters. He had seen Katara!

He had!

And Zuko had known the whole time, he'd HAD KATARA WITH HIM!

He'd called her his girlfriend!

Sokka's hands balled into fists as he stared at the place his sister had disappeared.

When he got his hands on Zuko, he would kill him.

KILL HIM!

_____

0.o Temper, Temper, Sokka! Oh dear, oh dear. What's going to happen?! :o

COMMENT and vote, five for certainty... lol :)

-Tess