ATLA: Book Three: Fire [Makki]

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen: Love

Makki |~|

The next day, everything carried on as usual. We all had breakfast, Zuko and Toph trained Aang, we did some chores, we all had lunch, more training for Aang, we all relaxed, but just before I was going to help Katara with dinner, Zuko approached me.

"Makki," he caught my attention. "Is... Is now a good time for us to talk?"

"...I don't know," I answered. "I have to help Katara get dinner prepared."

"Please," Zuko begged. "I want to head down to the beach before it gets too dark."

I glanced outside of a nearby window to see that the sun was just above the horizon.

Do we really have to go down to the beach to talk?

"...I'll go ask Katara if it's all right if she can prepare dinner by herself," I told him.

"Okay... I– I'll wait for you at the front of the house," he said before walking away.

I swiftly made my way to the kitchen where I saw Katara gathering supplies to make dinner.

"Hey, Katara," I greeted. "Do you think you're able to make dinner by yourself tonight?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, easy enough," Katara raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"I'm just... I'm a little worn down today," I lied. "And I've been planning on having some alone time on the beach for a bit to, you know, just clear my head."

Somehow, Katara's eyebrow was able to raise just a bit higher before she shrugged. I gave her a quick one-armed hug before making my way to the front door of the beach house, where Zuko was waiting for me. Upon seeing me, Zuko shot up.

"So can–"

"Let's hurry up before the sun sets," I interrupted him. "Because when the sun is under the horizon, we're done talking."

Zuko gave a hard nod, picking up on my sour mood towards this. We quickly made our way to the secluded beach and took off our shoes so we could softly walk on top of the sand along the shore. The edge of the sun was now resting on the horizon.

"Makki..." Zuko drawled, not knowing where to start. "I– I'll start with the obvious and say that I'm sorry."

"Yeah, that is obvious," I mumble.

"I mean it," he said. "I'm so sorry for betraying you and my uncle the way that I did. You didn't deserve it. You've done so much for me and I realized that when it was too late."

There was a long moment of silence as we continued to walk along the shore.

"Well?" Zuko asked.

"Well what?" I asked back.

"Do you have anything to say?"

"...No, I don't," I answered.

I could tell that Zuko was starting to get angry.

"Why? Why don't you have anything to say to me?" he asked again. "You said you were ready to talk to me, but you're not talking at all..!"

I stopped in my tracks and took a deep breath, "It's not that I don't want to say anything, it's that I don't know what to say. I really don't think you completely understand the full extent of what you did. To Aang, to your uncle... to me."

"That's it, Makki, I do understand. That's why I'm trying to make it right," he explained.

"But you don't..!" I said. "You don't understand the half of it because you think a simple apology will make it all okay, but it won't."