BUTTERFLIES! ━ prince zuko

𝖎𝖎. Sugar and Spice

𝖘𝖚𝖌𝖆𝖗 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖘𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖊
sugar and spice
volume ii, chapter ii

( and everything nice? )

❄️🦋💦

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. I know the war has spread far, but Omashu always seemed... untouchable."

     Listening to Aang's solemn words, looking at Omashu's ruins... Akiara's limbs tremble with horror. With dread. Sticky fog billows across the city and creeps hazily towards them, muggy and viscous as soup, and Akiara cups a hand over her nose, half-certain that the smoke is noxious. The air reeks like a festering wound, like rotting flesh, like something dead. It's the odor of slaughtered peace.

     She prays it's only amnesty that's been butchered. Not innocent lives.

     "Up until now, it was," Sokka murmurs. "Now Ba-Sing-Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left."

     "This is horrible," Katara utters in agreement. "But... we have to move on."

     Akiara's eyes widen in shock. "Move on?" She echoes incredulously. "But there's people in that city. Innocent people. We have to help them!"

     (She doesn't mention that when she looks at Omashu, she sees her own home smoldering.)

     "No, we can't," Sokka says firmly.

     "Sokka — "

     "This isn't me being overprotective," he says. "This is me being logical. We're just four kids. What can we do against an entire army?"

     "I came along on this mission to help people," Akiara argues. "Not turn my back on those in need!"

     "She's right," Aang interrupts their argument and his face is hard as stone. Akiara shoots him a grateful look, but he doesn't seem to notice. "I'm going in to find Bumi."

     Who?

     "Aang, stop," Sokka orders. "We don't even know if Bumi's still... "

     Whipping around, Aang's dark eyes are seething; "What? If he's still what?"

       Sokka doesn't meet Aang's burning gaze. "Around."

     "I know you had your heart set on Bumi, but there are other people around who can teach you earth-bending," Katara tells him placatingly, trying to soften Sokka's blow.

     "This isn't about finding a teacher," Aang says fiercely. "This is about finding my friend."

     "And, y'know, saving innocent lives," adds Akiara because everyone seems to have conveniently forgot about that minor detail.

"Yeah," Aang says.

"Right," says Katara

"Of course," Sokka tells her.

Akiara sighs. But she doesn't argue, instead just trooping after her friends as Aang leads them down a narrow and winding path that cuts through the cliffs. It trails down, far beneath the walls that guard Omashu until their nearly at the base. Appa waits somewhere out of sight while Akiara and Katara are holding Kiko and Momo respectively as Aang leads them further and further down. Finally, they seem to reach their destination; a capped drain pipe.