(no subject)

[benevolently.livejournal.com]

Who: Katara, Sokka & Suki.
What: Taking care of Suki, and discovering that (YAY!) Azula can't firebend. :D
When: After Sokka finds an injured Suki from her fight with Azula.
Where: Katara's room.
Rating: I never know what to put for ratings! This is PG-13 for very... vague angst.

Following Sokka to Katara's room in her condition hadn't been easy, even with his support. A part of her cursed herself for being too proud to let him carry her--especially when it came to the stairs. But they were finally here. In the castle's light, the ugly bruise on her face and her broken hand looked much worse--and her glassy eyes and pale face didn't speak much for her health either.

She turned towards Sokka, and though slightly out of breath, spoke. "Thanks...since she's your sister, I'll let you do the knocking." Or should she have said, since my hand is a broken mess I'll let you do the knocking? Both were true.

Sokka cursed the stairs all the way up. Sure, he had cursed them every single other time he used them, but this time was worse, considering he had some extra weight on him. When they finally reached his sister's room, he gave a heavy exhale and wiped the beginnings of sweat off his brow. Without a word, he gave a nod at Suki's suggestion and gave a rather loud knock.

Hearing a loud knock at her door, Katara nearly jumped out of her skin. She had been laying in her bed for most of the morning after she found out she couldn't waterbend anymore. Hurrying over to the door, she opened it slightly to see who it was. She gasped to see Sokka and an injured Suki.

"What.. What happened?!" she pushed the door open wider for them, stepping aside so they could come in.

Suki nearly fainted with happiness at the sight of a chair, and lowered herself into one immediately. "I sort of...got in a fight." She paused, another throb of pain causing her to wince. "...with Azula. Sokka found me in front of the castle."

"Yeah, she was on the ground, unconscious," Sokka added and sat himself at the edge of Katara's bed. "And even though you... can't bend anymore, we were wondering if you'd be able to help us fix up her hand."

He gestured towards Suki's injury. "But, we have some great news, despite all this suckingness."

Katara winced at Suki's mention of fight and Azula. "Yeah, let's do that quickly!" Before she questioned, she wanted to bandage the girl's hand first. She went into the bathroom and came out with warm water and a basket of supplies. She frowned at the bruises and Suki's broken hand.

"Oh, Suki.. What were you thinking, fighting her alone?" They were friends, Katara could scold if she wanted to, right? She fell quiet as she cleaned the wounds.. And then proceeded to add a splint and bandaged her broken fingers tightly to hold them in place. "Okay.. Be sure not to move your hand around a lot, okay? It should take... maybe 3 weeks for that to heal," she explained, gathering the supplies back into the basket.

"So, what is this good news?"

Suki smiled, embarassed. "I guess I wasn't thinking...I was just angry. About our last fight." She winced as Katara put the splint on her fingers, and ground her teeth--but the pain subsided a bit after the bandaging was complete, and she sighed in relief.

"Aren't you curious about my lack of burn-wounds?" She smirked slightly. "Azula isn't a bender anymore."

"See, isn't that great?" Sokka grinned. What seemed to start out as a crappy weekend was quickly turning around at this news.

"We're not completely and totally helpless anymore. She's not as dangerous as she used to be." His imagination started to run off with all the things they could possibly accomplish with a major threat out of the way. "We could team up on her, after Suki's healed, of course. But bending seems to be a pretty popular thing to take right now. I hope Toph's not the next victim."

That would suck. A lot.

Katara was heartbroken when she found out she couldn't waterbend.. Shouldn't Azula have felt the same? But if she could still hurt Suki the way she did, even without the bending.. Now probably was the best time to team against her. Azula was ruthless, it made Katara sick. She grinned back at the two, sitting at the edge of her bed next to Sokka.

"At least we're getting something good out this,"she agreed with them, with a nod. "We should tell everyone the good news! ..erm, yeah. We should check in on Toph, but Aang seems to have his bending still, too. I think they'll be fine."

With her free hand, Suki reached for one of Katara's and offered her hand a squeeze. "I'm really sorry about your bending Katara...I can't imagine what it would be like to lose the ability to fight." It was
a feeble comparison, but the best Suki had to offer. "And maybe...maybe your bending will come back. We just need hope right?" She turned to Sokka. "And count me in on beating Azula. She..." she ground her
teeth, frustration visible "she has it coming."

"Yeah, but not until your hand is healed," Sokka reminded her. Fighting Azula with broken fingers might end up in even more broken body parts. He let himself flop back onto the bed, staring upwards at the ceiling in thought. "Three weeks, humm." That was a kinda long time, to him at least.

From the looks of it, Azula seemed to be gaining allies through the journals; in three weeks, she probably would have an entire army. "We have to keep an eye on her," Sokka warned. "She probably isn't going to sit around and do nothing."

At Suki's words, Katara smiled warmly at her and shook her head. "Thanks, Suki. I'll be fine, though! You need to concentrate on getting better. It looks like it'll be you guys, Toph, Aang and Zuko going after Azula," she admitted, sighing inwardly to herself. It felt like she was defeated and helpless!

"Yeah, you're right, Sokka. We can ask Zuko and his uncle to keep an eye on her. They're the ones who can get close to her without being suspicious. Or so I hope," she smiled sheepishly.

"That's right--the prince is our alley now. Maybe he'd be willing to act as our eyes and ears..." Suki frowned at the thought. "Still, that's a big responsiblity. And it requires us trusting him a lot...are you sure he wouldn't betray our trust?"

That question sent Sokka into thinking mode again. Zuko didn't seem to be stirring up much trouble for them here, and even had a crush on Katara. He laughed inwardly.

"Yeah, we can trust him," he paused and shot a quick grin to his sister. Another thought flashed in his mind. "Hey, give me one of those notebooks so I can ask if Aang and Toph are okay."

"We can trust them, I know it." Even if it was inwardly, Katara could still see traces of a grin on Sokka's face. What was he thinking?! His answer to Suki and the full grin made her raise an eyebrow. She passed her journal when he asked for it though, along with a pencil.

"Hey, make sure you write neatly in it!" she told him, looking back to Suki with a small laugh.

Suki grinned in response. With both of them so sure, it seemed like trusting Zuko wouldn't be a problem. Even if she had gotten beaten badly by Azuka, maybe today wasn't the worst day after all. "Yeah and not like when you're on catus juice."

She laughed, but the laugh made her stomach hurt--a reminder of the blow Azula had landed there earlier. She touched it gingerly, and smiled wryly to Sokka. "I guess we'll have to put our rematch on hold for awhile..."

Sokka thanked Katara and took the journal, opening up to the next blank page. "Hey, that was an accident, okay?" he pointed his pencil at her. Well, what else could he say? It was the truth.

"And yeah, you need to rest," he nodded at his perscription before leaning over the journal to write.

"I don't think you'll live that down for a while..." She grinned at Sokka after Suki had commented about the cactus juice. Poor sibling, he wasn't getting a break on that! Katara was enjoying their company though; it was better than moping about her loss for waterbending.

"Do you guys want water or juice or anything?" she offered, watching Sokka scribble away in her journal.

"Some water would be great actually!" She was pretty thirsty from her failed fight and the painful walk up multiple flights of stairs. Still, she was starting to feel a little better--and it was nice to be in such good company.

"Do you know when your next match is Sokka?"

"Yeah, water's good," Sokka replied, only paying half attention to what was going on around him. He perked up at the sound of his name, though. "Wait, huh?" He stopped writing and sat up straight.

"My next fight? I dunno," he replied. Yachiru wasn't the person to tell you ahead of time. "I'll tell you when it is though," and he bent back down to continue his entry.

"Okay, no problem!" Katara nodded a bit and jumped up from the bed to head into her kitchen. She pulled out three bottles of water from the fridge, ignoring the urge to turn on the sink and test her bending. The thought of being unable to help them confront Azula annoyed her. She hurried back to them though, passing them each a bottle before twisting her own open. She took a few sips as she sat back down.

"What did you write?"

"Great! You did so well at the last fight I'm expecting you to win again..." she took the offered water with a small nod of thanks from Katara and took a nice long sip.

After fiddling with the cap a little, Sokka finally got the water open and took a long chug. He closed the bottle and put it down next to him. "Here," he wrote down several more words before giving the open journal back to Katara for her to read.

Beaming, he turned to face Suki. "Yeah, I'm kinda expecting to win, too."

Katara took the journal with her free hand, skimming over what Sokka had written. She laughed and left it open on the bed behind them, incase they got any replies right away.

"Great! As soon as they read it, hopefully we'll get some news on Azula soon," she mentioned, falling quiet to let Sokka tell her about his tournament. It was funny how different and how alike Suki and Sokka appeared to be together.

"Oh really? Expecting to win? Let's hope you do better than in your fight against me then." She grinned, and pointed at her bruised eye. "See I would wink right now to show you I was kidding, but it kinda hurts."

She turned to Katara and whispered conspiratorily "And last match, he and his opponent got to know each other pretty well." she grinned.

"Yeah. Hopefully really soon," Sokka nodded. "And as often as possible." Keeping an eye on Azula was going to be his main priority right now, just behind training, of course.

He raised his eyebrow as Suki whispered. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Katara remembered Sokka telling her that his opponent fell on him towards the end of the night. She covered her mouth her free hand to stop herself from laughing again, especially when she noticed Sokka was onto them.

"It's.. nothing," she blurted out with a grin. She could just tell.. The moment he knew what they were talking about, he'd get really defensive. It was a victory, no matter what~!

"Yeah, no big deal." She gave Katara a sly grin before facing him again.

"Katara and I are just wondering if you'll beat this next opponent before or after you get them to fall on top of you?"

"Riiiight," Even at fifteen, girls were still weird, he concluded. "And hey, he wasn't supposed to fall on me, okay? That was an accident."

It started to seem as if everything in Sokka's life turned out to be an accident.