Chapter 36

Book 3

Episode 1, The Awakening

It's been about two weeks since our lost fight. I haven't spoken to anyone properly, I haven't eaten properly. Basically I shut everyone out. I just didn't want to talk to anybody.

Even after two weeks I still felt as if everything had happened just a day ago. And I was not in the mood to answer stupid and superficial 'are you okay?' or 'do you need anything?' questions.

After flying out of Ba Sing Se, Sokka suggested meeting up with our father and his fleet.

Together, they decided to get a Fire Navy ship and uniforms as a disguise. It would be safer to be on sea since no on would be suspicious.

And Aang could take all the time to heal without us worrying about running away from the Fire Nation. No one would hunt us anyway because everyone believed the Avatar was dead.

At first Katara and especially my father tried to talk to me. My sister seemed to be angry and worried about me. Dad was just worried and sad that I wouldn't talk to him or anybody else. I hadn't even greeted him properly.

It was just that I got so angry because everytime I looked at him, the truth came to my mind. And I somehow blamed him for not telling us.

After ignoring my sister and my dad all the time, they eventually gave up.

The only one not leaving my side even though I was ignoring everyone was Sokka.

Whenever he was free and not planning the invasion he would just silently keep me company. He didn't try to talk to me but only sat by my side.

And whenever there was a meal, he would bring me food as well and would eat with me and made sure I ate at least a bit.

I was grateful to have Sokka as a brother and that's why I started to talk to him but only to him. I felt guilty for ignoring him when he was looking after me the whole time.

It was another normal day and there was a knock on the door before Sokka entered the room with a smile on his face and breakfast.

He sat down on the ground in front of me and handed me the food he had brought. "Good morning," he shot me a warm smile.

"Good moring," I greeted back and took the plate from his hands, "Thanks."

It was silent for a few minutes. "You know you can tell me everything right?" Sokka said and I gulped as my eyes watered.

I only nodded and whispered a 'I know'. I wanted to tell him everything so badly, maybe not the Zuko thing, but everything else about our mother.

But I didn't know if he would believe me. And if he did, it would only distract him from the whole invasion thing and we couldn't afford to fail this plan.

I didn't want to be the reason for another defeat. After all that is over, I would tell him. But our first priority was the war. No one needed exra silly distraction.

"Thank you, Sokka," I said and looked up from my plate, "For everything." I smiled at him.

He had a fake smug look on his face and playfully punched my shoulder, "That's why I am the best brother in this world."

I let out a small laugh and slightly shook my head. But before he could react that I finally laughed, Toph barged into the room.

"Aang woke up but he was so shocked he fainted again," she told us.

Sokka jumped up. "See you later," he told me before rushing out of the room. I was left behind with Toph and we were consumed in an awkward silence.

Then Toph closed the door behind her and cleared her throat. "I have no idea what happened to you but I can tell you're really hurt."

I bit my lip and looked away from her. She sat down beside me and let out a sigh.

"We all are worried about you," she said and stretched out her legs, "But if you need and unpartial not family opinion or shoulder to cry on I am there."

I let her words sink in. "Okay, nevermind, I'm really bad at emotional stuff," she added and waved if off.

"No, it's okay," I spoke up, "Thanks Toph. That might actually be what I need right now."

She looked at me with wide eyes, "Really?"

I nodded with a small smile, "Yeah." She smiled brightly and showed me a thumbs up.

Her smile faltered. "I need to tell you something first."

My face turned emotionless as I could feel the tension thickening. That couldn't be good news.

"Katara seems to be angry at you," she started and I bit my lip. "She would always tell Sokka not to involve you into the invasion and that you shouldn't participate and that he shouldn't tell you anything about it."

I knitted my eyebrows and my heartbeat speeded up.

"At first I thought it was because she didn't want you to feel obliged to help and wanted you to take your time coming back to yourself," Toph continued and I gulped and tensed.

Toph stopped and I bit my lip. "What happened?" I whispered and she let out a sigh.

"I asked her what's wrong when she seemed to be angry. She told me she had seen you back in Ba Sing Se with your," Toph made quotations marks with her fingers, "'boyfriend'." The blind girl shrugged her shoulders.

I held my breath as all my muscles tensed. My heartbeat quickened and my chest felt like it was under so much pressure that it would explode any moment.

"That's not something to be angry about in my opinion," Toph added. She opened her mouth to add something but stopped when she felt in what state I was.

My breathing got heavier and I put my hand over my chest and tried to calm down. I tried to take regular and deep breaths.

"Hey, Jasmine," Toph spoke up with worry in her voice. She stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. "Breath in and out."

I couldn't stop my thoughts and panicked. Katara saw me and Zuko and now she doesn't trust me anymore. That was even worse than I thought.

"Hey!" Toph shook me and snapped me out of my thoughts, "Tell me what you see!" she demanded as her voice rose.

I sightly shook my head and looked around my room. "I see a little drawer in the corner," I told her and continued to look around. "And there's a red and black carpet. There is a Fire Nation banner on the door."

I stopped when I realised my breathing was back to normal. I averted my eyes from the door and looked at Toph. "Thank you," I breathed out.

She nodded and sat next to me. "Are you sure you're okay now?" she asked and I nodded and let out a breath. "Yeah, thanks to you."

Toph nodded her head and silence consumed us again. "That was not the reaction I was expecting."

I lowered my head, looking at my lap. "I broke up with him."

Toph raised and eyebrow and turned to me. "But Sweetness is still exaggerating. There's nothing to be angry about having a boyfriend."

"Even it was Zuko?" I whispered and shook my head. I was so stupid for falling for him and believing him.

Toph didn't say anything and I let out a sigh. "Well, I have only met him one time so far. The rest I know about him is from Aang and your siblings. But that's only one side of the coin." she said.

I snapped my head in her direction with wide eyes. She isn't judging me. That's not what I expected.

"But the one time I met him, he didn't seem like someone who wanted to desperately kill you all and capture Aang. He was really worried and sad about his uncle getting injured."

I could only stare at her with wide eyes. Not even Katara had thought about Zuko that way.

But to be honest, they all were blinded by him being Fire Nation and the Fire Lord's son. They were judging him without even knowing anything about him.

"Well, what I'm trying to say is that he can't be that bad if you gave him a chance," she said.

My eyes watering, I shook my head, "He betrayed everyone, even his uncle. And Iroh loved and did everyhing for him. And now who knows what happened to the poor tea-loving man. And I naively thought Zuko had changed."

"But you realised that he was wrong in the end and broke up with him. After all, you saw the bad side and turned your back on him. So no reason to not trust you," Toph said and shrugged her shoulders as she stood up.

"I don't know. I feel like I betrayed you," I looked at my lap and wiped away the tear rolling down my cheek.

Before Toph could say something, Sokka barged into the room with a panicked expression. "Aang's gone."

I can't believe that boy would just leave with his injury. He's going to hurt himself more if we don't find him soon.

I stood up and bit my lip. "We should go and look for him," I said after taking a deep breath.

I need to get out of my sadness bubble and concentrate on the present. There's no time to dwell in the past and going out to do something would be a great distraction.

Sokka and Toph agreed with me immediately. We took a few things and went out to get Katara.

I didn't want to see Katara right now but we couldn't go without her.

That's why I stayed a bit behind when we got Katara and climbed on Appa. I was a bit hesistant but when Toph patted my shoulder and shot me a small smile I finally climbed on as well.

Not until we were up in the air did Katara noticed me. She raised her eyebrows and slighly narrowed her eyes.

I shot her a quick wave and an innocent smile. "Hey," I slowly said since I didn't want to cause any more bad blood. But even that was dangerous as I had no idea how she would react.

She only shot me the deadliest glare before turning to Sokka. "I think we should let Jasmine stay behind," she whispered to him but I still heard it.

My stomach dropped and I bit my lip to pretend myself from crying. I was hurt by her words and actions.

Shaking my head, I cursed myself for being so sensitive.

"No, she just started to talk and be normal again, I won't let her stay back," Sokka answered her, "She needs us right now and going out is the perfect distraction and normal thing to do."

Katara huffed and leaned back from Sokka. She looked over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at me before turning away.

I heaved a sigh and shook my head. If it were Katara who was together with Zuko, I would have probably reacted the same as she did. It was just a stupid situation. She shouldn't have seen me in the first place.

After a few hours, we arrived at an island. It looked like there was a person laying on the ground and we decided to check if it was Aang.

I let out a breath when it was four elements. Momo was sitting on his chest and waking him up by licking his face as we all jumped off Appa.

I still stayed behind and watched as they motivated Aang and told him that it was okay that he failed.

When Katara helped him up, we made eye contact. His face lit up and he englufed me in a hug.

With a small smile I hugged him back. "I'm glad you're okay four elements. I was worried about you," I said quietly when we parted the hug and shot him a small smile.

Before he could answer Katara grabbed his arm and dragged him away. She claimed he needed a healing session and shot me a glare.

I put my lips in a thin line and watched Katara dragging him away from me. Now I have also lost one of my siblings. Life just isn't fair.