Personal guard (Sokka x Zuko) [COMPLETED]

Chapter Twenty four

    "Never do that again!" Zuko groaned, Aang dispersed the air sphere carrying him once they'd reached a spot on the roof of the palace.

    "Sorry, but you really need to see this." Aang sighed, pointing at an opening in the palace wall.

    "What is it?" Zuko uttered, his voice echoing down the brick passageway.

    "I forgot about it before, but it's where Azula used to hide when we'd play hide and seek as kids," Ty Lee explained, joining the duo along with Suki.

    "So it might be where she's keeping the kids?" Zuko asked.

    "It's gotta be, how else would she have escaped so fast?" Mai piped up, she'd also just arrived.

    "Alright, let's go." Zuko nodded to Aang, igniting a flame in his palm and making his way down the passage.

_

    Sokka and Katara stood in shock in the doorway. Both utterly lost for words.

    "Uhm-" Sokka cut himself off, losing any sentence he could muster in the shocked expression on his fathers face when they met gazes.

    "We'll uh," Katara uttered awkwardly before pulling her brother back and closing the door. "See you later."

.

    The next morning, Hakoda and his soldiers went off to investigate Gilak's base while Katara and Sokka went with Malina and Maliq to check out a factory. Katara was still feeling conflicted about what she'd seen the other night, but Sokka was distracting himself with his new consultant duties. He figured he'd have to be accepting of his dad's new relationship if he expected him to be accepting of his. With Zuko...

    Maliq started talking about the factory and his vision, but Sokka became distracted. Thinking about Zuko. Now, the situation with his Dad was basically old news. He found that when he was enamored with someone they just seemed to fill his thoughts whenever he'd let them. Yue, Suki, and now Zuko. A tiny smile grew on his face. When were they going to see each other again?

    "So what do you think?" Maliq grinned.

     "Sorry, think about what?" Sokka uttered.

    Malina laughed. "Sometimes my brother gets a little off track with his ideas," She started, patting Maliq's shoulder. "But what he was saying is that we found a huge deposit of oil under the ice and we plan to extract it."

    "Isn't that what you use to fuel lamps?" Sokka raised an eyebrow.

    "Well, yes but it can be used to fuel so much more. New age machinery; powerful machinery! And since it's so big, we can have them everywhere!" Maliq beamed.

    "And... that's a good idea because...?" Katara prompted.

     "It's a good idea because machines will make it so that benders and non-benders can be equal! You don't understand because you're a bender. You have this awesome and strong ability that most people will never experience. At least, not until now!" Maliq explained.

     "Yeah! I see where you're coming from." Sokka nodded.

    "Huh, I've never thought of non benders as not equal..." Katara mumbled.

    "It's like the two production lines we saw at Earthen fire refinery, one used benders and one didn't." Sokka noted.

    "Exactly like that! They're actually our partners and they're helping us with construction!" Maliq grinned.

    "Earthen fire is sending over a representative to walk us through the refinery's expansion," Malina introduced. "Here she comes now."

    The duo looked over to see where the woman was pointing.