The Forgotten Princess (SokkaxOC)

ii. XIII

A/N; Gods, this took so much longer than it had any right to - but yay, I finally got it done! Sorry this took so long to finish, I ended up having to make individual sections and just string them all together (which, believe me, is not fun.) Anyways, it's here now finally, so I can actually get back to writing the rest of book 2 :D

Just a little fyi, the chapter is starting off with a repeat of the last one's ending, only from Azami's PoV - I thought it would be fun to see both.

Azami P.o.V.

Well, that day was certainly something.

She definitely hadn't expected to spend the day with Iroh, but it was funny, the way that turned out to be exactly what she needed. She'd actually come to terms with her past now, and in full - whatever family she had in the Fire Nation before now resided solely in Iroh and her own memories. Her new family, with Aang, Sokka and the two girls - that was her family now.

Finally, after months and months, it felt like a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders. Unfortunately, after testing it again her fire was still blue, but that was about the only thing dampening her spirits - so much so that she couldn't help the slight skip in her step as she headed home for the evening.

When she finally got back and opened the front door, she was a little surprised to only see Sokka there, his back turned as he was just standing in the main entryway for some reason - but it didn't matter. She was still happy to see him. "Hey Sokka," she announced cheerfully as she walked in.

He proceeded to do the strangest thing she'd seen from him in nearly seven months of traveling together - he leaped like two feet in the air, then spinned around as fast as possible and started stuttering random words out. "Uh-um-mhm-I uh- h-hi there!"

"Um... hi?" she asked nervously, taking a step forward and tilting her head slightly as she checked him from head to toe, looking for any signs about his weirdness. For some reason, his face was turning beet red? What was that about? "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah - totally - I mean, yes," Sokka mumbled, rubbing the back of his head as though he was nervous to see her for some reason. Oh, spirits, what did he do now, she couldn't help wondering. "I, uh, I was actually looking to ask you something."

Azami couldn't help raising an eyebrow skeptically - something very weird was going on. "Okay?" she pressed, hoping he'd just cough up whatever it was he was trying to say.

"Do you... um..." Sokka's voice trailed off for a moment before he straightened his back, clearing his throat rather loudly - as if he were trying to make himself more presentable for some reason. "Do you want to go out for dinner tomorrow night?"

Instantly, Azami's face brightened - this day really couldn't get any better. If there was anymore proof that things had gotten a lot better for her since the North Pole, she couldn't find it - back then, she was ignored and shunned, and now they were straight up asking if she wanted to join them. Hell. Yes.

It didn't bother her at all that only Sokka was here - if he was speaking for them, that was good enough. And honestly, it sounded perfect - just the kind of morale boost she and the team needed to continue their thus-far uneventful search for Appa. "Sure!" she happily accepted. "Sounds great - it's been a while since the five of us actually did something like that together-"

"Uh, that's not what I meant," Sokka interrupted, and her spirits started to sink rapidly. Did I do something wrong? Am I being left out again? Why wouldn't they- "I meant, like, just the two of us."

Azami frowned - that didn't make any sense. Why would they go out alone without the gaang? Wasn't that rude to them? "Just the two of us?" she questioned, trying to understand his meaning. "But why would..."