𝑯𝑰𝑫𝑫𝑬𝑵 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶𝑵, 𝒂: 𝒕𝒍𝒂

➳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘩

KIDA WAKES UP THREE DAYS LATER in a small hospital room. For a fleeting moment, she hopes that everything that happened was a nightmare. She would get up and eat breakfast with Sokka, Katara and Aang, who would go to waterbending lessons afterwards. Kida and Sokka would make their way to training and spend the day together, their biggest worry either being Hahn acting like a jerk or accidentally running into Yue. Maybe Sokka would convince Kida to leave training earlier so they could sneak into an alleyway and make out like teenagers in love, because that's what they could be. It all seems so simple, and Kida wants nothing more than that for her life.

The dull ache in Kida's chest and the white stripe of hair, like Yue's, is what tells her that none of it was a nightmare; it was all very, very real and somehow that was scarier.

"She's awake." His voice sounds raw. Sokka's been yelling or crying, Kida realizes, maybe both. But, it was his stillness that made Kida uneasy, like the cracks that had already been forming are about to reach their breaking point, and everything they built would shatter. He sits on the far end of the room, across from Kida's bed, while Katara and Aang are by her side on separate chairs, dozing off. Kida notices that dark shadows have formed beneath Sokka's eyes.

"Oh..what?" Aang mumbles, eyes still closed. His head starts to tilt and he almost falls off his chair, which jolts him awake. He rubs his eyes and looks at Kida, then smiles widely. "Kida!" he exclaims, bringing her into a hug.

Surprisingly, Katara smiles sincerely as well and says: "I'm glad you're okay. You scared us there for a second."

Sokka doesn't add anything. He just stares at the icy floor and, when he thinks Kida isn't noticing, he looks at her with eyes just as cold.

Aang and Katara recount everything that Kida had missed while she was asleep. After Kida jumped in front of Yue, her chest was burnt so badly that she almost died. Zhao used the opportunity as a distraction and killed the moon spirit. Aang entered the Avatar State and temporarily became the ocean spirit, using its power to destroy the remaining Fire Nation army. To save the moon spirit, Yue sacrificed herself. The last thing she did before leaving was kiss Kida goodbye, which pushed Kida back to life when she was on the brink of death.

"Seems like I missed a lot," Kida mumbles sadly. She'd never see Yue again, or get to thank her for what she did. Kida didn't know where the bracelet Yue made her was, so her only reminder of Yue would be the white stripe in her hair, and it would be a constant one.

"You owe us an explanation," Sokka suddenly states, locking eyes with Kida.

"Can't we talk about this later?" Aang defends, sounding a little annoyed.

Katara sighs and her sympathetic expression fades, as if she just remembered what Zhao revealed at the oasis; or maybe, she was trying to forget. Whatever the case, she steps away from Kida and moves beside Sokka, her arms crossed in frustration. "No, Sokka's right. She needs to tell us everything. Now."

Instantly, a tender reunion turns into a full-on interrogation. Kida sits up in her bed before starting.

She tells them how her father was a Fire Nation soldier who ran away and how her great-great-grandfather was Avatar Roku and the Fire Sages predicted that one of his descendants would help the new Avatar restore balance to the world, which made their family a target so they had to lay low. She explains how she was the only firebender in her family, so she didn't have much training and stopped altogether after she couldn't save Hiro. Maybe it was the fact that Kida has never recounted her past to anyone or that she just woke up from a three day coma, but the story comes out all jumbled and Kida's sure that she repeated some things.