silver soul | avatar, the last air bender

chapter twenty three

"Seeing people from your tribe is making me sort of miss home," Naia commented. "I never thought I would say that, but I'd kill for some smoked sea prunes."

"What do you miss about home?" Sokka asked.

"Even if it felt like a cage at the time, I can't deny it wasn't beautiful," Naia said pensively. "Watching the sun rise above the horizon and paint the sky orange and pink, reflecting off of the ice and the ocean. The last time I swam in the ocean was on my sixteenth birthday. Even if my body was slowly turning numb, it was the little things like that that made me feel more alive. Yue was the one who found me and told me to get out of the water before I freeze to death," Naia chuckled lightly, remembering the sight of her sister's giddy smile.

"Do you think when the war is over that you'll go back home?" Sokka asked.

Naia shrugged, staring out at the water again. "I don't know. My whole life, I thought I'd never leave the North Pole. Now, I have no idea what I'm going to do afterwards. Is it bad I don't have anything planned out?"

"No. I'm not sure either. I mean, being chief of the Southern Water Tribe does sound kinda cool," Sokka said jokingly. Naia chuckled at his statement. "But do I know that in my future I want you in it."

Naia looked away from the ocean and into Sokka's eyes with a smile. Naia would be lying if she said she didn't think of someday leading the tribe with Sokka. However, she stopped herself from thinking too far ahead. Naia studied his face. Sokka's hair has grown out more, making him look a little more mature. He now wore Fire Nation armor to blend in a bit more with the ship. Although it wasn't his favorite outfit, Naia still though it looked nice on him.

He placed a hand on her lower back and brought her closer to him. It seemed like they could barely keep their hands off of each other these days. Just as Naia inched her head closer to bring her lips to Sokka's, she heard the clamoring of someone coming from below deck. The two cleared their throats and stepped away from each other quickly.

"Hey...guys," Toph said awkwardly. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Sokka and Naia said at the same time. "I'm gonna...go to sleep...because we need sleep. Sleep is good!" Sokka said, not bothering to look back at the two girl as he briskly walked away.

"What's with him?" Toph asked, raising an eyebrow at Naia.

Naia shrugged. "Chemical imbalance."

"Sounds about right," Toph said with a smirk. Katara, Hakoda, and Bato joined them from below deck as well. More clamoring came from the stairs, along with the sounds of someone falling with a small grunt. Naia turned around and saw a confused Aang sprawled on the ground. Aang looked different with his hair grown out. It was a dark brown color, something Naia has never seen before since he shaved his head almost every day.

"It's Aang!" Naia exclaimed. Katara and Toph's faces lit up as they all ran towards him.

Katara extended a hand to help Aang up and engulfed him in a hug. "You're finally awake," She said cheerfully.

"I feel like I'm dreaming," Aang said drowsily while rubbing his eyes. He let out a breath of air and his eyes started to roll back.

"Someone catch him he's gonna—" Toph shouted, but it was too late. Aang fainted and hit the ground with a small thud.

☽

After Sokka explained how the group ended up on a stolen Fire Nation vessel, Aang didn't feel any less distraught. Naia could tell that it was a lot of information thrown at him at once and felt smyotahty for him.