Road to Ba Sing Se | Zuko

44

❃ No longer Alone ❃

Once the sounds of battle had disappeared for a while, Keya let down her hands and stopped fuelling extra air into the engine. Her vision blurred slightly from over-exertion and she quickly reached out to the wall behind her when her balance swayed. Once she was somewhat steady on her feet, she took a deep breath and tried to listen carefully for any signs of trouble- one could never be too sure.

"...Are we done...?" She pondered out loud. Her voice was raspier than she expected. A hoarse cough quickly followed. The young woman held the inside of her elbow against her mouth while she continued coughing for a good minute. She opened the door and stepped back into the hallway, leaving the hot engine room behind her.

A shallow layer of water covered the floors. Small droplets dripped here and there, but no other sounds could be heard. Either they had just won, or she was about to meet some unfriendly soldiers on her way up. Keya hoped for the former as she straggled back through the hallways on her way upstairs. Her scar throbbed now that the adrenaline rush was starting to wear off. She cradled her side and hoped that she hadn't ripped it open again. Katara would not be happy with that.

Just as she reached the top deck, she came across Aang. The boy was still seething due to his exclusion from battle.

"Uh... hello." Her voice was a bit faint, but the Avatar heard her just fine.

He jumped -having not noticed her arrival- and leaned on his staff while he looked her up and down. "Hi. Sooo... where did you just come from? And why is there soot on your face?"

"Oh!" Keya blushed and quickly wiped across her nose and cheek. "Is it gone now?"

The smudge on her face had turned into a large schmear all over. The remains of sweat and soot made a perfect hard-to-remove concoction. The Avatar snickered. "Uhh... yeah! All good! But still- why weren't you up on deck with the rest? Katara mentioned something about you and your brother being benders, so why weren't you helping them?"

It pained him- having to stay behind while all of his friends risked their lives. So why would she come from downstairs when all of the fighting just now was going on upstairs? His suspicion was easy to read off of his face. Keya swallowed nervously- but then she realised-

Of course! He didn't know!

She suddenly found herself overcome with awkward shyness. How does one bring such news across? "Uhm... I had been waiting to tell you this way, way sooner- ehm, Mister Avatar, but- uhm-"

"What is it?" Aang pushed, now highly suspicious. He gripped his staff more tightly. "What are you hiding from me- from the crew?"

"Oh, don't worry! The others know, but Sokka said it was better to wait until you woke up and had been told about the plans- Y'know, so that you could get all the info one by one and not, err, overwhelm you with information and shocking reveals- It was my plan to tell you as soon as we met, but obviously in the catacombs we all had different things to think of, and I figured you might have found out during the battle itself, so I wasn't too sure if I even needed to tell you, but--"

"-What is there to tell me?" Aang interrupted her ramble. "What information? Spit it out!"

"I..." Keya's big eyes and disheveled appearance made her look like a lion-seal pup caught stealing fish. Keya rubbed her neck and looked away shyly.

"I'm actually a-an airbender... like you. So I had to stay hidden a bit, y'know..."

A soft breeze wafted between the two teens, emphasising Aang's shocked silence. Keya coughed awkwardly while he gathered his wits. The boy chuckled and snorted. He took his pinky finger and stuck it in his ear theatrically, as if trying to clean his ear canal.