Stratus | Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Chapter Fourteen | Reunion

It was broken by a returning Zuko who brought a hand down on Iroh's tea cup, the steaming liquid pooling on the station floor and racing along through the dips in the beige slabs. Kaze leapt up with yelp, skirting round to Kumo's side to avoid the hot tea.

"Hey!" Leaning down to Iroh's face, Zuko grit his tea-th. // A/N: ;))))))) //

"What're you doing fire-bending your tea?" He spat out through clenched teeth. "For a wise old man that sure was a stupid move."

"I think knocking that tea out of his hand might have drawn more attention to us then Iroh's doing." Zuko froze, snapping his head up to meet the ice-y hues of Kumo's eyes, who held his stare calmly. Zuko felt his breath stop and his hands shake by his sides. How could she just appear like that? His emotions went haywire, and he found himself too wound up or overwhelmed to get a word through his lips. "Sit down."

Her tone was firm, and Zuko slumped down in his seat, eyes wide and mouth agape. Kumo brought her hands to Kaze's head, comforting the startled polar dog.

"My tea..." Iroh pouted childishly, staring down at the steaming hot liquid on the floor of the station. Kumo sighed, absentmindedly moving to scratch behind Kaze's ear as the furry monsters snuggled his head into her knees. 

"But-"

"I'm alright to join you two till Ba Sing Se, right?" Kumo questioned, handing her own tea over to Iroh, who brightened considerably.

"Wait-"

"I see no problem with that." Chuckling, he nodded in thanks to the blue-eyed girl and sunk back into his seat to enjoy the Lu'an Melon Seed tea. It was not his favourite, but it was still delicious in flavour and so greatly welcomed it. 

"Hold on!" Zuko snapped, fuming after being interrupted and ignored. His eyes had narrowed into slits and a burning anger had flushed his cheeks, which surprised Kumo as she had never seen him go red with anger before, and she had seen him angry many times. Lifting an accusative finger, Zuko snarled again. "Where have you been?"

"What? Am I not allowed to have my own life now?" Kumo shot back cooly with an unusually monotone voice and raised a snowy eyebrow. Her words held no anger. "Let me remind you that you hold no ownership over me, and I am allowed to go wherever I want, so cool it."

Snapping his mouth shut, Zuko began to sulk silently and avert his eyes downwards. Iroh was impressed, to say the least. Kumo had a good handle on the boy, and if Zuko had not grown characteristically in her absence, she had.

All three looked up as a train began to enter the station. Kumo was the first to rise, or Kaze was actually, and offered a hand to Iroh, who waved her off, and then to Zuko, who also waved her off. Kumo snorted at their pride as the trio made their way to the nearest carriage, wafting  plumes of dust kicked up by the train out their eyes. 

Kumo twitched, eyeing a clutch of brown and navy blue tail them into the carriage. Recognising them as the people Zuko had been with, suspicion weaved it's way into her brain. Nudging Kaze to keep an eye on them, she entered the carriage last, both of them letting the two men go first. She wondered if Zuko, or Iroh, had noticed. Perhaps Iroh had, he was the Dragon of The West after all, however, she had underestimated Zuko's observational skills in the past, so it was possible that both of them noticed. That would've been the ideal outcome. 

Kumo slumped down onto a seat, pulling Kaze out of the way of boarding passengers. Iroh chose the spot between Kumo and Zuko, attempting to dissolve Zuko's fury. They both started as the train began to move forward.

"So, I assume you both have a plan?" Kumo turned her head to Iroh, who smiled warmly at her. On the other side of him, Zuko twitched and frowned suddenly. He'd not thought of that, what were they going to do when they reached Ba Sing Se?

"Of course, we would be foolish not to." Kumo listened intently, along with Zuko who tried to do so as discretely as possible. "There's a place looking for tea servers in the outer ring, and housing for refugees, the administration will sort it out when we get off."

Kumo hummed, taking a scrap of dried meat out of her pouch to feed to an eager Kaze. She turned her head back to the scenery, taking in the stretching green fields of outer Ba Sing Se.

"And you, Kumo?"

"Well, as you say, the administration is in charge of distributing housing to new refugees coming in, and an acquaintance of mine found me a job within Ba Sing Se University as a professor's assistant." Kumo informed, keeping everything brief, but a smile pulled at her lips. "You'd be surprised at how funny it is to see an owl write a letter."

Kumo broke off into quiet chuckles, regaining her composure a few moments later. She watched the scenery pass like streaked paint, not protesting when Kaze hopped up onto the seat next to her to see the city. The train car was empty enough.

"It is good to see you have mellowed out, Kumo, and even better to have you join us again, wouldn't you think so, Zuko?"

Zuko's eyes snapped upwards to meet Kumo's expectant ones, but he returned his sights to the outside world quickly, his cheeks flushing again for a whole new reason. 

"Yeah, it is."

// A/N: Here it is. No warning, no foreshadowing, just BAM! Surprise attack. Things have been pretty hectic, but I'm getting my life on track and starting my new school soon, so hopefully the next couple chapters will be coming your way within the next few weeks. I would also like to point out we're more than halfway through the second book, but there should be a third one coming if I follow this to the end of the show, or maybe not ;) //