Sound Bender (Avatar: The Last Airbender) #Wattys2017

||Chapter 34 - Regret||

"What do you mean?" The girl questioned.

"It had to do with his retirement of being King, you are the only one next in line. I saw something in the future at the time that held a possibility he didn't find fond of." She answered, her voice becoming distant as she began to recollect her memory from years ago.

"Which was-?"

"I promised to never tell you, I can only say to ask him yourself." When would that even be? We didn't know how long we were going to be in the North Pole, or how long this whole journey will be. It could take years- Well, Aang had a deadline. 'At Summer's End...'

Katara and I thanked her, walking away just as Aang was walking to her. Most likely to bid his farewell as well.

I grabbed my bag, throwing it up to the saddle only for it to land on the edge of it, sliding down Papa's fur and to my feet. I only had use of one hand, this was going to be difficult.

I mean, I could just take the sling off and say screw it and wreck my arm more-

"Here." I looked to the sound of the familiar voice, seeing Sokka flash me a small smile before bending down and grabbing my bag. It took me a few seconds to process what he was doing, and that made feel slightly useless.

"Sok, you don't have to-"

"I got it. You aren't supposed to be doing anything anyway with that arm of yours." I breathed air out of my nose, huffing. He swung my bag over his shoulder and climbed up Appa, putting the bag down. I could briefly see Alea's floppy ears popping up, startled.

"Sup." I heard Sokka say to her, receiving a small but loud chitter. Sokka climbed back down, grabbing the bags we received from the village (Mostly food and blankets), hopefully to last us until we get to the North Pole.

"Hey Sokka." I spoke up, choking down my fear. He slid off of Appa again, tilting his head to the side, "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry that I don't feel the same way." I apologized and he shook his head, resting his hand on my shoulder.

"I already told you, it's alright. I'm a big boy, I'm pretty sure I can handle rejection from a pretty girl." I blushed at his words, looking away when I heard him laugh at my reaction.

"I-I wanted to tell you something else..." Sokka stopped his laughing, watching me rub my arms nervously.

"I don't have a good grip on my feelings. I d-dont know how to feel towards someone else beyond friendship and family, well in a-a romantic sense... So I was thinking..." Sokka furrowed his brows at me as I looked back up at him, taking a deep breath to regain my calm composure.

"So, if you want. We can try this uh, 'dating' thing..." I trailed off, feeling myself about ready to run away without another word, but I couldn't do that to him. I caused him enough pain from my first rejection.

I swear he became a schoolgirl in that moment, letting out a high pitched squeal as he brought me into a hug, picking me up and easily twirling me around.

"Heck to the yes!" He placed me back down, nodding enthusiastically at me. "Y-yes?"

"Of course! But I mean if that is fine with you- I don't want to pressure you into doing this out of guilt and-" I kissed his cheek, stopping him from rambling more.

"If I wasn't comfortable with it, I wouldn't have told you so." He brought me into a hug again, kissing the top of my head rapidly as if he couldn't get enough.

I let a smile break through, happy to see he was happy. This could be fun, not awkward or anything. And it will give me time to see if I liked him back.