Bella [AANGXOC]

Chapter 117: Gathering Destinies

"Who wants a nice cool glass of watermelon juice?" Katara called.

"Ooh, ooh, me, me, me!" Aang yelled.

Katara handed half a watermelon to all of us except for Aang, who was yanked back by Zuko.

"Hey! Your lesson's not over yet! Get back here!" He dragged Aang back into the courtyard.

They had been training all morning while the rest of us cooled off and watched. The summer had grown vigorous with its heat in the past weeks, we were all struggling to keep cool. But Zuko couldn't seem to chill.

"Come on, Zuko! Just take a break, what's the big deal?" Suki asked him.

He scowled and dropped Aang, "Fine."

Aang raced over and grabbed a watermelon from Katara.

"If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail sloths all day, then go ahead!" Zuko ran up the steps and reentered the house behind us.

We have been a little lazy recently. After we changed our plans, all we could do was wait. And waiting turned into relaxing and that into lounging. It was odd for us, but it was peaceful.

"Maybe Zuko's right. Sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy. But I know just the thing to change that! Beach party!" Sokka stood up and ripped off his shirt.

"Let's go!" He called and began running down the hill with Suki in tow.

We were wearing beachwear all day anyway because it was so hot. Why not go to the beach?

Katara, Toph, Aang, and I followed in their footsteps and made our way down to the beach. Zuko didn't come with.

It wasn't like we weren't being productive. Aang still trained with Zuko everyday, as well as with Toph and Katara sometimes. He also taught me airbending anytime he could. Everyone was sharpening their skills, we just had too much time.

It was admittedly a pretty quick decision to wait out the comet and then attack Bozo—

Ozai.

—But it's not like it came without reason. It was a solid plan, and it was one with a much higher chance of us winning.

So what were we supposed to do with the time? We couldn't train every hour of the day, everyday. Zuko was just tense. He was always tense.

"Check out my Appa sand-sculpture!" Aang yelled to Toph and I.

"Not bad Baldy, but I've been working on my sandbending. You're gonna love this!" Toph lowered her hands to the ground and a circle of sand bent down to her will.

Indented into the ground, was an entire remake of Ba Sing Se.

"Woah."

"Wow." Aang leaned down. "You even made a little Earth King and Bosco."