The Warrior's Gambit (Zutara)

XVIII

"Because it's against my morals!" Sokka objected. "The ones that, albeit, I just discovered, but I'm strongly against it."

By this point, they had reached the entrance of the fortune house. The girls at the front were talking amongst themselves. Katara turned to go back to them, but caught Sokka trying to scoot into a side alley.

"No you don't!" she said.

Iroh, at the front, was looking around. "Prince Sokka? Prince Sokka! Oh, there you are! Come up here, right in the front by me," he said, grinning. Katara almost wondered if he was doing this intentionally, bothering Sokka, but General Iroh was more refined than that...right? Sokka cussed, holding up his hands in a defeated motion.

Katara made sure he went to the front. He was as slippery as a whale-eel when he was skiving off doing something he didn't want to do.

Ty Lee spun to the girls, tapping her chin.

"What do you all want to know? Is it silly for me to want to know about love?" Ty Lee asked, sighing.

"Not at all," Katara said, although Katara knew that Ty Lee would not be asking about Zuko, as the rest may assume she was. To the point, Alcina was looking at her warily, sure she was trying to get a leg up in the competition. Besu...Katara couldn't tell if she cared one way or the other. She seemed aloof concerning most things. No, driven. Focused. On winning Zuko's heart? Katara was unsure.

"I'm torn. I'd like to know about that, but there are other things I'm worried about," Ty Lee admitted. "What about you, Besu?"

"Nothing specific," she said, but it absolutely sounded like she had something specific she wanted to find out. "Alcina?"

"Oh, spritis...just about everything." She gave a creaking laugh. "I guess that my sister is..." She trailed off. "Just that she'll find happiness."

"Oh, right," Besu said, looking sympathetic, "How's she doing since she was kicked out?"

"Sent home," Alcina corrected sharply. "Fine," she added, but her confidence was only surface-level.

"What about you, Katara?" Ty Lee switched swiftly.

"I'd be happy with anything," Katara said. "The world is unpredictable. Even knowing one thing may be helpful, whatever category it falls into." She wasn't sure if she could hear a truthful fortune about her love life right now, Tui and La!

"Ah! Aunt Wu has been expecting you all," a tall, thin man said, greeting them at the doors with a bow. Alcina's breath increased, her eyes sparkling. Sokka saw and rolled his eyes.

"Well, duh! Everyone in town, once again, knows we were arriving. Plus, someone could have ridden ahead..."

"Or she saw it in the future!" Alcina argued.

"Fine! Look, I can make a prediction." Sokka coughed dramatically. "In the next minute, the six of us will walk through that doorway. Oooh, spooky, I can tell the fuuuutuuureee toooo," he said, wiggling his fingers dramatically as the six started through the door. When Alcina moved toward the door, though, she suddenly squeaked right outside.

"Ouch!" she moaned, holding up her foot to show a large thorn stuck into her heel. She sniffled, carefully extracting it as Ty Lee twittered next to her.

"Can you walk on it, Lady Shen?" Iroh asked.

"Yeah, darn, that just really hurt," Alcina said, limping through the doorway.

"Hey genius," Besu said, grinning at Sokka. "It was over a minute. You were wrong. Only five of us went through the doorway in a minute."

While Sokka was sputtering incoherent arguments, Ty Lee just kindly patted his shoulder. "Some people just don't have the gift, Sokka. Don't take it personally."