Everyone was helping around the tea shop that day, Jin who came to visit also helped out. Katara who was sweeping the floor noticed how Sen was sitting alone by a table, by the looks of it he was drawing something on a piece of parchment. She slowly approached him and took a seat on his right, the young white haired airbender looked up and raised an eyebrow at her.
"So, Sen? Any relationship advice for the soon to be newly weds?". Katara asked as she gave him a warm smile.
"If you need advice on a loving marriage, go ask Zuko and Mai". Sen sighed as he kept drawing,"Those two have been married for two years".
"Yeah, but you're older than us and you were around married people most of the time". Katara said,"Plus, Aang says you had a few Air nomad girlfriends in the Eastern Air Temple".
"He told you about that?". Sen asked a little surprised.
Katara nodded.
"Fine". Sen sighed, giving up,"Here's my advice. If you know that you and Aang love each other then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Also, don't overdo things".
Katara smiled and nodded. Then she looked around and noticed someone was missing from the group.
"Where's Toph?".
"Probably with the lavabender". Sen said a little bitterly,"She mentioned something about having a bending battle with him in a forest outside Ba Sing Se".
"Those two seem to be spending a lot of time together". Katara responded,"You're not jealous?".
"Of course, I am". Sen replied with a neutral look,"But she's free to do whatever she wants. After all, that was the agreement we had when you guys got us married".
"But Sen, don't you guys love each other? I thought you did". Katara asked a little hurt by the situation.
"I love Toph with every ounce of my being". Sen replied,"She's just having a hard time saying the three words back. Well, she did it say it once but that was an accident and she didn't know what she was saying".
"Do you want me to talk to her?". Katara asked,"I could find out why she's hesitating".
"No. As an Air nomad, it is in my nature to wait and be patient". Sen said,"I can't force her into something she doesn't want, I'll just have to wait and see where she wants to take our relationship".
"I'll be back later". Katara said before getting up to help the others.
Sen didn't move. He simply sat in his seat and continued to draw what was on the parchment, he then put his brush down and looked outside. He sighed and merely groaned in fatique.
................................................
Outside Ba Sing Se in a forest, two familiar figures were having an earthbending battle. Toph had fought a lot of tough opponents but this was something else, she had never gone up against lavabending before and she was intrigued.
She dodged a wall of earth that slided her way before maneuvering herself and sending a tremor Sun's way, the young lavabender saw it coming before he jumped into the air and conjured up a jet of lava before launching it toward Toph. The blind earthbender called up a wall of earth to protect herself and was narrowly burned by the searing hot liquid fire.
"Sorry about that. Kinda got excited". Sun apologized for the wild shot.
"Are you kidding me?! This is awesome!". Toph exclaimed happily,"I haven't had a good fight since the end of the war, which was four years ago. You could say I'm itching to get back into the game".
Sun smiled at her before taking a stance. He got a good look at her and saw how beautiful she really was, he could see her well shaped legs in the slit of her kimono dress, her well toned muscular arms and her long hair which got loose during their scuffle. He was so focused on her looks that he narrowly evaded a rock aimed at his head.
"Hey, I wasn't ready!". Sun exclaimed.
"Gotta stay awake". Toph smirked before taking a more rooted stance,"What's wrong? Is something distracting you?".
Momo then appeared and landed on Toph's shoulder, she jumped at first but then she relaxed as she felt the familiar fur. She reached up a hand and rubbed the back of his ear.
"Back from your lunch break?". Toph asked the lemur.
Momo chirped in response.
Sun took the opportunity to fire a rock at her but the blind girl merely moved a foot and leaned her head to the side, the rock sailed past her head making her hair flail in the air.
"Nice try, Sun". Toph said with a roll of her eyes,"I saw that coming a mile away".
Momo screeched in protest.
"You should probably get off my shoulder, Momio. Don't want any rocks sailing past your head too". Toph told the lemur.
Momo merely increased his hold on her.
"I'll take that as a no then".
"Think you could teach me how to avoid rocks without seeing?". Sun asked.
"Nope". Toph smirked.
Sun conjured up lava and launched it at Toph, she bend a trench and let the lava flow into it before she called up rocks and fired them at him. Sun caught the rocks and quickly turned them to lava before firing them back at Toph like water, the blind earthbender shot up slabs of earth into the air and they intercepted the lava in midair.
Sun was about to launch a rock at her but then saw it get cut in half by an ice blade, he saw the rock fall apart and he quickly dropped his stance.
"We got company". Toph said as she detected two people heading toward them.
Sun looked around before he saw two individuals in Water Tribe garb, one was female and the other was male.
"Miko? Hakan?". Sun said in shock as he recognized the two waterbenders.
"You know them?". Toph asked as she faced the two waterbenders.
"Yeah, back when I was visiting Yakone in the North Pole". Sun replied.
"Good to see you too, Sun". Hakan spoke up.
"Hi, Hakan". Sun greeted,"Um, are you looking for something?".
"We're gonna make this quick, Sun". Miko spoke up as she took several steps forward,"Tell me where Yakone is and I won't have to hurt you".
"I'm not saying anything". Sun frowned.
"You hear that? He's not saying anything!". Toph said,"At the South Pole I wasn't much of a challenge because of the ice but you're in my territory now and that means you're dealing with the real Beifong this time around".
"We know". Hakan said before firing a jet of water at the two.
Sun bend up a pillar of rock and sent him and Toph a few feet away from the attack, Miko jumped into the air and sent a vertical splash of water but Toph bend up a wall of earth.
"Aang and the others need to know about this". Toph said before grabbing Momo,"Momo, go get Aang and bring them here. GO!".
Momo saw that she was in distress and he quickly jumped off her shoulder before taking to the air.
"That fixes one problem". Sun said before they saw the wall break apart.
Two jets of water came from either side of the wall, the two earthbenders bend up rocks and held them up as shields before Sun bend up a slab of rock and Toph proceeded to launch discs of earth at the waterbenders. Miko and Hakan were forced to go on the defensive and quickly formed ice shields.
"Let's put 'em down". Toph smirked.
.......................................
Aang was seated in a lotus position in the middle of the lounge room and was in a meditative state, Sen was pacing back and forth while he watched the Avatar meditate.
"Can you please not pace around like that?". Aang asked with closed eyes.
"Anything?". Sen asked once he saw Aang open his eyes.
"No, nothing". Aang sighed,"Something is stopping me from getting into the Spirit World and also preventing me from contacting my past lives. I don't get it. I've never had this kind of trouble before".
"Great". Sen sighed.
"Why don't you try?". Aang asked.
"I already told you". Sen responded rubbing his temples,"I'm also having the same problem. I could easily go into the Spirit World but now something is blocking me".
"We really need to figure out what's causing all these natural disasters". Aang explained,"But we can't do that if we don't have any access to the Spirit World".
"Can we come in?". Suki's voice called from the other side of the door.
"Yeah, sure". Sen sighed.
As the door opened, Suki and the rest of the group walked in.
"Any luck?". Katara asked hopefully.
"No, nothing". Aang exhaled, looking away.
"We took turns trying to meditate into the Spirit World but it felt like something was blocking us". Sen said.
"What could it mean?". Suki asked.
The others shrugged.
"Maybe the spirits are trying to tell you that now is not the time to learn anything". Iroh smiled,"Maybe they plan to reveal everything at a later time".
"That actually makes sense". Sokka said rubbing his chin in thought.
"What do we do until then?". Zuko asked.
Before anyone could respond, Momo zoomed through a window and started flying in circles around the room and made commotion. Then he landed on Mai's head and started to pull on her hair, luckily the Firelady didn't seem to mind as she just cringed at the pain.
"What's wrong with him?". Sokka asked.
"Wasn't he with Toph?". Suki asked.
Sen studied Momo's behavior carefully and then it hit him.
"Something's wrong".
"Yeah, returning without Toph and acting all panicked was a dead giveaway". Aang agreed.
"Its okay, it's okay". Ty Lee said lifting Momo off of Mai's head and cuddling him,"Everything will be okay".
"Thanks, Ty Lee". Mai said quietly while rubbing her head with a groan.
"Toph might be in trouble". Zuko said,"We should go and help her".
"Aang and I will go". Sen said before smiling,"Azula, you're coming with us".
"Hey, why not me?". Sokka protested,"What's so special about her?".
"She's highly dangerous and enemies would think twice before attacking her". Aang explained.
Sen blew the bison whistle and a few minutes later, Appa appeared at the balcony and the three climbed into the saddle before taking off. Katara watched them go with a smile.
"Why are you smiling?". Ty Lee asked as Momo was propped onto her shoulder.
"Oh, nothing". Katara smiled,"I just think Toph will finally realize just how important Sen really is in her life".
.........................................
As Appa zoomed over the forest outside Ba Sing Se, the three benders frantically looked around for their friend. Sen was the most concerned because she was his wife and he didn't want anything to happen to her, he loved her a lot.
"See anything?". Aang asked.
"No". Sen responded,"We've been circling this area twice now".
Azula who ignored the other two merely studied the woods beneath them, before she shifted her gaze she noticed something to her left.
"Over there!". She said pointing to Appa's left.
Sen looked to where she pointed and saw smoke rising in the distance.
"That's smoke! Sun's lavabending must have caused it". Aang said before he steered Appa in the direction of the smoke.
Sen stared at the smoke before he could move he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned and saw Azula giving him a reassuring look.
"You have nothing to worry about". Azula smiled,"Toph is very skilled, I doubt she would be taken down that easily".
Sen smiled at her before giving her a small hug, Azula who was still not much of a hugger gave an awkward hug in return before clearing her throat.
"Look!!!". Aang shouted pointing down.
Azula and Sen looked down and saw Sun and Toph below, they saw them defending themselves against two waterbenders. This made Azula's blood boil, when it came to Toph she was very protective of her but she didn't understand why and she didn't care.
"Miko and Hakan". Sen seethed.
"Yep, that's them". Aang said.
"Azula, shoot a fireball straight at them". Sen said as he felt his rage flare.
Azula smirked coldly.
"With pleasure".
She took a stance before focusing up every ounce of her Chi before releasing a powerful blue fireball down below.
........................................
Toph blocked a water whip with a slab of earth before sending out a disc of rock at Miko, the waterbenders blocked the attack but she staggered and fell back. Hakan ran in and bended up shards of ice across the ground toward Toph, the blind earthbender shattered the ice by causing the earth to collapse on it. Sun bended up lava and shot jets of them at the two waterbenders, Miko and Hakan made distance away from them in order to avoid the lava before hardening the lava with their water.
"We got them on the ropes now". Toph said with glee,"Let's take them out!".
Sun smiled and nodded.
Hakan and Miko tried to run in for another attack but a large blue fireball hit the ground between them and they all staggered from the Shockwave, Miko and Hakan stood back from the impact.
"What the heck was that?!". Toph asked.
"Uh, some large blue fireball just almost blew us up". Sun said still processing the situation.
"Oh". Toph replied before her eyes widened,"Wait! Did you say blue fireball?".
Then the groan of Appa was heard, Sun, Miko and Hakan looked up and saw the flying bison come in for a landing. Toph smiled as soon as Appa touched the ground.
Miko summoned a strand of water before launching it forward, Aang jumped in and slice it in half with his airbending. Hakan shot ice shards at them but Toph created a wall of earth and Azula shot jets of her blue flames, Hakan evaded the searing hot flames and stood back.
"You're outnumbered". Azula said darkly as she held balls of blue fire in either hand.
Hakan tried to attack again but then he gasped and gripped his throat, then he sank to his knees and the veins in his eyes became more prominent as the lack of air was killing him. Everyone turned to Sen and saw him performing Tai Koi, Aang looked away at this but he knew he had to bear it.
Miko launched a jet of water at him but a blue flame evaporated it in midair, Azula blasted a powerful beam of blue fire and send Miko crashing into a tree.
"Bloodbending is nothing compared to Tai Koi, a technique that takes away every last bit of breath you have left in your body". Sen said as a dark glint shined in his silver eyes.
He then dropped his stance and Hakan inhaled loudly and started taking in air greedily, the loss of air was overwhelming and he was almost close to death. Sen merely stared at the man as he tried to regain his breathing pattern.
"You're making a big mistake". Miko spoke up as she got up and held her arm,"Yakone is not who you think he is".
"What do you mean?". Aang asked.
"No, you've already made your choice". Miko glared at them,"You don't deserve to hear anything from me".
She then slowly walked up to Hakan and helped him up, they then started to walk away from the scene. Azula was about to stop them but Sen held up his hand.
"Let 'em go". The white haired airbender responded,"They've had enough".
Azula looked at the leaving waterbending couple before nodding in understanding.
"Guess Momo made it to you guys?". Toph said.
"Yeah, he looked very panicked". Aang smiled a little.
"You guys okay?". Sen asked as he approached them.
"Yeah, we're fine". Sun replied.
"I'm fine, Sen". Toph said giving the airbender a smirk.
Sen merely nodded.
"We should be heading back before everyone gets worried". Aang said as he headed for Appa.
"Sokka will be disappointed by what he missed". Azula smirked.
She and Aang shared a quick laugh at that.
"I'm glad you came looking for me". Toph said shyly as they walked.
"Of course". Sen replied,"Its my responsibility as your partner to be worried and that means looking after you even if you don't need it".
Toph smiled but then it faded.
"Sen, I'm sorry that I've been spending so much time with Sun. I guess I didn't think on how it made you feel".
"No harm, no foul". Sen responded.
She hugged him much to his surprise, he looked down at her head and slowly hugged her back. He rested his chin on her head and hugged her tightly, it was rather nice to hug her despite her not being a hugger like Azula.
"Sen?".
"Hmm?".
"I-".
"What?". Sen asked.
"I love you". She said the three words.
Sen's eyes snapped open in shock.
"W-what?".