Aang is pacing around in Appa's saddle, breathing heavily.
"Would you sit down?" Sokka scolds as he turns around from Appa's head. "If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off. What's bugging you anyway?"
"It's what Avatar Roku said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives."
"Well, let's see." Sokka hums. "You pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you a hundred and twelve years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer."
"I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole. What am I gonna do?" Aang freaks.
Katara grabs Aang's arm. "Calm down, it's going to be okay." Aang sits down in front of her. "If you want, I can try to teach you some of the stuff I know."
"You'd do that?" Aang gasps.
Katara nods and looks over the side of Appa's saddle. "We'll need to find a good source of water first."
"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in." Sokka grins.
Soon; Aang, Katara, Sokka, and I are standing in front of a large waterfall and river.
Appa flies down into the river and creates a huge splash that soaks and almost knocks Momo off the rock he is standing on.
Aang takes off his shirt, smiling. "Yeah! Don't start without me, boy!" He begins to run towards the water.
I giggle at the cute air bender, he was so full of joy.
"Whatcha laughing at?" Sokka asks.
I turn to face the water tribe boy as I lightly frown. "Why are you always in my business?"
Sokka raises his hands up in surrounder. "Hey, hey, was just asking."
Aang happily turns to Sokka as he hands him a branch with a bushel of leaves at the end. "Hey, Sokka. You wouldn't mind cleaning the gunk out of Appa's toes, would you?"
Sokka makes a face and crosses his arms. "So, while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard at work picking mud out of a giant bison's feet?"
Aang smiles; somewhat cheerfully. "Venus can help too!"
"I can what now?"
"Okay." Sokka says taking my head in his arms, pulling me into a chokehold, while making his way towards Appa.
"You wouldn't dare." I hiss as Sokka had me beside the water.
"I'll push you in, try me."
With my elbow, I swing it against Sokka's stomach as he releases me from his grasp. He then grabs my hair, yanking me into the water along with him.
I giggle as I resurface the water.
Sokka deeply blushes as he stares at me a little speechless.
"What's wrong?" I ask with a tint of laughter.
"Your makeup..." Sokka pauses. "It's gone."
I touch my face, feeling my wet skin. My makeup had completely washed off from the pressure of the water. "Oh my spirits." I groan turning around.
Sokka quickly swims next to me. "Venus, why are you hiding?"
I swim away from him and hide behind the giant bison.
"V. Come on." Sokka pleads.
I deeply sigh, covering my face with my hands as Sokka makes his way towards me.
I could feel his stare. "V?"
"Yeah." I murmur.
"Why do you hide in your makeup?"
"I don't."
Sokka gently takes my wrists as he leads my hands to my side. "Look at me."
My head rises as I look into his big sparking blue eyes. I could get lost in them forever.
Sokka's eyebrows furrow together. "You're so beautiful."
I slowly bit my top lip. "Thanks. And to answer your questions. Do you feel a different way towards me now?"
Sokka scratches his neck. "Uh huh...I-"
"Exactly." I murmur sadly. "Before you weren't stuttering as much in front of me, and now you're so cautious about my feelings. I use my makeup to hide my looks! I don't want people to think different of me."
Sokka's face brightens up. "But Venus. This is who you are! Don't hide yourself from me or anyone else. You're beautiful as yourself and a warrior. I just got a bit flustered because I've never seen you without your warriors makeup. Every feeling I have towards you are the same as before."
I half smile. "Really?"
Sokka pulls me closer to him. "Really." He then yells at Katara. "Hey, Katara! Look at Venus!"
Katara gasps as she drops the water she was creating. "Venus, is that you?"
"Yeah."
"You're so pretty."
"I agree." Aang smiles.
"See." Sokka says with a smile. "We don't think any less of you."
I hug Sokka's side. "Thanks."
Appa who was behind us began to groan as he was laid on his back, ready to get a pedicure.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Sokka groans as he climbs on the stomach of the bison.
I throw a stick at Sokka as he begins to brush in between Appa's toes with the branch. "Yeah, don't get too happy. You've got to do me next." Appa moans happily.
Suddenly, a large wave slowly makes it way towards Sokka and I. "Aang!" Sokka cries as the wave drowns him.
I groan as I am completely splashed. "I really need to buy new clothes."
"That's enough practicing for today." Katara angrily says.
Sokka's head sticks out of the water. "Yeah, I'll say! You just practiced our supplies down the river."
I move my head to see our bags floating away.
"Uh, sorry." Aang worriedly smiles. "I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff."
"My life was hard enough when you were just an airbender." Sokka murmurs as he sinks back under the water.
✼ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ✼
Katara, Sokka, Aang, and I walk through the streets of a city market and port. Many armed men eyeing me as they gave a little whistle. I roll my eyes ignoring them.
Sokka walks back from alleyway with a bag over his shoulders. "We've got exactly three copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us. Let's spend it wisely."
"Uh, make that two copper pieces, Sokka." I murmur. "Aang just wasted them on some whistle."
"I couldn't say no to this whistle!" Aang smiles, pulling out a white whistle shaped like a bison, he takes a huge breath and blows into it, but it barely makes a sound.
Sokka covers his ears after expecting a loud noise. "It doesn't even work." Aang stops blowing when Momo squawks at him. "See? Even Momo thinks it's a piece of junk."
The whole day we roam around city market as I spot a clothing store. "I'll be right back."
"Okay, meet us in that pirate ship over there," Sokka says, pointing to a man who is talking in front of his boat docked in the water.
I walk into the clothing store as the salesman greets me. "Whatchua looking for, darling?"
I look around the store that was full of clothes from different tribes. "What's the cheapest thing you have?"
The man goes behind his desk into a closet. "You're in luck, we've got an exclusive outfit, that no one wants to buy because it's too revealing. You look like a dangerous girl and it's free so have it."
"I don't know what that means, but I'll take it."
Once I walk out the store, Sokka, Katara and Aang exit the pirate ship.
"Hey. V. I guess you found what you needed." Aang chirps as he examines my new outfit.
"Yeah," I brightly smile. "It came with a shield. How cool is that?"
Sokka places his hand on his chin, examining my outfit. "How much did you pay for that?"
"It was free."
"Free?!" Sokka exclaims. "You must have gotten it from your looks."
My eyes dart into Sokka's blue ones. "I'm sorry. I was joking."
All of a sudden, a group of armed pirates jump out of the boat. "Hey you! Get back here!" They ran to Aang, Katara, Sokka and I, whispering menacingly and swinging their weapons.
"Who are these hooligans?" I ask in disabelif.
"Who you calling hooligans? Hooligan."
I scrunch my face. "It's not really an insult if you repeat the same thing I just quoted. Right guys?"
Once I turn around, the group had ran away. "Venus, let's go!" Sokka shouts from a long distance.
I quickly begin to chase after them. I jump up the roof of the markets and leap around to find where the group had gone.
Suddenly, Aang, Katara and Sokka were on Aang's glider flying near my direction. "V, jump on!"
I make a big leap as I hold onto Sokka's leg as we fly back to the waterfall.
Aang closes his glider. "I used to kind of look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible."
"I know," Katara smirks. "That's why I took this." She says pulling out a scroll.
"No way!" Aang gasps.
"Isn't it great?" Katara smiles.
I place my elbow on Katara's shoulder. "You stole? Why am I kind of proud of you?"
"Don't condone this!" Sokka yells. "No wonder they were trying to hack us up! You stole their waterbending scroll!"
"Sokka, where do you think they got it?" Katara asks, crossing her arms. "They stole it from a waterbender."
"It doesn't matter!" Sokka shrieks. "You put all our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid fancy splashes."
"These are real waterbending forms. You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending!" Katara replies in a tint of anger.
Sokka scoffs walking away. "Whatever."
I follow after him. "Oh, Sokka. Don't be mad."
"Give me one solid reason, I shouldn't be?"
I pause for a few minute trying to collect some reasons in my head. "Uh-"
"Exactly."
Suddenly, Momo comes screeching towards me as he lays on my shoulder. "What happened, buddy?"
Momo points his direction towards Katara and Aang, who were practicing from the scroll.
Katara soon let's out an outburst. "Will you please shut your air hole? Believe it or not your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted!"
Sokka and I glare at Katara as she looks back at us. "What?" She then turns her attention back to Aang who looked like he was about to cry. My heart legit sank.
"Oh my gosh, Aang." Katara genuinely apologies. "I am so sorry. I don't know what came over me, but you know what?" Katara rolls the scroll up and hands it over to Aang. "Here, this is yours. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore."
"It's okay, Katara."
"What about Momo?" I ask as I coo him in my arms. "He's the real victim here."
Katara walks towards Momo, she gently rubs his ear. "I'm sorry, Momo."
"And what about me?" Sokka smugly asks. "There was that time you-"
"No more apologies." Katara growls, scarring Momo and causing him to fly on top of my head.
"She should really talk to a therapist." I murmur.
"I've been saying this for years!" Sokka cries out.
✼ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ✼
Early in the morning, I'm woken up with items being flown in my face.
I groan. "What's going on?"
"She took the scroll." Sokka yells in disbelief. "She's obsessed with that thing."
I turn to see Katara's sleeping bag completely empty.
"It's just a matter of time before she gets us all in deep-" Sokka yells as a rope flies around his arms and drags him forward. He rolls away and charges at the pirate while another pirate captures Aang and I in a net and drags us away.
Later, we were gathered around a bay with the firebending ponytail guy who destroyed my village and a tied up Katara. The pirates from earlier were holding Aang, Sokka and I as we were bounded up.
"Aang, this is all my fault!" Katara cries out from the tree she was trapped to.
"No, Katara, it isn't." He replies.
"Yeah, it kind of is." A short older man, who stood beside Zuko said.
"Give me the boy." Zuko growled at the pirates.
"You give us the scroll."
"You're really gonna hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment?" Sokka exclaims beside me.
Zuko angrily points his finger at Sokka. "Don't listen to him. He's trying to turn us against each other."
"Your friend is the Avatar?" The captain asks.
I aggressively shake my head, going along with Sokka's plan. "Sure is. And I'll bet he'll fetch a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll."
"Shut your mouth!" Zuko's eyes began to wonder over me. "You uh... Girl."
Was that supposed to be an insult?
Sokka shrugs. "Venus and I are just saying, it's bad business sense. Just imagine how much the Fire lord would pay for the Avatar. You guys would be set for life."
"Keep the scroll." The pirates captain says to Zuko. "We can buy a hundred with the reward we'll get for the kid."
"You'll regret breaking a deal with me." Zuko and two of his soldiers send a blast of fire at the pirates.
The pirates jump back, throwing smoke bombs and jumping into the cloud as the fight ensues.
The fighting had caused a huge smoke to surround the area. I stood close to Sokka, since we had lost Aang.
"Sokka, reach into my pockets."
"What? What's in there?"
"Just do it." I hiss.
Sokka reaches into my pockets as he pulls out my switch blade. "Oh, Venus. You're so handy."
"Yeah, yeah." Sokka begins cutting the ropes around my wrist. Once the ropes come off. I do the same to him.
Suddenly, Aang leaps over Sokka and I. "Run!"
Sokka and I quickly follow after Aang. We find Katara, who is trying to push the pirate boat back into the water. "Katara, you're okay!"
"Help me get this boat back in the water so we can get outta here." We join her in trying to push the boat, but can't.
"Guys, you're gonna have to move this ship with your waterbending."
Aang's eyes twinkle towards Katara. "Venus is right." The two waterbenders push and pull the water until the boat rises up.
I climb onto the ship and grab hold of the steering wheel. "Everybody in."
Once everyone hops onto the ship, Sokka bumps me with his hip, taking control of the wheel.
"Really?"
"Sokka! Can't you make it go any faster?" Aang
yells as he notices the pirates following us.
"I don't know how. This thing wasn't made by the
water tribe!" Sokka calls back, clearly distraught.
Two pirates come crawling their way on the ship and head towards Sokka. I pull out my shield and slam them in the back of the head, causing them to fall over. I then drag their bodies and throw them into the ocean.
"Thanks. V."
The other benders and I take care of all the pirates who had entered the ship.
"Aang look!" Katara shouts as we were making our way towards a huge waterfall.
Sokka ran over to me as he hugged me tight as everyone flew off the boat. "We're too pretty to die!" Sokka shouts.
Before we could hit the water, Appa comes zooming towards us as we land on him and fly to safety.
Sokka still had his arms around me once we were far away from the scene. "Are you okay, Sokka?"
Sokka's eyes widen as he realizes he was still holding on to me. "Yeah, yeah. Just," he cleared his throat. "Just needed to make sure you were okay."
"I'm okay." I smile, nodding.
"Good."
"I still owe you an apology, Aang." Katara spoke. "You were just so good at waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger, I'm sorry."
"That's okay, Katara."
Aang sure was forgiving. I wish.
"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?" She puffs.
Sokka pulls out a scroll from his tunic. "Is that really how you feel?"
"The scroll!" Katara gasps reaching up to grab it, but Sokka retreats the scroll.
"First, what did you learn?"
"That stealing is wrong." She then snatches the scroll from Sokka's grasp. "Unless it's from pirates."