"Ok, I'm going to work. I'll be home tonight." I called out.
A series of byes called out from various places of the house, I smiled to myself and left. I walked to the tea shop and once I arrived I knocked on the door. The door shortly opened and Zuko sidestepped out of the way. I walked inside and he closed the door behind me. "You showed up." I turned around puzzled. "Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?" I questioned him.
I looked at him waiting for his response. "Are you ok?" He asked me. "Yeah, I'm just really worried about Appa. Aangs flying bison, he's been missing for a few days now and we have no leads on him. We have a suspicion that he's here but we can't find him." I explained my upset mood. He made a face like he was deep in thought, I questioned him as he did to me. He shrugged and led me to the back explaining how the place is run.
"This is where Uncle Iroh makes the tea. Depending on how busy it is he'll help with customers."
He walked me through the whole process as he continued the tour. Once he was finished Iroh walked down the stairs in the back. I assume those stairs lead to their living area. "Here's your apron." Iroh handed me a black apron. I thanked him and put it on struggling to tie the back. "Here, I'll help you." Zuko said as he took the apron strings from my hands. His hands lightly grazed mine causing me to lightly blush. He tied the apron securely so I thanked him, he nodded his head and then opened the door.
He switched the closed sign to open and after a couple of minutes, customers came inside. I would switch back and forth from helping Iroh make tea to helping Zuko take orders. I was taking orders while Zuko was helping his uncle while having a discussion of some sort. Whatever it was, it sounded serious.
"Here's your tea. Please enjoy." I smiled as I sat the tea down in front of my customer. He thanked me and took a sip as I went to the next table. I walked over to a table and saw Jet and his friends. "Hey, you're that girl we saved earlier." Jet said as he remembered who I was. I mentally groaned. "I didn't need saving, I did far more damage than you ever could. What can I get for you guys?" I asked ready to memorize their order.
Jet frowned but then they ordered. I went to the back and gave Iroh their orders and headed back out for the next table. All of a sudden Jet starts yelling accusing Zuko of being a fire bender. "How can he be a fire bender?" I asked pretending to be puzzled. "I saw him bend fire to heat the tea!" He yelled drawing more attention to him. "He works in a tea shop, that's his job." One of the customers spoke out, and they all started to disagree with Jet as the 'police' came and dragged him away.
I couldn't help but smirk as he was dragged away, he was always a pain in my ass. He noticed my grin and gasped. "They're all fire benders! She's one too, I saw her do it!" He yelled as they continued to try to pry him off the doorway. "How? I bend water." I splashed his face with water to make him lose his grip on the doorway. It worked and he was dragged off, thank you random customer for defending Zuko. I then went back to taking orders and serving people.
"Here is your guys' tea, please enjoy." I smiled once again as I sat the teacups down in front of each person. "Thank you." One of the men spoke as the others drank their tea. "You're very welcome. If you guys have any questions or add ons please feel free to let me know."
"Yes, I have a question." The guy smiled.
"Of course, what is it?"
"What time do you get off work?"
This question took me by surprise, was he really hitting on me right now? "I'm sorry, what?" I asked making sure I heard it right the first time. "What time do you get off work?" He asked again, a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth. "I'm flattered sir but I'm going to have to decline whatever offer it is you're about to make." I said a little firmly, I took my tray off the table and was about to leave to get the next order.
He grabbed my wrist to stop me from walking away, this caught Zuko's attention. "Is everything ok here?" Zuko asked walking over. "Yes, everything-" The man let go of my hand as he began to speak but I cut him off. "No, he's hitting on me and just touched me." I looked at the man angrily, his friends watching the scene awkwardly. "(Y/n) go take your break, and you, never come here again. Or else." Zuko growled as he put his hand on the table leaning close to the man's face.
I went into the back and instead of taking a break I helped Iroh clean cups and make tea. "What was that commotion?" Iroh asked as he boiled tea, discretely using his finger to fire bend. "Some guy was hitting on me and Zuko kicked him out. He told me to take a break but I felt like helping you instead." I explained as I cleaned the cups in the sink. "Zuko's soft spot for you seems to be getting more and more soft." Iroh smiled to himself as the water boiled.
He put in some herbs to create the tea and covered the pot. "What do you mean?" I asked curiously, now drying the last dish in the sink. "He's always had a soft spot for you and ever since you left with the avatar he's been going through so much change. I'm sad he's lost himself in his banishment but you leaving seemed to have waken the old Zuko." He poured the tea into cups and placed them on the tray. I didn't know what to say to this. "Oh... well I'm glad me leaving helped the both of us realize some things." I smiled to myself.
Knowing I had helped him, and that he was telling the truth made me happy and very hopeful about him joining the avatar. "Iroh, I have a question." I cleaned the pot he had just used as he used the other for the next order of tea. "What is it?" He asked as water flowed into the pot from the sink faucet. "Well, I'm trying to get everyone warmed up to Zuko. He wants to help Aang against his sister and father now. But every time I bring him up some of them get very touchy. Any advice on how to get them warmed up?" I looked at him with hope.
"They need to work it out with Zuko himself. You can only do so much, he needs to do the rest. If he does it right, they'll accept him into the group. It's all up to him and the other person."
꧁𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚂𝚔𝚒𝚙꧂
It was the next day and Zuko wasn't at work for the whole shift. As Iroh and I were cleaning I broke the comfortable silence we had. "Where's Zuko today? Is he alright?" Iroh continued cleaning but nodded his head. "He's ok, he said he had a few errands to run and after that, he has a date with a girl that's become a regular here." I stopped cleaning the table and stared at Iroh in disbelief. "He has a date with someone?" He nodded his head as he kept cleaning the other table.
"Oh.. that's great, I hope it works out for him." I mumbled getting back to cleaning the table.
I finished cleaning the shop and helped Iroh put all the cleaning supplies away. "Thank you for helping me." He smiled as he handed me my money for the day. "You're welcome. I'll see you tomorrow." I left the shop and switched the sign to closed. I walked back to the house and when I made it home I placed my hand on the doorknob. I sighed heavily and rubbed my eyes with my free hand now opening the door.
"Hey... I'm home."
"Welcome home! How was work?" Aang asked.
"It was ok until it wasn't." I sighed.
"What happened?" Katara asked concerned.
"Well, work was slow but nice. Then some guy tried hitting on me." I sat down where I sleep.
I laid down and got comfortable, wiping my eyes again trying to stay awake. I've been picking up as many shifts as I could to make us as much money as possible and to spend time with Iroh and Zuko. "Did you beat them up?" Toph asked with enthusiasm. "I wanted to but I couldn't, if I did I would've been fired. But I was lucky because my coworker came to my rescue." I smiled remembering how he helped me.
꧁𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚂𝚔𝚒𝚙꧂
"(Y/n)! Wake up, wake up!" Sokka yelled as he threw a pillow at my head.
I threw it back at him, he shrieked and hid behind Katara. "We got Appa back!" Katara happily spoke. I immediately shot up now awake and got up. "That's amazing! Where was he? Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked. "We wanted you to sleep because you've been working so much, we found him under lake laogai there was some crazy Dai li stuff going on." I listened to her explain everything. I missed out on so much.
I looked around the room and noticed I didn't see Aang. "Uhm, where's Aang?" Katara's mood dropped and her eyes teared up. I walked up to her and rubbed her back trying to comfort her. "Azula shot a lightning bolt at him and he hasn't woken up yet." I felt like my heart dropped hearing this. "I tried using the spirit water on him but he's not awake yet." She sniffled as she pulled herself together refusing to cry.
28 May
Dear Journal,
I keep starting every entry the same but it never changes, so much has truly happened. I'll just list it all in order because it just built up into one big ball of stress on me. I feel like I have so much weight on my shoulders to keep my friends ok.
I started my job today, Jet came back and accused me and Zuko of being fire benders (no one believed him) then not even two minutes later some guy hit on me he's just lucky Zuko came to my rescue. Then Zuko ends up having a date with some regular of ours, I thought we had something blooming...I guess I was wrong.
Then I get a day off and the gang lets me sleep in which I appreciate but because of this, I missed out on probably the biggest thing yet. They found Appa but Aang got hit by Azula's lighting bolts and won't wake up. This is a very big problem, on the bright side, he isn't dead. We can see him faintly breathing and on a much brighter note, Azula thinks he's dead.
So if he can wake up soon, we can have the element of surprise. I wish things can go back to being calm...