Three days.
They had three days.
Though everybody knew it was happening, no one said a word. A silent agreement.
Zuko watched Aang as he commanded him through his training as Aang focused on his fire bending while everyone else was on the stairs in the front of the house as they were still surrounded by trees. Zukos been training him hard day by day .
"More ferocious, imagine striking through your opponents heart!" He barked with his arms crossed and dirk on his shoulder while Aang kicked and punched strong fire.
"Ugh I'm trying!" Aang growled looking back at him.
"Now let me hear you roar like a tiger dillo," Zuko didn't ease up on him.
Aang turned as he let out a roar weakly, looking back at Zuko innocently.
"That was pathetic, I said roar!" Zuko said again with a glare. Aang finally let out a roar with a load of fire around him. Momo chirped in fear as he hid behind the fire benders leg while dirk let out a small roar of fire as well, Zuko nodded in approval.
"Who wants a nice cool glass of water melon juice!?" Katara called to the boys.
"Oh! Me me!" Aang went to run over but Zuko grabbed his shirt from behind to stop him.
"Your lessons not over yet, get back here!" He lifted the light air bender off the ground as Aang groaned in defeat.
"Come on Zuko, just take a break, what's the big deal?" Suki looked at him laying on her side while Sokka was sipping his water melon juice.
"Fine," he dropped Aang and the younger boy sprinted over.
"If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail sloths all day then go ahead," Zuko had his arms crossed again as dirk even flew over to the water melon that momo drank out of.
"Wanna go toe to toe with me pretty boy?" Katara smirked at him crossing her legs and Zuko gave her a look taking it into consideration, the smallest smile only she noticed crawled on his face.
"Stop it you two!" Sokka screamed pointing at her.
"Go ahead, Finish your drink kat," he sighed softly unable to stay mad with her right there and walked away. "I'm going for a walk,"
"Maybe zukos right, sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy," Sokka sipped on his drink leaning back. "But I know just the thing to change that,"
"Beach party!"
—
Sokka dove into the water as everyone went down to the beach, Katara took off in a run to get some speed before bending a board of ice to glide against the waters, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
"Look I made an appa sand sculpture!" Aang finished sitting on top of sand that was almost the height of his bison as Toph walked up to him with a hand on her hip.
"Not bad baldy, but I've been working on my sand bending," she crackled her knuckles turning to the clear area of the sand, stomping and bending in front of her a tiny ba sing se. aangs jaw dropped in awe as he went to the level of the sculptures.
"You even made a tiny earth king and basco!" He gasped.
The two walked over to Sokka as he was working hard on his own sand sculpture with decorations while he had his tongue out in concentration.
"Try to top that Sokka," Toph crossed her arms knowing her victory.
"Ta da!" Sokka beamed moving to the side to show them.
"Is that a... blubbering blob monster?" Aang asked not knowing.
"No! It's Suki," Sokka defended.
Aang covered his mouth before he and Toph burst out laughing.
"Suki we'll all understand if you break up with him over this," Toph laughed.
"I think it's sweet," Suki smiled softly at her boyfriend. Sokka ran over hugging her tightly as he plopped a kiss on her cheek while dirk was in her lap.
"But it doesn't even look-" Aang screamed when he was cut off by a fire blast from above that destroyed the Suki sculpture.
Suddenly Zuko ran and jumped above as blasted multiple attacks at Aang while the young boy ran out of the way to avoid getting killed. He ran and hid behind his appa sculpture but Zuko attacked and destroyed that too.
"What are you doing?!" Aang cried out.
"Teaching you a lesson," Zuko growled shooting another fist of fire at him then chased the avatar while Aang ran from the beach.
"What happened?!" Katara jumped off her ice board and ran to the sand.
"Your boyfriends gone crazy! He destroyed my Suki sculpture!" Sokka yelled back as Toph didn't look amused and Suki seemed confused.
"Oh and he's attacking Aang,"
"That is not going for a walk stupid," Katara inhaled deeply as dirk flew to her shoulder.
"Come on we have to make sure they don't get hurt," she told them running to the trail that least to the beach house.
"Why is Zuko attacking?" Suki asked as her Toph grabbed Sokka to make him come with.
"I don't know," Katara gulped running faster as she saw the boys on the beach house roof as Zuko kicked fire at her friend as Aang went inside.
The could hear the attack but Katara gasped when Zuko was blasted out of the second story by a gust of wind and landed outside just as everyone got to the house.
"What the hell is the matter with you? You could've hurt Aang," Katara ran to him as she helped her boyfriend up as he held his head in pain.
"What's the matter with me? What wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when sizing comet is only three days away?" Zuko looked at her and the others almost angry but more confused as she let go of him, staying by his side still.
Katara noticed the silence and looked at her friends confused now.
"What?" She asked like he was crazy about the comet.
"About sozin's comet... I was going to wait for fighting the fire lord until after it came," Aang stepped forward with the three behind him.
"After?" Zuko asked wide eyes.
"I'm not ready, I need more time to master fire bending," Aang explained to him as Katara pursed her lips a little.
"And frankly, your earth bending could still use some work too," Toph cut in making Aang frown a little.
"So you knew Aang was going to wait?" Zuko asked them confused, seeing his girlfriends face told him she didn't know either.
"Honestly if Aang tries to fight the fire lord now, he's going to lose... no offense," Sokka told him as Aang grumbled a little.
"The whole point of fighting the fire lord before the comet was to stop the fire nation from winning the war, but theyre on the higher chance of winning when they took ba sing se," Toph crossed her arms as she sighed a little.
"things can't get any worse," Katara gulped a little.
"Actually they can, worse than you can imagine," Zuko closed his eyes inhaling deeply.
"What do you mean?" She looked up at him.
"When I... when I died, it was dark, it was dark and quiet and alone, a-and I had a vision, the blue spirit didn't touch me with life but the moon spirit showed me what the world will be like with my fathers intentions, if you don't kill him I know what the world will be like, I know it's true," Zuko swallowed a lump in his throat as he clenched his fists tightly.
"the last comet took out the air nomads, my father wants to do the same to the earth kingdom," Zuko sat on a rock feeling his knees weaken under him, nauseous at the idea.
"He wants the world to become ashes for him to rebuild his world," he looked at them without a doubt in his mind it was the truth.
"And you never told me?" Katara covered her mouth in horror as he kept his head down.
"I thought it was a dream until the eclipse when we lost, then it seemed to real," he whispered.
"I always knew the fire lord was a bad guy but.. his plan is just pure evil," Sokka put an arm around Suki.
"What am I gonna do?" Aang asked hopelessly.
"I know your scared," Zuko stood up from the rock he sat on. "And I know your not ready to save the world, but if you don't defeat the fire lord before the comet comes, there won't be a world to save anymore,"
"Why did you tell me about your crazy vision about your dad sooner?" Aang cried out overwhelmed.
"I didn't think I had too!" Zuko defended.
"I thought you were going to fight him still, no one told us you decided to wait," he motioned to him and Katara as she had her arms crossed while processing the information.
"This is bad, this is really really bad," Aang walked a little to get some distance, he fell to his knees as he held his head.
"Aang, you don't have to do this alone," Katara knelt next to him with a gentle face.
They had fights and differences, tears and all, yet Aang couldn't help but feel like she made all his fear go away, he knew she was happy with someone that isn't him. That wasn't a reason to lose a friend, he wanted that for her, he's glad it's someone like Zuko. She helped him up as the others joined them.
"Yea, if we all fight the fire lord together we got a shot at taking him down!" Toph punched the air.
"Alright! Team avatar is back! Air, water, earth, fire!" Sokka pointed to each of the benders with his arm still around sukis slim shoulders.
"Fan and sword!" He yelled with pride.
"Fighting the fire lord is gonna be the hardest thing we've ever done together, but I wouldn't wanna do it any other way," Aang gulped and nodded as he smiled at his friends. They all joined with a few laughs and made a group hug while Zuko had his arms crossed not moving.
"Get over here Zuko, being apart of the team also means group hugs," Katara looked back at him.
He made a face a little but agreed as he walked over when she pulled him to the group when he was close enough. She smiled brightly at him as he seemed uncomfortable for a moment but relaxed when they were situated.
Immediate regret hit him when appa landed on them with a groan and made them all fall to the ground with Zuko under them all.