Quietly, Sukara sat eating her seaweed noodles while she waited for Iroh. Like most of the establishments in the town, the Inn they were staying in was small and cosy.
It wasn't long until her travelling companion joined her. He came holding a letter, as he slumped down into the chair opposite her.
"Seaweed noodles for breakfast?" he asked, nodding down at her bowl.
"Time is an illusion Iroh," she told him simply, "it means nothing to me."
"Fair enough," he laughed, "I got a letter from Republic City."
"Hmm?"
"Your counterpart has been injured," he told her, bringing the mood back down.
"Is Korra okay?" Sukara asked, putting her chopsticks down.
"It looks like she's going to be," he said, looking down at the letter, "but she was hit pretty hard. It sounds like it was a close one. She's down in the South Pole recovering. Would you mind if we take a trip to go and check on her?"
"Not at all," Sukara smiled, "but she won't wanna see me, I can wait for you in the city if you like."
"You had a bad run in with her?" he asked, folding the paper back up.
"Not really actually but Vaatu didn't make a great first impression," she nodded awkwardly, "you know, a big red monster, attacked the city. Remember how he's kinda attached to me?"
"That was you?!" Iroh exclaimed.
"No," Sukara said firmly, "that was Unalaq. Not me. But it was mostly Vaatu so I can sort of remember it."
"Oh so it's like when Avatar Aang was blamed for Avatar Kyoshi killing Chin the conqueror," he said, trying to understand the situation.
"Exactly," she smiled with a frown, happy that there wasn't a conflict but had no idea what he was talking about, "so I can hang out in Republic City while you go see Korra, I saw her a little while ago and she didn't take the whole Vaatu thing very well so I promised I'd stay away."
"Alright," Iroh said, "but if it's going to be too much trouble, we don't have to."
"No, you should go," Sukara reassured him, "your friend is hurt, you should go and see her. I'll just call ahead so no one tries to arrest me."
#####
Sukara found the nearest phone and made a call to Air Temple Island. Luckily, exactly the person she wanted picked up.
"You have reached Air Temple Island, you are speaking to an air bender, how may I help you?" Kai chimed in an amused tone.
"How's it going kid?" Sukara said down the phone, gaining a gasp from the young boy.
"Sukara!" he exclaimed, but then started to talk to someone else, "Jinora please. Just let me talk to her. I won't, don't worry. Sukara, I can't believe it, did you miss me already?"
"Yeah sure," Sukara laughed, "listen I heard about what happened, I'll be coming back to Republic City for a bit and--"
But she was cut off when someone took the phone off of him.
"What are you doing?" a voice said.
"Nothing, just messing around," Kai told them.
"Oh yeah? Who is this?" the voice asked down the phone.
"Asami? Hey, how are things?" Sukara asked awkwardly.
"Sukara? Why are you calling now?" Asami asked, "it's only been a couple of weeks."
"I know," Sukara sighed, "but I heard about what happened with Zaheer, I wanted to make sure everyone was okay. I was going to come to the city to check on Kai at least but I'd love to see you guys as well, and hear about how Korra is."
"You really care huh?" Asami said, her tone softening.
"I do," Sukara told her, "you guys were so kind to me and I lied to you. I'm sorry and I would never want to see you hurt."
"Fine, you can stay with me," Asami said after thinking for a moment, she gave a chuckle as a small cheer came through the phone from Kai, "I'll hide you from Tenzin and Lin. Maybe you can tell us more about who you really are."