— trying to convince.
fire.
appa had gotten tired from flying so the gaang walked for the rest of the way to the western air temple. senna had woken up a while ago and was now riding on appa, trying to heal her leg.
they reached the edge of the cliff and tophs eyes widened, "hey, we're here! i can feel it!"
"uh toph i think you need to get your feet checked. there's nothing here." katara said.
"no toph is right, the air temple is underneath the cliff!" aang beamed.
everyone got back on appa as he flew inside the temple. woah, this place was huge. once appa landed, haru and sokka helped senna down.
"okay katara please do your cool healing stuff and fix senna please!" sokka told his sister. he could tell senna was in a lot of pain just from the sweat dripping down her face and the small flames of fire that were forming in the palms of her hands.
"okay okay." teo, the duke and haru all went exploring while the gaang stayed put. katara bended out her healing water and rested it on sennas right leg. you could tell it was broken by the huge bruise that was forming. (her pants are ripped that's how you could see it)
senna winced and held onto sokkas hand tightly.
"tell me where the pain hurts the most, sanny." katara spoke as she moved the water upwards.
"a little higher." katara listened, "okay! okay! right there!" senna squeezed her eyes shut and laid her head on sokkas chest, breathing heavily.
aang then hands katara a bandage and she wraps it around sennas leg, "it's still pretty bad so try to stay off it for a while, okay?"
senna nodded with a sigh, "okay."
the others then try to decide on what to do. senna wasn't really paying attention. she was too focused on the pain flowing around her body. between the 2 broken ribs and her leg, she felt like she was dying all over again.
"senna, you getting this?" aang asked.
senna looked at them, "what?"
"we were saying that i need to learn firebending and defeat the fire lord that way. but there's nobody willing to teach me." aang said with a sigh.
"i can teach you!" the girl smiled as she stood up but immediately sat back down, "forgot about my leg....heh."
"i think we'll have to wait." toph said, nodding her in head in some random direction.
the gaang all looked over and saw zuko. they immediately jumped into fighting stances while senna was shocked.
"hello, zuko here." he waved awkwardly at them.
"hey, i heard you guys flying around down there, so i just thought i'd wait for you here." appa growled a little before licking zuko, "i know you must be surprised to see me here."
"not really, since you've followed us all over the world." sokka spat.
"right, well uhh....anyways.....what i wanted to tell you about is that i've changed, and i, um, im good now, and well i think i should join your group, oh and i can teach firebending to you. see, i, uhh..."
senna slowly tried to stand. she was hidden behind the others and she wanted zuko to see her. to see that she was in fact alive.
"um, im sorry for hunting you down and stuff. shouldn't have done that." he chuckled awkwardly.
the gaang ignored his last comment, deciding to focus on what he said before.
"you want to what now?" toph asked in disbelief.
"you can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? i mean, how stupid do you think we are?" katara snapped.
"guys..." senna mumbled, none of them hearing her of course.
"yeah, all you've ever done was hunt us down and try to capture aang!" sokka added.
"i've done some good things! i mean, i could of stolen your bison in ba sing se, but i set him free. that's something!"
"it is true, guys." again, she was ignored.
"appa does seem to like him." toph said.
sokka looked skeptical, "he probably just covered himself in honey or something so appa would lick him. im not buying it."
"i can understand why you wouldn't trust me, and i know i've made some mistakes in the past."
"like when you attacked our village?" sokka said, crossing his arms.
"or when you stole my mothers necklace and used it to track us down and capture us?" katara spat.
"look, i admit i've done awful things. i was wrong to try to capture you, and im sorry that i attacked the watertribe. and i never should of sent that fire nation assassin after you. im going to try and stop-"
"wait, you sent combustion man after us?" sokka asked.
"well that's not his name but-"
this was going horribly wrong.
"okay stop!" senna shouted, all eyes landing on her. zukos mouth dropped as he stared at senna.
she struggled to stand up but she was able to and stood in between zuko and sokka, "cant you see he's trying to change? why won't you all give him a chance!"
"how...what?" she looked at him and smiled, "it's a long story."
tears in his eyes, senna wrapped her arms around his shaking body. she inhaled his sent. gosh, she's missed him so much.
"you're hair." he softly chuckled, "it's white."
"i know." she smiled.
suddenly a arm grabbed her and pulled her back. "there's no way we can trust you after everything you've done. we'll never let you join us." aang said.
senna shoved sokkas hand off and sat back down with her arms crossed.
"you need to get out of here. now." katara said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
senna had to change their minds. she believed him, "he's trying to explain to you guys that he's good. he changed!"
"stay out of it senna!" katara yelled.
"either you leave or we attack." sokka said as the four of them took out their weapons.
zuko knelt down on his knees, "if you won't except me as a friend, then maybe you'll take me as a prisoner."
katara sent a wave of water at him, knocking zuko over, "no, we won't! get out of here, and don't come back! and if we ever see you again..." she hesitated, "well, we better not see you again!"
zuko and senna shared one last look before zuko turned around and left. senna let out a sigh, "he's just trying to change."
"fine, if you think he's changed so much then why don't you go with him!" katara yelled, taking a seat next to sokka and toph.
"fine katara maybe i will!" senna yelled back and stood up, forcing herself to walk away although she was limping and it hurt badly, "stupid leg!"
"wait i didn't mean it...." but it was too late, senna was gone.
"great going katara! now she's out there all alone with that psycho!"
senna heard the yells of sokka and katara in the distance but ignored it. she needed to talk to zuko.
"ughh! i can't believe how stupid i am! i mean, what was i thinking? telling them i sent the assassin after them?! why did i just say azula did that? they would've believed that! stupid!" zuko groaned, letting out a gust of fire in anger.
"i'll try to talk to them. maybe they'll listen to me."
zuko jumped and turned around, seeing senna sitting on a log by his campsite. she smiled and patted the seat next to him.
"you really think so?"
she nodded, setting the firepit on fire, "well for me, it only took sokka and aang 30 seconds but for katara it took a while and toph joined while i was with them but they're very forgiving. i know they'll forgive you."
zuko sat down next to senna and held his face in his hands, "i missed you so much. i can't believe you're alive."
senna pulled him into a side hug and she rested her head on his shoulder, "i missed you too, a lot. im sorry i never sent you a letter or something, i wasn't sure where you were."
"hey, it's okay."
it was silent for a few moments as the two looked up at the sky. a shooting star went flying by and senna pointed up at it, "did you see it?!"
zuko laughed at how excited she was, "yeah i saw it."
do it zuko.
he grabbed her face with his hand. he looked down at her lips and then pulled her in, kissing her. sennas eyes widened and she pulled away.
zuko backed off, embarrassed, "sorry...that was stupid of me...why did i do that?" he ran a hand through his hair, mentally cursing himself off.
"no, it's not that. it's...um....sokka and i are..."
"oh."
"yeah...well it's getting late." senna said while standing up. zuko stood up too, "yeah it is."
"i have a feeling we will be staying here for a while so i can bring you some food if you'd like." she said with a smile.
"sure.....yeah."
senna nodded and walked away. zuko waited till she was gone to release the anger that was inside of him. "agh!" he aimed at a tree which erupted into flames, "stupid stupid stupid!"
[xxxxxxx]
senna made it back to the site in one piece. her leg was hurting pretty bad but she didn't mind. she spotted the gaang plus teo, the duke and haru all around the fire, talking.
senna walked over and sat in between sokka and aang, "hey, where have you been?" sokka whispered in her ear.
"with zuko. don't worry, he didn't do anything. we just talked." sokka nodded and noticed she was shivering so he wrapped his coat around her, "you need it more then i do."
senna smiled and planted a soft kiss on sokka then laid her head on his shoulder.
the rest of the night went by fast. the others all went to bed while senna stayed awake. she couldn't stop thinking about zuko and the kiss they had shared.
i can never tell sokka about this.