Avatar: The Fifth Element

"You wanna come with us? Why?" Sokka asked curiously.

Rumi sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "I just, I haven't left this place in a while," she looked behind her, "And there's a couple people here I'd like to avoid for a little while."

Sokka looked as if he was deep in thought, "Do you mind giving us some privacy for a minute? Team Avatar needs to discuss this."

Rumi rolled her eyes and walked off.

"Okay," Sokka started, "We haven't regrouped to talk about this ether stuff in a bit, so we should do that before she's glued to us, if we decide to let her join us."

"You're right. Well, Aang and I had a theory," Katara said. "During the day we went for a walk, and we saw that waterbending girl that was holding Chou's hand before, she was arguing with Kaito. Her name's Siku and apparently her and Kaito are siblings."

"Yeah! They both seemed really angry," Aang continued. "We've always been suspicious of Kaito, but he's not a girl. We know the etherbender is a girl, so what if it's Siku?!"

The others contemplated everything Aang and Katara explained, and then Toph shook her head.

"I don't think so. A sweet girl like Chou dating a crazed angry etherbender? That doesn't match up to me," Toph said doubtfully.

Sokka pondered for a moment, "I'm with Toph on this one. From what it seems, Kaito just doesn't like that his sister is dating a girl."

"Great!" Aang threw his hands in the air. "That was our only lead, now we're starting from scratch again."

"Aang, it's okay," Katara said. "We still don't even know what we're going to do when we find the etherbender."

"Exactly," Sokka cut in. "Now, back to the topic beforehand. Do we let Rumi come with us?"

"Yes," Zuko decided.

***

While the group discussed her fate, Rumi went back to her house and began packing a bag. They'll let me come. She shoved inside some extra clothes, and brought her small pocket knife for safety reasons.

When she jumped off the ladder, ready to return to the group, a rough hand grabbed her. Kaito.

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded, his grip tightening.

"Nowhere you need to know, let go of me," Rumi's voice wavered as she tried to remain calm.

"You're going somewhere with the Avatar's group, aren't you? You're going with Zuko?!" his voice rose.

"So what if I am? He's sweet."

"Sweetheart, you can do so much better than him, you have me after all," Kaito gently caressed Rumi's cheek with his strong hand, but she pulled away.

"What if I don't want you, Kaito?" she asked, her expression stone cold.

"You need me, Rumi!" by this point, his fingers were digging into her, and if she wasn't wearing long sleeves, Rumi's sure he would've drawn blood.

"Let go of me!"

He didn't. Kaito just pulled her closer, smiling menacingly.

Wrong decision, Rumi thought as a surge of energy jolted from her body, sending Kaito crashing into a nearby tree.

Rumi took off running. She could hear Kaito behind her, but she was faster, and she soon made it back to the group and Appa.

"We were just about to come looking for you," Zuko said, "Are you okay?"

"Can I come?" Rumi asked urgently, ignoring Zuko's question.

Aang nodded and everyone quickly jumped onto Appa, "Yip Yip," and they took off.

Once Rumi's anger from her spat with Kaito simmered down, her fear of flying returned, and she slid over to sit beside Zuko.

"To answer your question, yes, I'm okay. I'm more concerned about you, you took quite the blow from that boulder," Rumi asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," but Zuko was obviously lying, as he clutched his side and winced.

"You've probably got some major bruising, I'll have a look at that when we get to Ba Sing Se," Rumi remarked.

Zuko's eyes widened, "Y—you will?"

Rumi looked at him and gave a half smile, "Of course."

Now, Zuko was both excited and terrified to arrive at Ba Sing Se.

***

"We're here guys, wake up!" Aang shouted, and everyone jerked awake.

Everyone, that is, except for Rumi, who hadn't slept a wink, and was absolutely exhausted.

"The tea shop! It was destroyed!" Zuko exclaimed, jumping off Appa and attempting to run to it, but his injury got in the way and his left leg gave out.

"Zuko!" Rumi ran up to him and helped him up, "Just lean on me," she huffed when she felt Zuko's weight on her, and wavered a little.

"Sorry if I'm heavy," he blushed.

"Nonsense, I didn't sleep, so I'm just tired," Rumi said to reassure him that it was okay.

Zuko smiles sheepishly as the group walked up to the door and entered the tea shop.

"Zuko, it's been too long!"

-

A/N ~ yayy it's Iroh! i don't have much else to say after this chapter, but i like the idea of having an author's note after chapters. i like reading books with authors notes too, so i'll keep doin that.
anyways, hope y'all are enjoying this. don't forget to comment & vote!
—Blaise⚡️