Rainbow's Gift (Avatar The Last Airbender Fanfic)

52. Goodbyes

"Taliya, it's time to wake up." I heard Katara's soft words, sensing her near me. I was still sleepy. Why was she waking me up this early?

"No." I managed to say.

"You better wake up or I will water whip you out of bed." She said, her tone becoming sterner with each word. I knew Katara never bluffed, and you wouldn't want to be on her bad side. I slowly crawled out of bed, groaning. I was giving her an easy time. I wondered how she was going to wake up Toph and Sokka.

She left as I slowly walked to my water tribe clothes that looked like they were washed and folded. I slowly put them on. We had slept in the palace because of King Kuei's request to do so. He had said that we would have breakfast with him in the morning but I hadn't expected it to be this early.

Once I had worn my clothes, I ran back to bed. It wasn't until a few minutes later I heard a knock on the door. I didn't bother to get it but it didn't stop the person from entering my room. I felt myself being gently lifted from the bed into the person's arms. Now that he was walking, I could tell who it was.

"Aang, it's too early to wake up. And not cool stealing me from my bed." I croaked. I heard him slightly chuckle.

"I'm just following Katara's orders. You know how she gets if you don't follow them." He said and I frowned. I knew he was right but it was too early to reason.

"You know...you gotta tell her how you feel. Not being her assistant to wake us up." I looked up at him and saw a grin.

"I will tell her, as soon as you tell Sokka your feelings." He said and I groaned.

"Are we seriously going to continue doing that? I'll tell him when you tell her and vice versa." He didn't answer because he stopped and put me down with a grumpy Toph. I didn't even greet her good morning. I was scared she'd hit me with a rock if I tried. Katara came sooner than later with a complaining Sokka and it was when I realized I hadn't tied my hair up.

"Your hair is fine." She said as she ran her fingers through my hair to probably straighten it.

"But...."

"We have no time, we're already late. Getting you kids out of bed is hard enough." She said as Sokka and I gasped and Toph growled. Then.... the argument started.

"Who are you to call us kids?"

"You're younger than Sokka and I."

"It's not right to wake someone up this early."

"You always act like a mom!"

"I'm the responsible one."

"Guys stop arguing." I heard Aang say but it didn't work. We argued all the way to the dining hall. We were now tired, sleepy, and grumpy. Well except for Katara and maybe her faithful assistant. Strands of my hair kept on falling on my face and I had to push them back as we entered the dining hall. Aang and Katara sat on one side of the huge table and Sokka, Toph, and I sat on the other side of the table. The king wasn't even here.

The king did eventually come, and he asked us about our travels during breakfast. It was fun to relive the fun moments we had together. Once we were done, we were interrupted by a man who looked like a general.

"Your majesty." He said as he walked to us." I apologize for the interruption." He bowed to the king.

"This is General How." The king informed us. "He's the leader of the council of five, my highest ranking generals."

"We searched Long Feng's office. I think we found something that would interest everybody." The general said and I looked at my friends and then the king, wondering what would be so interesting. We followed the general to Long Feng's underground office and it looked the same as we last saw it.