I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or Bionicle (though I wish I did) and no copyright infringement is intended.
If you have not read "The Champion of Ice" then you need to turn around a read it first. For those of you who have don't worry, "The Warrior of Fire" is in the works, but since I'm in college now it will be easier to work on something short… like this… in between classes and homework and attempting to have a normal social life (being a Bionicle/Lego fan is apparently not "normal" for twenty year olds… is it just me or is the entire world crazy?). Enjoy and please review.
Settling down
Matoro took a step back to admire his work. The house that he had built for Katara and himself was finally finished. Living in the Southern Water tribe made it easy to build; he just had to use his natural powers to make an ice house. He was a little proud of his work. It was nothing special, but he had made it. Sokka walked by and joined his brother-in-law.
"Wow, that didn't take long." He remarked. Matoro nodded.
"Yup, ice is my thing after all. As soon as I knew what Katara wanted it to look like it was easy." Sokka grinned and nodded.
"Yeah, I hope for your sake that you got it right." Matoro looked at him oddly.
"I should have, this is my sixth try." Sokka's mouth dropped.
"She had you redo it… six times!" he stammered.
"Soon to be seven…" Sokka and Matoro turned around to see Katara coming out of the house. "I think that one bedroom might not be enough." Matoro's smile slowly disappeared.
"But… Katara, there's only two of us. Why would we need more than one bedroom?"
"For the kids of course!" she explained. "It's not like they'll sleep on the floor in front of the fire. No, we need at least two more rooms." She tapped her hand to her cheek thoughtfully. "And the living room could be bigger. And a larger door wouldn't hurt either." Katara continued to list the changes as Matoro drooped lower and lower. Sokka patted his back sympathetically.
"Sorry bro, I think you're going to be working for a while longer."
"I guess it wouldn't occur to you to help me?" he asked bitterly.
"Sorry, I can't use magical bending powers." Sokka smiled. "You're on your own."
…
Solek pulled on the rope and tried to get the roof in place.
"Come on, just a little bit higher." He grunted as his feet pinwheeled in an attempt to move the large wooden roof into position. Tank sighed and put his shoulder underneath it and lifted it up the rest of the way. He went so fast that Solek fell down. "I did it!" Solek cheered. Then he turned around and saw Tank holding it up. "Oh, thanks Tank." Tank nodded and tried to smile. Solek then began to nail in the roof. Toph came by and couldn't help laughing at the structure. Even without seeing eyes she could tell that this thing would fall over if a strong breeze hit it.
"Um, Solek… are you ok?" He smiled and waved at her.
"Hi Toph… what do you think of my house?" he asked.
"Solek… you do know that there are other options to you building a house… right?"
"We, I can't move in with you, so what other options are there?" he asked. Toph tapped her cheek thoughtfully. Suddenly she smiled.
"I have an idea."
…
Umbra took another look at the strange devise that Mai was showing him.
"No."
"Come on Umbra, Sokka built it for us as a wedding gift."
"And that's what worries me. I can get around well enough with a crutch anyway." Mai sighed at her husband's stubbornness.
"Why are you being so difficult?" she asked. "It's not like I'm asking you to wear pink or something like that."
"It's just that… this… this… THING… is so… so…"
"So what?" she asked. "Come on, please?" Mai tried her best to look pitiful. Umbra smiled at her attempts. There was no way that he would ever think of her as weak. He sighed.
"All right, but only because you asked nicely." Mai smiled and moved the wheelchair up to the side of Umbra's sickbed. Umbra slowly and cautiously lowered himself into the chair. Even when he was fully seated he looked at it as if it would explode at any moment. Persuaded that it wouldn't kill him right away he looked up and smiled at Mai. "I guess it will do." Mai smiled.
"Great… now we're finally ready to go." Umbra looked around the room that he had lived in for the past month and smiled. It did feel good to finally get out from the hospital. The only time he had ever left the room in the past month had been for the wedding ceremony a week ago, and even then he had used a crutch to get around. He would never admit it but he hated using the crutch and was secretly glad that he would never have to see it again.
"So, where to?" Umbra smiled as he took his wife's hand. Mai smiled secretly.
"You'll see."
…
Solek looked up at the building that Toph had lead him to.
"Really, why do I need to get a 'job'" he asked.
"Because you need to be able to support yourself, and me, eventually, if you want to live in this world." Toph blushed. "Didn't you have a job in your world?"
"Yeah, don't get killed by a Makuta." Solek said wryly. This earned him a punch in the gut from his violent girlfriend. "Ok," he wheezed. "A job might not be that bad… but what would I be doing?" Toph smiled.
"Let's go ask the owner." She led Solek into the tea shop and walked to the back. Solek could see Iroh busily making tea in the back.
"Maybe this won't be so bad." He thought to himself. At least he liked Iroh. The old firebender looked up and smiled at his two young friends as they came in.
"Toph and Solek, what brings you here?"
"Solek needs a job and a place to stay." Toph explained.
"I built a house!" Solek protested.
"You built three walls and a roof that I bet has already fallen over." Toph smiled. Solek really didn't have a retort for that so he decided to be quiet. Anyway, anything he said could and would be used against him at some point. Iroh scratched his beard thoughtfully.
"Well, I could always use more servers… and I do have an extra bunk at my apartment… I think it's a grand idea." Toph smiled.
"Thanks Iroh, you might want to teach Solek a little about this world as well."
"Like what?" Iroh asked. Toph leaned in and whispered in his ear.
"Like how to hide his arm." She smiled. Iroh took a quick glance at Solek and saw what she was talking about. His metal arm was plainly visible and even now a few of his servers were looking at it uneasily. He smiled and winked at Toph.
"So I take it you and your family has finished moving into your new house?" Toph nodded.
"Yeah, ever since dad got a government position they've been pretty busy, which leaves me a lot of time by myself." Iroh nodded. He knew that this was what Toph liked anyway. Solek finished tying on an apron and walked over.
"Well, I guess I'm taken care of… but what about Tank?" Solek asked. Toph smiled.
"Don't worry, I've got him over at my house with Appa and Momo, he should be fine." Solek didn't look convinced but he obviously wasn't going to win any arguments against Toph, at least, not yet.
…
Umbra looked around in surprise at their new home. Mai smiled happily.
"Now, I know it isn't much… it's actually just a summer home for my family. But at least it's on Ember Island." Umbra shook his head.
"Wow, when your parents said that they would give us a big gift for our wedding I never expected it to be a house!" Mai smiled happily.
"Yeah, it was nice of them wasn't it?" Umbra nodded it looked like after a lifetime of stress and adventure he would finally be able to relax. He smiled and placed his bag down.
"It's good to finally be home." Suddenly the door opened and Tom-Tom ran out.
"Unka Umbra!" he cried happily as he launched himself at the injured guardian. Umbra didn't have time to move before the air was nearly knocked out of him by the very solid two year old landing on his lap.
"I see he learned how to walk…" Umbra gasped. Mai's father and mother came out to greet the couple.
"Mai, Umbra, welcome home." Her father smiled.
"Thanks dad, but, why are you here?" Mai asked.
"We thought that it would be a good idea to get to know your new husband better." Mai's mother said while picking up the wriggling Tom-Tom from Umbra's wheelchair. "And we haven't see you for months dear… we missed you." Mai and Umbra exchanged quick glances… this might not work out the way they had planned.
"But dad…" Mai said. "I thought that you said you would give us some time to get used to the house."
"I did, but I didn't say that I'd let you do it alone." He smiled. "Plus, now that I have a son in law it would probably be a good idea for us to talk about what he plans to do to support you." Mai sighed in defeat. This was not going to be fun.
…
Matoro finally finished the house. He was tired to an extreme; this was his tenth house that day. He had had it. If Katara asked him to rebuild the house one more time then he would most likely go crazy. He turned around to see her looking at the house. She was smiling.
"Now that is a perfect house!" she said happily. Matoro breathed a huge sigh of relief and sat down on the ground.
"FINALLY! I never want to build another house, ever." Katara smiled and helped him up.
"Well, there is a positive side to finishing it…"
"Really, what specifically?" Matoro asked tiredly.
"Why don't you come and find out?" Katara winked seductively at him as she walked inside. Matoro looked after her. He knew what she was trying to do. Sokka walked past carrying some firewood and looked at Matoro.
"So, you finished the house?"
"Yeah." Matoro answered, still staring at the door.
"Sorry about that, Katara can be a little picky some times."
"Doesn't matter." Matoro said.
"Why?" Sokka asked in surprise.
"She's about to make it worth it." With that Matoro walked inside and closed the door. Sokka stared in confusion until he realized what was going on.
"Oh gosh… I did not need that image in my head! Thanks a lot Matoro!" he yelled and walked away trying his hardest to forget what he had just figured out.
I hoped you enjoyed that, and don't worry. I'm still working on "The Warrior of Fire." but this will probably be updated faster.