Girl Gets Girl

By: RebLaw

Disclaimer:

I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender (if I did there'd be at least some lesbian subtext somewhere).

If you're offended by the idea of two girls being in a relationship don't read this and complain to me in the comments (and why did you click on a fanfic with a title like "Girl Gets Girl" anyway? you clearly are a closet lesbian fan).

Chapter 1: Welcome to Pineweb Forest

Azula was lounging around the Earth Kingdom throne room, well; actually, it was her throne room now. She was claiming to be the Earth King's niece and heir. The lie worked very well, the Dai Li were sufficient in silencing those who knew better and would talk. No one asked questions.

"What was that waterbender girl's name again?" Azula asked, all of a sudden, a devilish smile gracing her face. "I remember it sounded funny."

"Katara," Zuko answered plainly. "Her brother is Sokka, the blind girl is Toph, and the Avatar is named Aang."

"Sokka's cute," Ty Lee said cheerfully, mostly to herself.

Azula nodded, memorizing all the names, a slight smirk gracing her lips. "It sounds like you know a lot about them."

Zuko shrugged. He had been chasing them for months after all. Of course he knew more about them than she did, it was only natural.

"Tell me everything you know about them," Azula said, her eyes almost flashing as thoughts raced through her mind. "We can come up with a way for you to capture the Avatar."

Zuko's eyes widened slightly, he couldn't believe it, it was like a dream coming true. Not only returning home a war hero, but also returning home with the Avatar. There was no doubt his honor would be restored, and increased.

Azula raised an eyebrow. Without missing a beat she said in an exasperated tone, "Oh please, don't tell me that you have a crush on her."

"Who?" Zuko asked, befuddled, pausing a moment. "Katara? No, of course not."

"So spill it!" Azula said all the playfulness a cat has when it has cornered a mouse.

"We should take the Earth King to the Northern Water Tribe," Sokka said. "It's the only safe place left."

They had just gotten past the last wall. Toph was still fairly petrified clinging to Appa, As was everyone except Aang, he was holding on to the reigns.

"No Earth King has ever been out of the Earth Kingdom," the king of the fallen country said quietly. Besides tradition, running away didn't strike him as particularly kingly.

"Yeah, well, no Earth King has ever had his kingdom fall," Toph rebutted, tactlessly.

Katara grimaced at Toph's remark and immediately began to work on damage control, "Er, what Toph means is that these extreme circumstances call for extreme measures."

"Hmmm," the Earth King mumbled. "Can I have more time to think about this?"

"Sure," Aang said, smiling a little. "We can stay in the Northern Air Temple for a bit."

Aang figured that the Northern Air Temple was both safe, and an unlikely place for the Fire Nation to come looking for the Earth King. Aang was proud of himself for that idea, he felt almost as clever as Sokka.

"I'd rather stay in my kingdom," the king said, honestly. "At least for the time being."

"Are you crazy?!" Sokka exclaimed, disbelieving how all of his comrades seemed to be more sympathetic with the king than with him, even though he had the superior reason and logic here. "If you stay here, the psycho fire-witch will find you! And then what?"

"Well," Katara, playing the peacemaker once again, said. "How about we stay and protect him, for a little bit."

"We don't have time," Sokka stated shortly. "Remember, we only have four months to get together an army. Four! F-O-U-R! The Northern Water Tribe will be our best bet for help now."

"How long do you need?" Katara asked the Earth King.

"I suppose a couple weeks would be sufficient time," the king said quietly.

"Fine," Sokka grumbled. Two weeks wouldn't be the end of the world, and if it were, it wouldn't be his fault.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," Ty Lee said smiling. "I've always wanted to have a waterbender as a friend, and her brother is cu-ute!"

Azula smiled tightly, and looked over to her other stooge.

Mai shrugged, and asked, "Does the plan involve anything that's not boring?"

Azula smirked and shook her head.

"And you really think that this plan will work?" Zuko asked sharply.

"Of course it will," Azula said in an arrogant tone. "My plans always work. That's why we're in the throne room of Ba Sing Se, after all."

"I don't think Katara will betray Aang," Zuko said softly. "She hasn't before; I don't see why she would now."

Azula shrugged, unconcerned with her brother's thoughts on the matter. It wasn't like he could ever appreciate the genius that she was. His failure told her nothing, other than he was a failure, which she already knew.

"I'm going to leave tomorrow," the fire princess stated. "I want you three to stay here and keep any rebellions down and keep the troupes in line."

Turning to Zuko she added, in the kindest voice she could muster. "I think it's best this way, so when you return to Father you'll be both a war hero and have the Avatar in hand."

Zuko shrugged. He didn't like being in the city. "Do you want help?"

Azula shook her head. "No, this is something I must do alone."

Zuko frowned, he still didn't trust Azula. Not that he had that much to lose.

"We should stop for the night," the Earth King said hesitantly.

"But we're barely out of the city," Sokka complained.

"I follow the old proverb," the king stated. "Early to bed, early to rise. It has helped my family in our duty as the kings of Ba Sing Se for eons."

"I guess we can stop for the night," Aang said, patting Appa before instructing him to descend. "Appa's probably getting tired, it's been a pretty eventful day."

"Let's land over there," Sokka said, pointing to a clearing in a dense pine forest. "It'll be safest."

"Yip Yip Appa," Aang said as he steered the bison down to the clearing.

"This place smells funny," Toph said.

The gang had unpacked and were setting up camp for the night. Aang and Sokka were arguing about who would give up their sleeping bag for the Earth King.

"We're in a pine forest," Katara explained, smiling. "Doesn't pine smell nice?"

Toph's eyes widened and she earthbended a circular earth wall around the group. "We HAVE to leave. NOW!"

"Why?" Katara asked. "What's wrong with pine trees?"

"This place is dangerous!" Toph said, fright obvious in her voice. After taking a breath she asked, "This forest only pine trees, right?"

"Yeah," Sokka replied after looking around. "Are you feeling alright Toph?"

"I'd feel a lot better if we got out of here," the earthbender said as she began to throw things up onto Appa missing as often as not.

Just before Sokka's green bag would've landed on Appa's back, a branch from a nearby pine tree broke through Toph's earth wall and caught it.

"DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?!" Sokka exclaimed as he ducked behind Toph.

"No," Toph replied her voice dripping with irony.

"We should leave," the Earth King said nervously, as he looked for assistance.

"Yes," Katara said as she began climbing up onto Appa,. She turned around to help the others. At least that was her intent. But she was pushed off of Appa by an extending pine branch. She landed on the ground with a little yelp.

Another and another extended over the bison and over Toph's earth-wall. Aang just had enough time to airbend himself and Katara out of there.

"Sokka!" Katara cried as she soared into the air with Aang. "We can't leave them."

"I know," Aang said, as they hovered on his flier above their friends. "I just don't know how much I can do."

"Toph learned to metalbend, maybe I can learn to plantbend?" Katara suggested with a hint of desperation in her voice.

The pine trees' branches formed a canopy over what had been the clearing Aang set himself and Katara down there. "Okay, let's save our friends."

Katara smiled, and nodded, "Let's save our family."

She closed her eyes and tried to visualize the water in the pant's branches. She slowly moved her arms, trying to bend the water, focusing on the water in the branches. Unfortunately the braches did not even bend.

"Let me try," Aang suggested in an all too optimistic tone. "After all, I am the Avatar."

The Avatar did not do any better.

Katara raised her eyebrows and said, "Don't worry Aang, maybe you can learn plantbending from the swamp people after you finish mastering the four elements."

Aang laughed nervously, "I'll be sure to do that. And learn metalbending from Toph too while I'm at it."

Azula was out of the city. She had the Dai Li give her a private escort out, to ensure that no one saw her leave. She instructed the Dai Li that Mai was to be in charge in case anything came up.

Mai was the one she trusted to be least destructive with power. Zuko, well he couldn't be trusted, and Ty Lee was too unfocused. Iroh would've made the best choice, as he had military experience, but alas he was being too foolish to join her side.

At the outer ring, Azula bid farewell to the Dai Li agents who had escorted her and accepted the ostrich-horse offered to her. She rode in the direction the Dai Li intelligence informed her that the Avatar's bison had been seen.

"We have to find a way to get those branches out of the way," Sokka said. He had thrown his boomerang up at the canopy, only to have it caught in a branch, much to his annoyance.

Toph's eyes were wide with fight but the rest of her seemed to be frozen and the Earth King looked around as if in a daze.

"What do we do now?" the king asked Sokka.

Sokka grimaced, "Just wait here your highness. I'm going to see if it's possible to climb a tree to get out of here."

Sokka began to climb the tallest pine. He got up fairly close to the canopy when its branches began to extend pushing him away from the tree trunk. He tried to move out of the branch's way, but more branches began to grow towards him from other trees. Sokka landed flat on his back.

"I don't think this is going to work guys."

The Earth King shrugged and looked to Toph.

"We're going to die here," Toph said softly. "This is Pineweb Forest."

"I've never heard of any 'Pineweb forest'," the king said softly, looking down at Toph he asked, "What do you know of it?"

"It's what my nanny used to threaten me with when I was younger," Toph said plainly. Imitating her overly strict nanny, she continued, "'Eat your vegetables or you'll get carted off to Pineweb Forest!' Why do you think I was so well behaved in front of my parents?"

"That's nice," Sokka said sharply, trying to ignore the fatalism. "So what do we do now?"

"Wait for the branches to skewer us and/or the pinecone-spiders to come," Toph said pessimistically.

"Spiders?" Sokka asked, seeing a ray of hope. "Don't worry about them, I can kill them."

"They're almost as big as me and covered with a hard shell," Toph said, almost snickering. "And there are millions of them in these woods."

"Really?" the Earth King asked nervously. "It's a shame that we can't burn this forest down. To think, I let it exist and thrive during my kingship."

"I'm going to die without ever having been kissed by a boy," Toph said in an uncharacteristically pouty voice, her eyes pointed towards Sokka.

Azula smirked as she watched Aang use his airbending to fly into the air and then dive-bomb the branches, trying to break them. It was futile. Katara stood by watching helplessly. The Avatar really did still need to learn firebending. That much was obvious.

Her plan would work perfectly, Azula realized. As if there was ever any doubt.