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Except for a couple of visits to the capital of the Earth Kingdom –the first one to meet with her friends on General Iroh’s tea shop one month after the end of the war, and then other as a representative of the Kyoshi Warriors during Earth King Kuei's (second) coronation–, Suki had never spent much time in the city of Ba Sing Se. Not that she would have liked to anyway, after listening to Sokka’s stories about the brain-washing carried on by the Dai Li and the strict methods of segregation by class and social status that divided the population of the city. She had had enough of captivity and oppression after being Princess Azula’s prisoner and staying at the Boiling Rock. She was fairly content living in Kyoshi Island and peacefully training her Warriors, thank you very much. And also spending too much time with Sokka, if her now-more-developed-than-ever sarcastic side was to be asked.
At the moment of her third visit to Ba Sing Se, Suki was attending a party thrown to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the reign of Fire Lord Ozai and the One Hundred Year War. She was there as a War Hero, an Honored Guest of the same importance of Aang, Zuko, Katara, Toph and Sokka. After all, she had been destroying Fire Nation airships with Sokka and Toph on the day of Sozin’s Comet. In fact, she had saved their lives that day after single-handily taking control of one of the airships –a fact she would always use to shut Sokka up when he was being particularly obtuse, of course. She wasn’t above bringing that up when her boyfriend started getting too cocky.
Surely helping to destroy the machines that were aiding the firebenders with their mission of burning the Earth Kingdom to the ground and saving both the proclaimed Best Earthbender in the World and Mr. Hero Strategist Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe (as Sokka requested to be announced in official events ever since the war ended. Suki didn’t miss the chance to mock him for it) would grant her some recognition in the public eye, right?
Suki stared at the drawing placed at the entrance of the party. It was a striking picture portraying her friends in combat: Aang was battling Fire Lord Ozai in the middle while Zuko and Katara fought Azula on the left side, Toph and Sokka entering an enemy airship on the right. The artist had obviously spent a significant amount of time in the painting; from the shapes to the coloring, everything about it was lovely.
If only she had been included.
Well, it seemed like these days nothing was enough to be remembered. She observed how the giant salon of the party was decorated, with the colors of the four nations and more giant pictures of the members of the ‘Team Avatar’. No signals of her existence there either. Suki sighed and went back to staring at the picture and scowling. After some minutes of inactivity on her part, Sokka finished talking with the group of excited boys that had grabbed his attention from the moment they came into the party.
“Hey Suki, let’s go and see if my sister has arrived yet –what are you looking at?” Her boyfriend found himself confronted with the offending piece of art. “Oh. I see.”
“The first time I let it slide because I thought it was an honest mistake from the artists. The second time I wasn’t very pleased. But after all the occasions when I’m overlooked in the official depictions of the war? It stops being funny” Suki deadpanned, still frowning. She didn’t want to make it that much a deal, but being ignored had gone from the ‘slightly hurting my ego’ to the ‘this is has become a point of honor’ category.
“You know what? You’re right! I will complain to the people who organized this party!” Oh Sokka. Suki smiled fondly and turned around to see him dramatically storm out to find the Earth King. She always found funny how his voice cracked slightly everytime he had one of his outbursts.
She was not pleased with being forgotten, but she would have preferred to deal with the problem in a more subtle way, instead of the screaming-and-pouting approach Sokka was apparently going for. However, it was too late for that now. Suki proceeded to straighten her shoulders and follow Sokka's path with the dignity of the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. If she was going to complain, she needed to be as intimidating as she could.
“So, what got Snoozles in such a fuss?” Suki turned to her right to find that Toph had joined her. The earthbender was grinning, dressed in her normal outfit that contrasted with the formality of her dress and the ones of the rest of the attending public. Now that she was a national hero, Toph claimed to have enough power to justify her disregard for the rules of behavior set by the nobility and the higher classes. Suki smiled at her.
“It seems that the people in charge of the decoration forgot that I was there with you on the day of Sozin’s Comet.”
“Huh, I guess I missed that when I stopped to enjoy the the paintings on the walls.” Suki laughed. Always count on Toph to make blind jokes “Yes, that must suck. I get why someone would get angry. I would have thrown some rocks at their heads by now. HEY YOU!”
The people that had congregated around Sokka immediately turned around to where both girls were standing. Sokka stopped the angry rambling he had been giving to the Earth King’s advising team and glared at Toph for interrumpting him.
“Thanks for giving me your attention.” Toph smirked. “Now, I want to explain something to you. The girl beside me is Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. Her group saved and fed the Avatar’s flying bison when he got lost in the Earth Kingdom. Then she fought princess Azula so Appa could avoid being captured by the Fire Nation. Then she endured prison and helped Sokka, his father and Fire Lord Zuko in their escape from the Boiling Rock. Want more? Sokka and I wouldn’t be here right now screaming at your incompetent asses if it wasn’t for her. I don’t care what you do or if you make Sokka stick an awful doddle of her in all those paintings, but you better include her in the decoration and hail her as a damn hero. Now.”
The complete silence that followed the rant was interrupted by Sokka’s cough. “I think I have a better idea.” He spoke to the royal earthbenders that had been listening to the conversation and signaled the middle of the huge room. Toph smiled, punched Suki’s shoulder and went to give directions to the benders.
Well, Suki thought, it was nice to let your friends praise you for a change. She smirked, glad that she hadn’t had to use more forceful methods to make those Earth Kingdom artists remember her existence next time. After all, the fan she was using today was too pretty and flimsy and she wouldn’t have liked to ruin it. But if it came to using force to scare them a little... She wouldn’t be a proud descendant of Kyoshi if she wasn’t willing to stand her ground.
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Later, when Aang and Katara arrived to the room and met with their friends, the Avatar couldn’t help but comment on the decoration. “Nice statue, Suki. Those sculptors really did a good job, don’t you think Katara? Even though I would have liked to have a statue of me too…”
In answer to that, Suki gave him a radiant smile and grabbed Sokka’s hand.