A/N: Hello, peoples! For those of you who had been watching me via my Hunger Games story... I'm working on putting it up, but it won't happen any time soon. Sorry! For those of you who just opened this and have absolutely no idea of what I'm talking about, welcome to my story! I have no doubts a lot of you will be left with questions buzzing in your heads throughout the whole story. The only thing I ask is that you don't get mad if I don't answer them, 'cause I will most probably answer them all sooner or later.
So... As most writers, I ask you to read, review, and don't flame. All flames will fuel Sera's fire, and that girl does NOT need more fire power.
I feel like I'm forgetting something... Oh, yes! If you happen to stumble across CaskettFanGrl's story General Iroh's Academy in Avatar: The Last Airbender section of Cartoons, I suggest you read it. CFG is a good real life friend of mine, and I submitted a few of my OCs into her story that will be used.
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING! Well, execpt Sera, Akira, their house, this plotline... You know, the usual stuff.
"Let me go! Let me go, let me go, LET ME GO!" the little six-year-old screamed, thrashing in her captor's arms. Her curly black hair was a mess, eyes squeezed shut as she fought as hard as she could.
The man holding her chuckled darkly, giving her a hard shake before grabbing both arms and legs to keep her still. "Not likely, brat. You shouldn't be wandering around alone. After all, there are bad people looking to snatch you up at night."
Tears leaked from her eyes as the burns on her hands and feet were aggravated. "Let go of me, you big bullies!" She tried to turn and bite the man, but couldn't quite reach in the position she was in.
A figure leaped from one of the surrounding buildings, landing in front of them. Though the darkness and shadows obscured the features of the person, the small size gave away the age. "Let. Her. Go," a young female voice ordered, firm and low.
"And what's a little girl like you gonna do to make us?" the first girl's other captor questioned, laughing with his friends.
None could see the vicious smile on her face, but they heard it in her voice. "This." There was the sound of metal whispering over sheaths, then the older girl was leaping through the grown men, all of them benders, leaving behind bleeding cuts from the two swords the wielded, and falling unconscious to the ground when she hit them with the pommel of one of the swords. Soon enough, the two girls were the only ones awake, and the older one sheathed her swords and hurried over to the younger one. "Are you alright?" she asked, suddenly sounding shy.
Curly black hair shifted as the girl nodded quietly. Tears slipped from her still-closed eyes before she sniffed. After a couple of seconds, she slowly blinked them open, teardrops hanging on her lashes. What could have been a matching set of eyes was most definitely not, one eye a bright gold and the other a pale, almost white shade of gold. "Who... Who are you?" she whispered, shrinking in on herself.
The older girl shoved her questions that bubbled to be asked forcibly down her throat. "My name's Akira. What's your name? What are you doing alone out here?"
"Seraphina, but I don't like my full name. I like Sera a lot more." After a second of silence, Sera blinked. "And... Mommy and Grammy told me to run. They said the bad people had found them, and that I had to get away." Her lower lip trembled as more tears streamed down her face. "I was almost on another street when I heard Mommy scream, and Grammy yelling at the bad people, and then the house exploded."
"Oh, you poor thing!" Akira exclaimed. She pulled Sera into a hug, then looked around at the gang around them. "We should go. C'mon, I'll take care of you. No one will ever hurt you or touch you again."
"Hey, you! Give me back that bread!" The black-haired eight year old took off at a run, weaving through the crowd as the angry baker stormed after him. He ducked into a shaded alley, hiding in the shadows as his pursuer disappeared, still looking for him.
"There's an easier way to do that, y'know," came a voice from above his head. The boy started and glared up at the girl hanging upside down, dual swords securely sheathed at her hips.
Glaring, he backed away and held tight to his prize, forming a flame over his open hand, ready to toss it if she dared come closer. "Oh yeah? And what would you know about stealing?" he sneered.
Akira rolled her eyes, turning right-side-up on the beam she was on, laying down with her head on her arms and a leg on either side. "Way more than you do, kid. For instance, never steal from the baker unless he's with a customer. Otherwise you'll always be seen, and the bread will be watched for days after."
His jaw dropped. "Kid? Kid? You aren't older than I am!"
The brunette scrunched her nose and sniffed. "Hmph. I'm nine and a half. I know I'm older than you are. You're, what, seven? Seven and a half?"
"I'm eight," he shot at her.
Rolling her eyes again, Akira shifted her position so she was more comfortable. "Big whoop. You obviously haven't been on the streets very long if you didn't know about the baker. I've been here since I was five."
Just as the boy was about to answer, an excited voice called from the corner of the alley, "Hey, Mako, guess what? I made a friend!" A smaller boy, thicker built and with green instead of amber eyes, emerged tugging a curly-haired girl behind him. The girl was protesting slightly, her voice pitched just a bit above normal to show she was panicked.
Suddenly her head snapped up to where Akira was, a grin spreading over her features. "Kiki!" she exclaimed. Without thinking, she gathered herself up and jumped to latch onto the wall where a piece was missing, climbing up to the beam her friend was on. "Have you found food? What'd you get? Who's this? Is he a new friend? Did you actually make a new friend? Is he cute? How long has he been on the streets? Why is he holding bread? Do you have bread? Oooh! Did ya get any mooncake? I've been wanting mooncake for forever, please tell me you got some!"
While the two boys below blinked in confusion, the brunette began to answer her younger friend's questions easily. "Yes; a couple of sausage links; dunno, but apparently his name is Mako; no; no; wait, what? No!; a very short amount of time; he stole the bread, but did it at a time he could get caught; no; sorry, there was none today." Akira took a big breath and then raised an eyebrow at the two below. "Speaking of friends, who's this?"
"I'm -" the green eyed boy started, only for Sera to speak over him.
"This is Bolin. I'm guessing that's his brother Mako beside him, too," she explained, pointing to each in turn, but slightly off. "Anyway, Bo's an earthbender! Can you believe it? It's not often that we get to meet earthbenders, but he's reeeeeeeeeeeeeally cool!"
"You're a firebender," Akira called down to the dumbfounded brothers. Mako gave a curt nod, his eyes narrowing to slits.
"So what?" he demanded.
Sera and Akira shared a glance before the older girl jumped down, bending her knees and rolling forward to make the landing easier. She caught the younger girl as she jumped as well, setting her small body slightly behind her and to the side. "Do you think you could help Sera with her firebending?"
"I can't! I can't do it, I'll never be able to do it!" Eight year old Sera plopped to the ground, removing her shoes and cradling her burnt hands to her body. Tears streamed down her face as she continued to yell. "Firebenders don't burn themselves! I'm not a proper firebender, something's wrong with me, I'll never be a proper firebender!"
Mako frowned, coming over and resting a hand on her shoulder. "If you say you can't, you can't. You just have to believe you can, and before you know it you'll be able to bend without burning yourself."
Sera glared at him, shrugging off his hand and standing up, wincing at the pain in her feet. She limped over to the pile of old blankets that was her bed, dropping down and turning her back to the world.
"I don't know what's wrong," she heard Mako say later, when they probably thought she was asleep. "She's right in saying firebenders don't burn themselves, not even a baby would burn themselves. But I don't know what to do."
She heard Akira sigh, then sit down with her back to the alley wall to be face-to-face with the older brother. "She's always been like that. It took her months before she showed me her bending abilities, just a couple of sparks, and I've tried helping her as much as I can. But I'm not a firebender, I'm not even a bender. I'm just a non-bending girl who knows how to wield dual swords."
There was a beat of silence. "I can't teach her any more. We've been at this for nearly a year, and I can't stand to see her burns get worse and worse. She's like my little sister, and I won't be the cause of her pain."
Another sigh. "I guess it's for the best. What are we going to tell her?"
"She already knows," Bolin said, startling Sera. The seven year old earthbender was glaring at them, and when she sat up he pulled her into a hug as she cried silent tears. "You guys are mean. At least make sure she's asleep if you're going to talk about her like that."
"They've given up on me," she whispered into her younger friend's shoulder. With a sniff, she pulled herself from his arms and took off deeper into the alley, taking turns without even thinking of where she was going.
With a gasp, Sera abruptly stood up, scaring Akira who was meditating with her. "Please, don't make me do it again," she begged her friend. "I refuse to see their faces any more, especially after what we did to them." She watched as her friend stood from through her right eye, and her heat signature from her left eye. She was far from unused to this, as she had been born that way. The only thing she hated was when she went into crowds, because her left eye's 'sight' lagged just a bit from her right eye's.
"Alright," Akira said, putting her hand on the hilt of one of her swords. "But it's been nine years. You have to get over it sooner rather than later.
"I know, I know. I just... I just don't think I can stand seeing the looks on their faces. It's too painful." Groaning, she gingerly rubbed her temples. "And now I have a major headache. I'm going to go see if we have any tea left."
Akira stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. Are you alright? Something's been off about you lately, and -"
The touch made Sera freeze, and she unconsciously cradled her hands to her chest and shrugged it off. "I'm fine," she said tersely. "If you need me, I'll be nursing a headache. Don't you have to go to work or something?"
"I'll be back after work. Don't get into any trouble." Reluctance was in her movements as she placed her swords in their rack, then got into her work clothes. She left without another word.
Sighing, Sera banged her head on the table. "I hate lying to her," she said, voice muffled in the wood.
