A/N: Hey all! Before I start, I thought I'd clear the air real quick. This story does not follow the storyline for DC, though this story does use Destiny's Crossroads as a platform (some of this won't make a bit of sense unless you read the story thus far). It's not part of the story, really, it's just something that I'm writing to alleviate my burning desire to get to the Ember Island Players chapter in DC (which I'm a looooong ways from. This chapter contains a couple of [possible] spoilers.)
If you want to blame anyone for me writing this craziness, blame Vanguard Ziggy. His story, The Ember Island Player's Extended Scenes, which is flippin' hilarious btw, is where I got the inspiration to do this. (Thanks Ziggy Man!)
I own nothing...except Zhàn.
I hope y'all enjoy.
Chapter 1: The Invitation
It was a calm summer day at Ember Island. The palm trees swayed lightly in the soft breeze, the leaves dancing to the quiet tune of the wind. Throughout most of the island, activity was stagnant at most. With the vacation period passed for most people on the island, the beach had few occupants. Many of the summer homes were no longer in use, so there were no parties to attend or crash, no friends to hang out with on the beach, no true human life to speak of. There was one summer home, however, that was bustling with activity.
Firelord Ozai's vacation house, which had been left unoccupied for years, now was rejuvenated with new life. The Gaang was deserving of the thanks for the new life that the house now had as they were the new, albeit temporary, occupants. Right now, the epicenter of activity at the house could be found in the courtyard.
At current, Aang and Zuko were in the midst of their firebending training, drilling through a long set of advanced techniques. Toph and Sokka were exchanging taunts as they engaged in a boredom-curing skirmish, Sokka looking battered and bruised while Toph hadn't a single scratch on her, as per usual.
Suki and Ty Lee were in the midst of yet another rematch. This was their fifth brawl since the former-enemy joined rank with Team Avatar. Because they technically never finished their spar ack at the Boiling Rock nearly a month back, the two girls were still determined to figure out once and for all who was better than whom. Annoyingly enough, they were equally matched in each of their matches and the fighting, which grew more aggressive and desperate each go-around, would only end when they both fell out in exhaustion.
This bout of combat was no different; after nearly 30 minutes of trading jabs, kicks, punches, scratches, bites, head butts and unjustified insults, Suki finally called the match a draw. Ty Lee nodded wearily in agreement. With bruises speckled about them, the girls shuffled slowly towards the shallow steps that led to the house's interior, their knees giving out and causing them to fall inadvertently atop each other when they reached the short incline.
"Ty Lee...get off..." Suki groaned. The acrobat tried to comply, but her shaky arms were unable to support her weight.
"I can't...too tired," she replied, her voice muffled with her face planted into the other girl's stomach.
As if on cue, Katara entered the courtyard with two melon halves. She barely contained a snicker when she saw the … awkward position of the two rivals.
"Wow… I know you're trying to beat Suki and all, but don't you think this is taking things just a bit too far, Ty Lee?"
Was that really supposed to be funny? Too tired to try and counter the bad joke by the waterbender, the brown-eyed girl gained just enough strength to roll to the side, unpinning the auburn haired warrior and laying flat on her back.
"Those two have wanted to get it on for weeks," Toph crudely joked, earning a squeal of disgust from Sokka as his face blanched a sickly pale white. With the male warrior properly distracted, Toph decided that playtime was over and, with a twist of her down-turned palm, entrapped the blue-clad armor wearing fighter in a pit of quicksand, hardening the ground that engulfed him again when only his neck and head were still visible.
Ignoring the questionable humor of Toph, Katara proceeded to announce that she had fresh melon juice for whoever wanted it. Suki and Ty Lee were the first ones to receive their melons. Aang was about to take off towards the melon merchant when a fireball flew past him from his left, landing right in front of his path and causing the airbender to halt his charge.
"What do you think you're doing? Training's not over!" Zuko reprimanded.
"Aw, come on, Zuko! We've been training for nearly two hours now!" The airbender whined.
The Fire Nation prince gave off a gruff sigh of defeat as Aang joined up with Katara for a refreshing melon.
Zuko released a perturbed grunt. "I can't believe that the last hope of the world can be so…immature!"
"Well duh, Prince Zuko, he's only, like, 12 years old. It's not like you weren't that way at his age," a voice chimed in. The prince gave off an irritated growl and went to sit at the fountain. Zhàn joined the group, entering the courtyard area from the rear of the house. He stopped just short of the steps when he saw the brown haired acrobat and auburn haired fighter lounging exhaustedly on the incline.
"What's going on here? You two finally made nice?" he asked with a light chuckle.
"Oh, they were more than making nice just a minute ago," Katara piped.
"Isn't that supposed to be my line, Ice Princess?" the red-eyed soldier asked, rolling his eyes as his lips formed a friendly smirk.
Ty Lee nodded her head back and looked up to the red-clad boy, her brows perking to assist her vision. He must really like red, she thought as she checked out his clothing. He wore a pair of black slacks with golden trim trailing down the sides, marking the hem of the pants. For his top, he wore a blood red undershirt with a crimson red vest atop it, the vest donning a golden Fire Nation insignia at left and a bronze dragon emblem at right, both a few inches below the collar on either side. He wore a pair of jet black shoes with red trim at the front and red soles. It looked like a somewhat expensive ensemble of clothing to Ty Lee, mainly because of the vest. He must have somehow gotten his shopping habits from Sokka. She then noticed that he was holding a scroll in his hand.
"What'cha got there, Zhán?"
"Oh, this," Zhán asked as he glanced down to his note-holding hand and descending down the small stairway, "I got this when I was strolling around town today."
"And why were you in town," Katara inquired. "Aren't the stores and markets usually closed this time of the week?"
"Actually, that's during the week. Ember Island is a vacation island so it's most active during the Summer Solstice. Since the solstice is over, the shop owners only open up their stores during the weekend to keep operating costs down."
"I guess that makes sense…but that doesn't explain why you were in town."
"I needed some new duds," the soldier pointed out as he waved his hands over his freshly purchased ensemble.
"It took you five hours to buy some new clothing?"
"No, it took me about 20 minutes to find the clothing and five minutes to buy the clothing. It took me almost four hours to try and barter the shop owner into dropping the price."
"Do you understand the risk that you put us in when you-" Katara chastised.
"I do, mom. That's why I went to one of the stores to buy a new outfit, so I won't stick out like a sore thumb," Zhán annoyingly explained.
"Honestly, Katara, are you going to do that again?" Sokka asked in a whiny voice. "Remember what happened the last time you complained about that? You almost got us killed by Combustion Man."
"And how was that my fault? You and Toph were the ones who started doing those scams!" Katara yelled in protest at her annoying stump of a brother.
"Yeah, but it was your scam that got us in trouble! Remember, the one you pulled because you didn't want to seem so motherly?" the human stump replied in retort.
Sokka had won this argument, and Katara knew it. Sadly, the ever stubborn sibling refused to back down, stuttering idiotically as she tried to find some sort of ammo to use against her brother. "Well...you...you're the one who called him 'Sparky-Sparky-Boom-Man!'"
Suki and Ty Lee, who were now sitting upright, looked at each other in confounded amusement upon hearing this revelation, and then looked at Sokka's head.
"Sparky-Sparky-Boom-Man? Really?" Suki asked with a muffled snicker.
"I guess making jokes isn't the only thing he's bad at!" Ty Lee choked before doubling over with laughter.
"Okay, could someone clue me in? Who the heck is Sparky-Sparky-Combustion-Boom Man?"
"He's some guy with an eye in his forehead that he used to blow stuff up with. Zuko hired him to kill us."
"You what?" Ty Lee and Zhán both shot at Zuko, staring at him incredulously.
"Heh, that's what we said, too." Toph smirked at the suddenly cornered prince.
"That was a long time ago!" Zuko countered, shooting a deathly glare towards Sokka for rebirthing that horrid segment of his history.
"How long was that – since you came back to the Fire Nation?" Ty Lee questioned with a screech. Zuko simply stared at her, his brows dipped in annoyance as he silently begged for the acrobat to change the subject. Zhàn and Ty Lee stared back in realization and mild shock.
"Wow…so, you were really adamant about that whole "reclaiming your honor" thing, huh?" Ty Lee asked, the question not really being meant for Zuko to answer. It wouldn't have really mattered though as the Fire Nation prince made no efforts to answer her question.
A brief, but awkward silence fell upon the group, only ascending back to the heavens when Zhàn said, "…Yeah… So as I was saying, I was strolling around town when I saw a poster about some event."
"What's it about?" Aang asked when Katara returned to hand him a beverage.
"It's a festival commemorating our little airhead, here." Zhán held the scroll before him as he reviewed the contents of the announcement.
"Which airhead are we talking about here?" Toph asked, Ty Lee annoyingly responding with cross arms and a hard-set glare towards the ever glare-immune girl.
"The airbending airhead."
"Coo- wait, there's a festival in my honor in the Fire Nation?" The flabbergasted airbender rushed up to Zhàn and snatched the scroll from him. Sure enough, it the title read Avatar: The Last Airbender Festival. "I can't believe this! Did I fall asleep for another hundred years?"
"No, it's the real thing," Zhàn said as he snatched the flyer back from the monk.
"What's at this event?"
"Hmm... It looks like they have literature contests, a food eating competition..." Sokka perked up upon hearing about the latter item, "a singing competition, and something called..." Zhàn perked a brow in confusion, "…shipping wars?"
"What the heck is a shipping war?" Sokka asked, pulled from his reverie of food.
"Beats me," Zhàn shrugged. "Anywho, I think it could be worth looking into."
"I don't know," Katara protested, "it sounds a bit like that Boy in the Iceberg play we saw the other week." Everyone shivered, recoiling at the horrors of the overly dramatic acting, horrible humor and the crappy, propagated ending. And then there was…She-Aang. Zhán had come up with the nickname for the young and bald actress. After the brief wave of nightmarish chimera passed, Katara continued to provide the group her thoughts. "Personally, I still don't think it's smart for us to attend events about ourselves. It's a sure-fire way for one or more of us to get discovered."
"Besides," Zuko added in, yielding to his own thirst and retrieving a melon-filled beverage from the waterbender, "it'd be a complete waste of time. Sozin's Comet is only a week away – we can't afford to waste more time going to stupid plays and festivals."
"Plus, we don't want another incident like what happened at the play backstage," Suki finished, giving a sly leer towards Zhán.
"For the last time woman, that Azula actor person was seriously hitting on me! She freaked me out!"
"You burned off her eyebrows!"
"Hey, I was doing her and everyone in that theater a favor in doing that! Those eyebrows were longer than a boa-crane's neck and thicker than Appa's fur! Heck, I think they were fur; I'm surprised those things didn't shed." Ty Lee giggled at the hideously hilarious image.
"I agree with Firefly," Toph chimed in as she regarded Zhán, looking on towards nobody in particular as her sightless eyes shifted towards the assembling group. "There's nothing else to do around here. Why not try the festival? It couldn't possibly be any worse than the play." Zhán smiled at the blind girl's show of support…despite his hatred for his nickname.
"I don't know," Aang attested. "The last time I went to an Avatar Festival, I almost got boiled in oil..."
"I'm game for whatever gets me out of the ground!" Sokka shouted as he tossed an irate glare towards the sightless glare-proof fortress that was Toph.
"I'm with whatever Sokka wants," Suki decided nonchalantly.
"Suck up," Zhán and Ty Lee said in unison, wearing identical teasing smirks.
"Well, Ty Lee," Aang chimed, "I guess it's your call."
"I'm with Toph on this one," she decided without a second thought. "Things are getting stale around here. We should check it out."
"Well then, it's decided. We'll check out the festival tomorrow," the crimson eyed lad declared.
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, it's a one day, all-day event. Now we need to designate a time for us to attend."
"How about midday, that way we can get training out of the way and get freshened up before we go?" Aang suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Zhàn decided as he rolled up the scroll. "I'm gonna whip us up some grub. Any special orders?"
"How about pineapple stir-fry?" Ty Lee suggested.
"Make that two," the airbender piped.
"Okay, two pineapple stir-fries. Anything else?"
"Roasted goose-duck, for me," Sokka requested.
"Do you want one goose-duck, or two?" Zhán asked, half-jokingly.
"Two," the warrior nonchalantly replied. Figures.
"Anyone else?"
"Goose-duck sounds pretty good," Katara reasoned.
"Okay, Zuko? Toph?"
"Same."
"Same."
"Alright, so three goose-ducks and two pineapple stir-fries."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Ty Lee shot to her feet, and almost stumbled back to the ground as her muscles screamed at her for the sudden movement. "How come Sokka gets two goose-ducks and everyone else only gets one?"
"First of all, little missy, you don't eat meat, remember?" Ty Lee's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment as she sat back down. "Secondly, we're not talking about Rock Cornish Hens, here. Goose-ducks are pretty big. I doubt even Sokka could eat two on his own in one setting."
"I wouldn't bet on that," Katara teased.
"Anywho, dinner will be ready in a couple hours. Oh, and Toph?"
"Huh?" The earthbender was called away from dangling a cherry in front of Sokka, the warrior vainly trying to retrieve the berry with his teeth.
"Make sure Sokka's ready for dinner tonight. I don't want him pilfering the markets again, nibbling on fruit all evening. Otherwise, I'm feeding his food to the piranhas."
"Oh, he'll be ready," Toph called back. She then turned towards Sokka, who now whimpered as an evil smirk pursed her lips. "He'll be ready alright." The earthbender then released Sokka from the swallowing earth. As he lay on the ground trying to catch his breath, Toph crouched down beside his head.
"I'd run if I were you, Snoozles," she advised as she held a hovering rock in her hand.