FALL

Mercutio Atticus Zamir

The twenty-three year old college kid known as Mercutio Atticus Zamir had his duffel bag over his shoulder and the key to his room in his hand. His laptop case was on the floor, resting against the wall. He took a deep breath, then looked at what would be his living space for the next two semesters. It wasn't so bad; there were two twin beds, a mini fridge, two desks, a closet and a dresser opposite it. He picked up his laptop case and set it on the desk; he decided to start unloading clothes into the dresser. This was his last year of college, and he was glad to be done with it.

It wasn't long before Mer's roommate-of-mystery walked on in. He was a short kid, wearing a beanie and a long-sleeved jacket. He had on gloves, too; the only part of his skin visible was his face. "Oh, you're already here?" He spoke shortly, a displeased look on his face.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Mercutio, but just call me Mer, bro." The taller of the two walked towards the door, a hand extended.

"Yeah, yeah, lovely to meet you. God, you're tan. How do you not have skin cancer?" The kid's hazel eyes stared blatantly at Mer.

"Oh, I spend a lot of time outside. I like the sun." He let his hand fall, then asked a question. "So, do you have a name, or should I just call you shorty?"

"My name's Ianto, asshole." He snorted. "Not all of us are born at stupid heights."

"Yan-to?" Mer paused, ignoring everything that came after the boy's name. "Can I just call you Yan?"

It was funny seeing his face screw up in frustration. "Ianto! Ianto! It's not a difficult name!" He threw a duffel bag on the bed closer to the closet, mumbling to himself.

"Well, Yan, my man, I'm just going to keep on unpacking, then." Mer ambled over to where he had been before, and whistled a bit as he finished unpacking. A few minutes and a flop on the bed later, Mer was carefully studying his roommate.

Yan was of an average height, even if it did feel short to Mer. His skin was a pale peach, with a smooth complexion. When he finally took off his beanie, gloves and jacket, Mer could see arrow tattoos- the guy was an airbending master! Mer chuckled; with the kid's temper, he could have fit right into any fire nation home.

"So, you're an airbender?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"… How come you have hair?" The hair in question was dark brown, not too far off in color from Mer's own hair.

"Fuck shaving. I left the temple years ago, and I enjoy the warmth a full head of hair brings." Before Mer could make any comments (he wasn't going to anyways), Yan continued. "So, judging by the blue eyes, stupidly tan skin, and goofy face you're from a water tribe? North or South pole?" He crossed his arms, a carefully crafted look of simultaneous disinterest and disdain covering his features.

Mer grinned, glad that Yan was at least talking now. "Actually, I'm from the fire nation. My mom was half 'n' half, so I got my eyes from her side of the family." He stretched out on the bed, calm as ever.

"Really fucking now? Every person I've met from the fire nation is an angry douchebag." Yan snorted. "You're just a douchebag."

Mer didn't rise to the bait; he let pretty much everything slide off of him. Instead, he rolled over and faced Yan. "So, roomie, you want to go grab a cup of coffee or something? We might as well get to know each other, right?" He got up, a small smile on his face, body totally relaxed. "Seeing as we'll be spending the next, what, eight months together?"

"Whatever. Your ass is paying, though." The two walked out the door together into the chilly fall air.

Taffy Ianto Yale

The five foot seven (which, for your information, is NOT short), twenty-three year old airbender by the name of Taffy Ianto Yale was not an easy man to please. He had a famous temper, swore like a sailor, and had a reputation for being one of the best benders to ever leave the temples.

He was currently enrolled in his last year of college, and he couldn't wait to go out and do… whatever it is you do with a degree in literature. Though he was loathe to admit it, Yan -for now that his douche of a roommate called him that, so did everyone- knew that he'd probably end up returning to the temples and return to the life of a monk. He wasn't so far from it now, even. Despite his violent swearing, Yan didn't fight often; he was still a vegetarian, and he even kind of missed travelling from temple to temple.

But right now, none of that was on his mind. Here was this stupidly tall guy that would apparently be his roommate. Yan was kind of pissed that he had a roommate at all- didn't being a senior mean ANYTHING? No, no, here he was stuck with possibly the most easy-going guy ever. And it pissed him off. Yan wasn't quite sure why he agreed to get coffee with him, but at least he had plenty to complain about on the way there.

"Why are we walking? Don't you even have a bike?" Yan's arms were crossed as he followed Mer to some coffee shop nearby.

"Don't you?" Mer's hands were in his pockets, feet bare against the cold cement. "I like walking. It's so much easier to feel the life of the city this way."

"At least I can afford fucking shoes. Why don't you have any?"

Mer stopped for a moment to look back and smile widely at Yan. "I love walking barefoot. It's the best feeling in the world."

"… You're fucking weird." Yan followed Mer into the small coffee shop; the girl behind the counter waved at him and said hello.

The chick -her name was Beth or some shit like that- handed Mer and Yan two coffee-based drinks, flirting the entire time with Mer. It was rather shameless, Yan thought, and kind of unclassy. He felt this way partly because she was all but throwing herself into Mer's arms, and partly because she completely ignored Yan.

The duo sat down at a table near the front, and Mer began dumping various kinds of packets into his coffee. Yan stared and sipped at his own. "Do you want fucking diabetes?"

Mer paused. "No, but I like my coffee this way. Only in the afternoon, though. In the mornings I take it straight up black." He sat back and laughed. "Nothing else can wake me up." He looked at Yan again, then slunched over and began asking asinine questions. "So, if you're a master, how'd you get there?" He sipped happily at his coffee (if it could even be called that at this point).

Yan scowled. "When you're an airbender, you have to master the thirty-six tiers of airbending. Once you've done that, you have to invent a new air technique before they give you your tattoos. It's a fucking long process, but I was able to get through it all." Yan paused. "I almost wasn't tattooed, though. They didn't like my technique too much. Said it was too violent, or cruel, or something." He sipped quietly and stared out the window.

"Oh. Well, what was it?" Mer still had that stupid smile on his face. "I'm a firebender, bet you it's not too cruel for me."

"You bend the air out of someone's lungs." Yan stated bluntly.

Mer paused. "Oh. That is pretty harsh, actually."

Yan snorted. "I was granted the status nonetheless. Then I got right the fuck outta there." He paused, and figured that it was his turn to continue the conversation. "What about you? Said you were a firebender, right?"

Mer's smile returned. "Oh, yeah. I'm not a master, but my dad was at the age of fourteen. Fuckin' lightning. At fourteen." Mer paused for effect, then continued. "He taught me everything I know. Well, except for the magician bits." He laughed heartily. "I doubt my dad could ever be caught bending for tips." Mer drained the last bit of his coffee, then rose. "You ready to get back to the dorm?"

Yan's scowl lightened up a bit, and he nodded and rose. "Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here before it gets dark."

On the way back, Yan caught himself staring for long periods of time at the firebender. He was over six feet, but he filled out well. He seemed muscled and toned, like he trained a lot and always had. He had that cancerous-looking skin, and stupid hair that fell about and ruffled and hung down to his neck, and really white teeth, and all these other little weird features. He had some faint burn scars on his arms -Yan had noticed these inside when they had taken their jackets off- but they looked pretty normal. The thing that Yan was distracted by/hated the most were the guy's eyes. It wasn't just that they were the exact color of his arrows, or the fact that the whites of his eyes made them even more pronounced against his dark skin. No, the thing that bugged Yan the most about those eyes is they had a story behind them, and he was almost curious as to what it was.

He scowled the whole way home.

SO! That's the introductory chapter! What'dja think? Just so you know, the rest of this story is pretty gay (in case you couldn't tell already), and chapters are all fairly short- they're not even chapters so much as quick bursts of writing; they're little snippets of these two character's lives.

Maybe -just maybe- I'll write some smut later. Much, much later and likely in a separate story.

As far as the setting, think steampunk world, 583 years after the canon events. Airbenders have managed to come back, but they're still fairly rare. There are many people of mixed blood, but no one can bend more than one element with the exception of the avatar. Ah, speaking of Avatars... He's an old crusty codge of an earth bender. :D Completely irrelevant.

See you later!