The More Things Change
A/N: I don't even know where this came from, outside of a fascination of the past Avatars. Roku always seemed – to me, anyway – to be the type to be unamused by the antics of others (although, maybe just being a spirit does that to your personality…) and come on – for every great, stoic, righteous hero, there's an annoying best friend right behind him to back him up.
Roku rubbed his eyes. He blinked. He rubbed his eyes again.
This was all going to end badly.
"Please tell me those aren't what I think they are," he said flatly, not taking his eyes off of the pair of boots that sat on the floor at the foot of his bed. The moonlight filtered through the window, casting a pale light over them and the pair of idiots that towered over him, giggling madly.
"I take it Sifu Jinhai didn't catch you returning, then," he pondered, remembering how the master airbender had resolved to stay up and wait for the missing duo and wondering how he'd gotten mixed up in this mess.
He was tempted most to blame Zhon. Childhood friends simply did not do this to each other.
The young Avatar was currently staying on the island of Kyoshi with his old friend, his airbending teacher, and his teacher's student. He had just turned seventeen, and had been training with Sifu Jinhai of the Northern Air Temple for several months now. His airbending skills were developing rapidly – unusually fast, according to Sifu Jinhai – but Roku was struggling still with the spiritual side of being Avatar.
Sifu Jinhai had mused that it was because Roku was grounded, practical, and levelheaded – and not at all the type to believe in ghosts and spirits. Roku theorized it was because he had these two jabbering jackasses distracting him all day.
Either way, Sifu Jinhai had decided that it was highly unusual that he hadn't been contacted by the spirit world yet, and announced that he was taking Roku to the island for the annual Festival of Kyoshi, a three-day celebration during the final harvest before winter that usually fell around Avatar Kyoshi's birthday. It was, Sifu Jinhai said, a perfect opportunity for Roku to not only try to get in touch with his spiritual side, but to also get a taste of the public duties he would soon be forced to assume.
Everything was going perfectly according to plan, except for the part where Zhon and Hijime ran around Kyoshi, usually drunk, causing chaos and expecting Roku to clean up after them.
"Tell me again," Roku had said at dinner their second night, watching out of the corner of his eye as Zhon moved in closer to the lady warrior who was blushing through her makeup, "why we had to bring Zhon?"
"'Jime seems fond of him," Sifu Jinhai had answered mildly, determinedly not looking as Hijime zoomed past them, a pair of gold fans clutched triumphantly over his head.
"Right. And why did we bring Hijime?" Roku had responded, talking louder so Sifu Jinhai could hear him over the stomping of several angry Kyoshi warriors looking for the return of their weapons.
So when they had first disappeared from the festival, Roku's initial feelings had been ones of relief; sure they were probably off making trouble, but at least it wouldn't be right in the middle of the public eye. Even after Kyoshi's leader remarked a little too offhandedly that they hadn't fed the Unagi in several weeks, Roku still did not give a passing thought to his friends – nor did he allow himself to get his hopes up that they would be eaten by the sea beast.
When it came time to retire for the evening and they still hadn't returned, Sifu Jinhai had sent Roku off to bed, telling him that he would wait up for the missing pair and ordering Roku to sleep off the alcohol he had been drinking. (Roku took exception to the insinuation that he was drunk; he was Fire Nation nobility! He had been trained since he was an early teenager on how to hold his alcohol – clearly, the alcohol they brewed in Kyoshi was made of some sort of foreign thing that went straight to his head. But he was most certainly not drunk. Sifu Jinhai had just shaken his head and told him to drink some water first.) Either way, neither was that concerned about the possible trouble the two idiots could be getting into.
Roku berated himself for underestimating the power of combined idiocy once again.
"Let me get this straight," Roku said in a low, dangerous tone, sitting up from his bed and reaching for his robe. "You broke into the Shrine of Kyoshi and stole her boots."
"Annnnd!" sang out Hijime, swinging something out from behind his back – Roku only saw it glint for a moment before the airbender slammed it down upon his head – "her headgear!"
The crown-like piece slid down over his eyes. Roku grabbed at it as Zhon gave an exaggerated bow. "All to help prepare you to fulfill your role in destiny as the Avatar, my liege!"
"Stop calling me that!" Roku snapped, whipping the piece off of his head and laying it reverently on the bed. "And go find your boots. We're returning this stuff right now."
He leaned to the other side of the bed, sliding his boots on easily and not bothering to tie them. When he turned to face his friends again, they hadn't moved, still standing in front of him, staring blankly.
"What? Go get your boots!" Roku stood, picking up the Kyoshi's headpiece and sweeping her boots up off the floor.
Hijime shrugged. "We came in without them," explained Zhon.
Roku's left eye started twitching. "Come on."
The village, thank the spirits, was quiet and still as the three boys tiptoed back to the Shrine of Kyoshi. Although, to be honest, Roku was the only one tiptoeing – the other two were tripping behind him, leaning heavily against each other and snickering quietly to themselves over some shared joke.
"What is so funny?" Roku hissed once over his shoulder when the snickering was growing dangerously loud.
"Nothing, nothing," Hijime dismissed with the wave of an arm. "Although, we were thinking - those are very large boots, aren't they?"
"The mayor said that Avatar Kyoshi had the largest feet of any Avatar in history," Roku noted absently, ignoring the pair when they dissolved into a fresh slew of sniggers.
He walked into the Shrine with confidence – after all, no one would question his motives for visiting, no matter what time of night – and carefully returned the headpiece to the wooden bust before walking to the other side of the room to put the boots back in their proper place –
The painting on the wall caught his eye. He'd glanced at it when the mayor had shown him the Shrine earlier, but he didn't recall it glowing the way it was now. There were no windows or any other source of light in the room, and yet the scene had a bright light emanating from the top of the temple in the center of the painting.
He reached out, his fingers brushing the top layer of paint. A shock ran through his body, a hard shudder that reminded him of the time he'd been hit by one of Master's stray lightening strikes back at the Academy.
His eyes closed automatically, but it didn't matter because what he saw was more in his mind than in front of him anyway; the wink of gold jewelry, a flash of green skirt, and the white glare of makeup all flared through his mind, along with the sound of a snapping fan and a deep chuckle before he heard, loudly and clearly, "My, my. You have a lot of maturing to do before you're ready to fill my shoes, boy."
Then the shock passed, and he swayed, staggering back into the column that held Kyoshi's bust. Zhon was there in an instant, steadying him while Hijime dove to catch the bust before it toppled from its place.
"What was that?" Zhon asked, anxiousness instantly sobering his voice.
Roku rubbed his head and looked back at the portrait of Kyoshi. "I think she finally spoke to me."
"Avatar Kyoshi?" Hijime's eyes lit up. "What did she say?"
"She said," Roku sniffed, feeling a little indignant, "that I had a lot of growing to do before I could fill her shoes."
To his utter dismay, Zhon and Hijime once again burst into snickers.
"What is the matter with you two?" Roku burst.
"Kyoshi said-" Hijime choked out at the same time that Zhon crowed, "She wasn't impressed!"
"What?" Roku demanded, arms crossing defensively. Back at the Academy, a teacher of his had remarked that she should have guessed he was the Avatar, because only an earthbender could have such a stone-still face; no one could crumble his stony façade quicker than these two.
"Well, you know what they say," Zhon said, leaning hard against Hijime. "The bigger your feet, the bigger your-" He couldn't finish his sentence without laughing again, but he didn't need to because Hijime gestured at the same time and made it clear exactly where Zhon was going with his statement.
"Enough of your idiocy!" Roku snapped, feeling the red-hot blush crawl up his neck.
"I am going back to bed," he announced as regally as he could manage, turning and stalking from the Shrine. He diligently ignored the cat-calls involving the words "little benders" and "compensating" from behind him, resolving silently to start doubling his meditation with Sifu, starting the next morning.
I was about halfway through this when I decided that Kyoshi and Roku (…my ideas for them, at least) didn't get along that well. Now I'm half tempted to turn this into a series of some kind – though for now it's getting marked "complete," because it's a stand alone piece (...for a "size" joke. Yes, I am aware of my level of maturity.)
It helps to picture Roku the way I do – as the way artist Isaia drew him. If you go to deviantart and search for "More That What I Once Was," You can see it.
Either way, Roku isn't explored often, so I'm interested in what you guys think.