Dangerous Element
By: Shutterfly Simmons
She took another sip of water from her glass. Her fingers absentmindedly tapped on the pink tablecloth as she struggled to keep her eyes open. It was getting late, but there was still no sign of her. She's never late. She probably just abandoned you, like everyone always does. She quickly pushed the thought out of her mind. The nagging voices in her head had never really left, but her time in the asylum had taught her to control them. Control. It was something she had always excelled at. It had been a long time since she had last given into the whispers, and she refused to let them spoil her evening. Turning towards the candles that she had placed in the center of the table, she shifted her focus to the small azure flames. She usually wouldn't have bothered with candles. Being a fire bender, she'd never really needed them. Her girlfriend, however, found them romantic, so she'd decided to use them for today's dinner. Closing her eyes, she focused on the flames. It was a basic technique that most learned as kids. When her brother first suggested it, she'd been reluctant to do it. It seemed too basic, so much lower than what she was used to, just as her life had seemed at the time. She'd eventually realized that meditating was quite calming, but she would rather marry an earth bender than admit that her brother was right.
She snapped awake when the door creaked open. She guessed that she had accidentally nodded off. Before she knew what she was doing it, she had jumped into a bending stance, and her hand had started smoking. Spotting a long brown braid, she relaxed and settled back into her chair. She touched the sides of her mouth to make sure that she hadn't drooled, an embarrassing habit of hers that she was hoping to keep secret. She wore her trademark smirk, as if her earlier nervousness and insecurities had ceased to exist. She wasn't tired anymore, though. The short nap had energized her.
"You should know better than to keep your princess waiting," she teased.
"Sorry," the other girl apologized, panting slightly, "you wouldn't believe how may people showed up at the circus today. At first, it seemed like a slow day, but then this huge party of people walked over. Some rich guy's daughter's birthday was today, and she wanted to see us perform. She was so adorable! Anyway, we all tried super hard to impress her, and we even threw in some extra acts. She loved it! Her aura was really bright. It was this nice shade of pink. Well, more magenta, I suppose. Anyway, I was about to leave, when I saw her standing near the door. I wished her a happy birthday, and before I knew it we were having this great conversation about-"
By this point, she had started tuning out her girlfriend's babbling. It was something she had learned to do very early into their friendship. Instead, she listened to the sound of her voice, paying attention to the rises and falls. The more excited she got, the higher her pitch rose.
"-turned and saw that everyone was leaving. That's when I noticed how late it was, so I told her I had to go. She seemed sad I was leaving, so I gave her our address and told her to send a messenger hawk some time. It cheered her up, and I noticed this adorable little dimple in her cheek. Then, I ran back here as fast as I could," she finished, with a smile.
It confused her sometimes. How she smiled through almost anything. She used to wonder what she hid behind those smiles and laughs. It seemed too suspicious. A shallow facade was one that people were not likely to doubt. As she thought about it now, she realized that they had all hidden behind something. Her brother's fiance hid her emotions behind her mask of boredom. She had hidden the voices underneath an aura of intimidation and fear. Aura? Had she really just thought that? She was spending too much time around a certain acrobat.
"Are you okay?" Her voice was laced with concern. Looking up, she saw a pair of big gray eyes looking at her carefully. Concern is the same as pity, a voice that sounded vaguely like her father hissed in her ear.
She snapped before thinking, "I'm fine!" She fought to ignore the guilt stirring in the pool of her stomach, as the other girl flinched at her tone. She shoved the voice away, angrily.
"I'm just tired," she said, quietly. The chi blocker seemed to understand it to be her version of an apology.
Nodding, she replied, "I know. I'm sorry I made you wait so long. I'll just go change my clothes, and then we can eat!" As she hopped up the stairs, the princess stared at the cloth covering the dining table. She ran her hands through the ends of the pink silk. She remembered the day they bought it. She had wanted to buy red, but her girlfriend had insisted that she bought everything in red and suggested a soft sage green cloth. The princess had refused, claiming that green was a "peasant color" and refused to have it in her house. They had eventually compromised and had chosen a dark pink.
A soft thud left her know that the acrobat had returned. She jumped into the chair on the other side of the table. The fire bender sent a jet of fire to the bottom the cooling pot of rice on the table. The other girl scooped it into two different bowl, handing one to the fire bender. They lapsed into an awkward silence, as they started eating. The bubbly girl was the first to break it.
"Why does it smell like jasmine?" she asked, brightly. "Did you light an incense stick? I hear they're good for your spirit."
"No, my uncle sent a bag of tea leaves in case we ran out from the last bundle he sent. While you were gone, I accidentally burned them."
"I love your uncle's tea!" But, she laughed, anyway. The murderer of tea leaves shrugged.
"What can I say? Fire's a dangerous element." They both laughed.
"No wonder you're a fire bender, then," she said, still smiling. The princess's laughs halted.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, fire is dangerous, just like you." She seemed surprised that the fire bender hadn't seen the connection. The princess studied the other girl's body language carefully. She hadn't said it with any trace of fear, like others had. Like mother had another voice managed to whisper, before she shoved it away. She had casually mentioned it as though it was an obvious fact. She supposed, in a way, it was. She was a dangerous person. That would probably never change.
"That's not a bad thing, you know," the other girl said softly, correctly interpreting her silence. "You did make this delicious rice. You're the best cook I've ever met!"
"I would be great, even as a peasant," the princess said, haughtily. The sour moment passed.
"I'm hungry," she announced, grabbing her empty bowl and digging through the pot of rice. She frowned. "I take back what I said about you being a great cook," she sighed.
"What's that supposed to mean? Is my work not good enough for you?" the fire bender demanded.
"You burned the rice at the bottom. It's going to take forever to scrub the burnt bits off!" Oh. She supposed that she wasn't that good of a cook, then, but she wasn't about to admit that.
"Well," she said, "fire is a dangerous element."
(A/N): Written for Alyssialui's Probending Circuit.
Position: Firebender
Words: 1,327
Prompts:
Restriction: No names (or nicknames) used
Smell: Jasmine
Color: Sage green
Bonus: Firebending