Chapter 2

"So are we dueling or not?" he said, not moving from their current position.

"Fine. Good luck, cutie..."

She winked and moved a few feet away. The boy was entranced by her figure, her sexy curves and her long flowing hair. He blushed at the way her hips moved when she walked. He snapped himself back and saw her in fighting position. He positioned himself as well and replied.

"Bring it on, beautiful…"

Below the midday sun stood two teenagers, both taking deep breaths. They stood a few feet away from each other, doing breathing exercises, getting ready to duel.

"Ready?" the girl whispered, her hair being blown back by the wind

The boy nodded.

"Go!" shouted the girl, instantly forming a wave and aiming at the boy.

The boy formed a fireball and evaporated the wave directed at him. He punched repeatedly and sent fireballs towards the girl. She formed a wall of water in front of her and froze it, blocking the fireballs. She then transformed the ice wall into several sharp icicles and sent it in the boy's direction. He somersaulted in the air and sent a line of fire back to the girl, melting the icicles. She dodged the line of fire and took a quick rest. While all this was happening, the distance between them slowly decreased. It was only when she rested that she noticed that he was only about 2 feet away from her.

"Wow… You're good…" she said, smiling at him

"That's not all I'm good at…" he said devilishly.

He quickly did a roundhouse kick in an attempt to trip her. Just before his legs hit hers, she jumped and attempted to punch him. He caught her wrist before it got too near and positioned his fist inches away from her face. They both stayed still, panting heavily.

"I win." He whispered with a smirk

She slowly shook her head and smiled at the confused look on his face. He looked down at his chest and saw an icicle also inches away from it. He chuckled and looked back up at her.

"So who wins?" he asked

"Call it a draw?" she said

"Sure…"

They were unmoving. They kept their eyes on each other, half waiting for a possible attack, and half just wanting to gaze upon the other.

"So are you swimming or not?" she said, putting down the icicle

He sighed and realized he was sweating.

"Well it is pretty hot…" he said, smiling and slowly letting of her wrist. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a little dip in the water…"

She nodded and jumped in, making a big splash and wetting his clothes.

"Oh come on! I'm not even in the water and you're already splashing me?" he laughed

"Just get over here" she giggled

He took off his vest and boots. When he was about to jump in, she stopped him.

"Wait!" she said

"What?"

"Why are you going to swim with your clothes on?"

"You want me to swim in my boxers?"

"Why not?"

He sighed and pulled his shirt and pants off. The girl was mesmerized by his body. His chest was chiseled and his abs were perfectly formed. His arms looked muscled and strong and his skin was smooth and pale all throughout – that is, except for the scar on his face (not that she minded). She caught herself staring and looked away while blushing. She didn't notice that he was already in the water, standing in front of her, staring at her.

"Like what you see?" he said

She panicked and splashed him so he wouldn't notice the flush in her cheeks. He stepped back a bit to avoid her splashes.

"Hey, chill. I'm not going to give you a hard time." He said. She smiled back.

"But if it helps," he continued. "I think you're pretty too…"

She blushed even more looked away.

"So… what's a Fire nation guy like you doing here in the Earth Kingdom anyway?" she asked, changing the topic

"My mom thought it would be fun to see the festival. She's the only one having a good time. I've just been wandering around town." He said.

"Well, my dad brought us here. He thought it would be fun if my brother and I saw more of the world."

"What do you think of the world so far?"

"Pretty cool, I guess. So tell me about yourself?"

"Umm… I'm 17. My favorite food is spicy fish flakes. I practice with my broadswords in my spare time and my favorite place in the world is Ember Island. Your turn."

They both started floating on their backs on the water and closed their eyes.

"Let's see… I'm turning 15 in a month. I love blubbered seal jerky. Penguins are my favorite animals and my favorite flowers are fire-lilies."

"Firelilies? Aren't you from the Water Tribe?"

"Yeah but I like the firelilies' color. It's just so rich and bright."

"I see…"

There was silence for a few minutes. Both had their eyes closed. Both were just enjoying the cool water, the calm breeze and each other's company.

"Can I ask you something?" she said

He sighed. Don't act so surprised,he told himself. You knew she had to ask sooner or later…

"What is it?" he said

"Is it okay if you tell me about your scar?"

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"How did you get it?"

There was a long silence. The girl immediately regretted asking the question. She might have struck a nerve and from the looks of it, a big one.

"I'm sorry…" she said softly. "You don't have to answer that. I-"

"My father gave it to me." He interrupted.

She stopped floating and stood up. The water was quite deep so it reached her chest. She saw him still floating, his eyes still closed. She wondered how he could stay so calm about it. She wondered if she wasn't the first person to ask him that question.

"W-Why would he do that?" she said

"Because he felt like I disrespected him…" he said, also standing up. The water covered the top of his abs.

"Did you really?"

"Well, if being ethical and humane is disrespectful to him then yes, I did."

He leaned against a rock. She waded beside him and did the same.

"I think I'm prying too much. Go ask me some personal questions if you want." She said

"Hmm… I can't really think of any…" he said. "I like your necklace."

The girl touched it and looked back at him.

"It was my mother's…" she replied softly

"Was?"

"Umm… She died."

"Oh… Umm… I'm sorry. I didn't know. I-"

"That's okay. I'm used to that kind of reaction."

"Same here, about my scar. If you don't mind me asking, how did she die?"

"Sickness. My brother and I were very little when it happened."

"My condolences. I'm sorry I brought it up. You're probably really bummed out by now."

"That's okay. Now we're even, Sparky."

She winked, lay on her back and backstroked away.

"Hey!" he called, doing the same as she did. "Wait up, Sweetness!"

The talked and talked throughout the afternoon. Before they even realized it, the sun was setting. They got out of the water and started to gather their clothes.

"Oh no…" she said

"What is it?" he replied, putting his pants back on.

"Remember when I splashed you earlier?"

"Yeah."

"Well, apparently, my clothes were drenched too and they aren't dry yet. What am I going to do? I can't go back in my underwear."

"Give them to me…"

"What?"

"Trust me."

She handed her clothes over to him and watched him as he held a palm up to them.

"Hey, don't burn my clothes!" she said

"I'm not going to. My clothes weren't dry yet too so I heated them up a bit with my firebending. I'm doing the same to your clothes."

"Oh… Cool."

He chuckled.

"It's ironic that you think my firebending is cool."

She rolled her eyes at his joke. He smiled back and handed her clothes back.

"Very funny."

They continued dressing up and walked back to the meadow. By this time, mothers were calling back their children. It was almost time for the festival.

"So… do you have to go back to your brother and dad?" he asked her

"No… I'm free all day. How about you?" she replied

"Same. Umm… You want to do more stuff together?"

"Sure. I want to see the fireworks but I don't want to go into town. There's just too many people."

"I agree. Why don't we stay here in the meadow? We can see the fireworks from here and late at night, there are fireflies."

"Wow… I've never seen those before but I heard they're beautiful…"

"Oh wait, are you hungry?"

"Kind of… Want to pick up something from a stall first then go back?"

She nodded and they walked to town. As they approached the first snack stall, she stopped.

"What's wrong?" he asked

"Umm… is this a date?"

"Uhh… If you want it to be, then yeah."

"T-This is wrong. We're both in outside relationships."

"We're not doing anything wrong. We're two people who met who decided to spend the day together. It's not like we're kissing or making out or whatever." His voice grew softer. "A-And who knows? Maybe tomorrow…umm…we won't see each other anymore…"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's true…" she said. She shook her head and put on a smile again. "Come on, let's go buy some food."

They walked up to the stall and mentally made their food choices.

"Umm…Just for the record…" started the boy. "Will I ever see you again?"

The girl stared in his eyes for a while before answering.

"I don't know."

"Do you want to give me your name?" said the boy shyly

"…. I-I think we should leave it up to fate. Hold that gold coin."

She borrowed the store clerk's brush and handed the brush to the boy.

"Here… Write down your name and address on the coin."

He followed her instructions and handed the coin to her. She got a basket from the side of the stall and grabbed a few fruit tarts, sweet and sour fish flakes, pig-chicken jerky and egg custard pies. She tossed the coin to the store clerk and walked away with their food basket, leaving the boy bewildered.

"Hey!" he called, running after her. "Why did you give the coin away?"

"Well, if it finds its way back to me then I can find you and we'll see from there."

"How about you? Aren't you going to leave a random object into the hands of Fate?"

"Fine."

She looked around her and saw a forgotten scroll lying on the ground. She picked it up and opened it. It was a Waterbending scroll. Somebody must have dropped it and didn't notice.

"Okay, here's the deal." She ran back to the store clerk and borrowed his pen again. The boy followed her. "I'll write my name and address at the bottom of the scroll and I'll sell it to an antique store tomorrow. If it arrives in your hands, come find me."

"Fine…"

They walked back to the meadow just in time for the fireworks. They shared their dinner under the tree where they met.

"I don't know if they have spicy fire flakes here so I got you something close. Hope you like it." She said, munching on her jerky

"It's not bad at all." He answered. "How's that jerky treating you?"

"It's alright. Not as good as blubbered seal jerky but hey, it'll do."

Just as they finished eating, the fireworks display also ended. They lay back and stared at the starry sky.

"Wow…the stars look so beautiful." The girl said dreamily

"Yeah… It's so nice to star-gaze here. If you tried star-gazing back home, you'd be sweating in 5 minutes."

"Well, in the Water Tribe, you can't even go out at night…"

"Huh? Why?"

"Well, it's not that you can't. No one just dares to because 3 steps out there and you'll be mistaken for an icicle the next morning."

They both laughed at her statement. They stayed quiet again for a few minutes, just observing the stars.

"Hey look!" the girl said, pointing up at a group of stars. "That group of stars forms a bear…"

"Uh-huh… " the boy replied. "You know, my mother's name is Ursa…"

"Go on…"

"Ursa means bear."

"Really? That's so cool."

They stayed that way for a few hours. When he heard her yawn, he stood up and helped her up. They walked back to town. When they were near, they stopped again.

"So…I guess the night is over?" the boy asked her.

"I guess… I mean we have to go back to our families some time, right?"

"Look…" he sighed. "I don't know why or how but I feel like our umm… relationship is supposed to be more than this."

"I know but-"

"Look, I can't live with myself not knowing if I'll ever see you again… One day simply isn't enough…"

The girl sighed sadly. She knew he was right. There was something special between them. It was too amazing to be unnoticed. Both knew it, both enjoyed it but alas both were forbidden.

She pulled him to a game stall and handed him a box of small tiles. She also held one in her own hands.

"We walk away from each other a few feet and pick a random tile. After about a minute, we turn back and see. If we picked the same tile, we make plans to meet again. If not, I guess this is goodbye…"

The boy started to turn back.

"By the way, do you plan to tell me your name?" he asked, before walking away

She just smiled and got into position. Seeing that she wouldn't reveal her name, he got into position.

Think, think, thin.., he thought, What tile could it be? He closed his eyes and picked a tile. He opened then and saw a white tile with a blue dragon and a red dragon intertwined. He held it tightly and closed his eyes. Spirits, please…Let this be the tile…

As if rehearsed, the girl was also doing the same. She also picked the same tile. Deep in her heart, she wanted to stay with this boy, even if she did have someone back home.

Okay…, she thought, I just have to wait for one minute… 59… 58… 57…

Just then, a young rascal grabbed the whole tray of tiles from the boy's hand and ran away laughing.

"Hey!" he called "Come back here!"

The teenage boy ran after him, hoping to catch him before one minute was over.

45… 44… 43…

The teenage girl held the tile so close that her knuckles were turning white. She was praying to the spirits to let this boy stay in her life.

30... 29… 28…

The boy almost caught the back of the rascal's robe with his hand. Just as he felt the cloth between his fingertips, he tripped and fell.

"Wait!" he shouted. "Come back! I need those tiles!"

15… 14… 13…

The girl was smiling now. She was so sure of that tile.

The boy now realized that he still had that single tile in his hand so it didn't matter if the tray was lost.