Candy and Friends
I groaned as I forced myself off my bunk, ignoring my protesting muscles. A crash and a yell came from the kitchen, followed by a pair of yelling voices. I slipped on a robe to cover the sports bra and shorts I slept in before going to watch the scene.
"Sit down and eat your cereal like a good little Fire Nation PUPPET!" Kira yelled, and it sounded like she threw a spoon at Zuko.
"I don't want any of your disgusting peasant food!" He yelled, sounding slightly desperate. Just how long had these two been arguing?
"Do you want to starve? Cause I don't have time to figure out how to make you fire flakes!" She yelled back. Zuko started to growl, but Kira cut him off with an angry yell. "Oh be quiet! You'll wake Jennie, and you've already kept her up half the night with your petty grudges."
Zuko had thrown a fit the night before when we jokingly told him that we hated Fire Nation things. He had stormed away, but he couldn't seem to find his way down to the first floor of the dorm. He had wandered the halls for hours, until a group of drunk girls insulted his weird armor and ponytail. He had stormed back to our dorm room at one in the morning, long past when Kira had gone to bed. I had waited for him to come back, because I was slightly worried about how the young prince would deal with the other collage students. We were all at least 20, and he was 16. Though he looked a little older in his phenix tail.
I stepped into the light from where I had been standing in the door, startling the loud duo. Kira looked like she longed to throw her coffee mug at Zuko's scowling face.
Trying to lighten the mood, I said in a sweet voice, "Kira dear, we all know coffee burns, and hasn't this one suffered enough without a match from you?" I walked behind Zuko and put my arms around him, making a cute face that I pretended matched his.
"Don't touch me peasant." He growled, shoving me away. Kira chucked her yogurt-covered spoon at him, and to his dismay it landed right on his nose. We snickered at him as he stared cross-eyed at the spoon balancing on the curve of his nose.
A devious idea planted itself in my mind, and I grinned at my best friend. "You like spicy, right?" I asked Zuko, not even waiting for a reply as I rummaged through one of our cabinets. Kira finally caught on as I flashed the box of candy so she could see it.
"You wouldn't dare." She said with a gasp, giggling a little. Zuko stared at us like we were lunatics.
"Oh don't look at us like that, we aren't raving mad. Just a healthy amount of awesome and crazy." I scolded him, pouring a few of the little red candies into the hand I snatched from him. "Now eat it, we want to know what you think."
He eyed the candies in his hand suspiciously, then glanced up at me. I motioned frantically for him to eat them. Finally, he brought his hand up to his mouth and tentatively ate a few. The moment he bit down, his indifferent expression contoured into one of such surprise that I was sure that if he was in Tom &Jerry his mouth would be visibly on fire. Of course, we weren't sure if he could do it here, too.
Kira and I burst into hysterical laughter, watching as he stood rigid in the middle of the kitchen. That was probably the last time we would get him to eat something that didn't look like food.
We finally calmed down, and Kira opened the fridge. She poured a cup of milk from the carton, handing it to him in choked silence.
If looks could kill Kira and I might have been dead right then. He quickly drank the glass then threw it at my head for giving him the candy in the first place. It was an awful throw, and I caught it with ease.
"What IS that?" He growled, but when I glared over my shoulder menacingly he stopped. I let my lips curve into a smile.
"RedHots." I chirped with almost acid-like sweetness. Turning, I grabbed a cereal bar out of the pantry and headed back to bed. I heard Kira sharply reprimanding Zuko for throwing stuff. She looked like she wanted to bend him over her knee and give him a good spanking, like he was eight or something. I didn't really blame her.
Turning on Pandora from my phone, I slipped off my robe. I slipped into somewhat peaceful sleep, with a background of pop music and arguing.
"Jennie!" Kira yelled at the top of her lungs, and it didn't sound like she was under me. Crazy girl must have gotten up early for once in her life. "Jennie, wake up, it's noon!" At this, I rolled over and rubbed my eyes, then sat up to face my screaming (and somewhat annoying) friend.
"Is it Saturday?" I asked. She nodded enthusiastically. "YES!" I yelled, pumping my fists in the air. Saturday was MALL DAY! We went to the mall with all our best friends.
"Hey Zuko!" Kira yelled, walking in from her place in the door way. I ignored it, instead jumping down from my top bunk to stand next to her. I subconsciously wondered why she didn't do the same with Sokka and Katara, her other two favorites.
A stern looking boy wearing armor and a pony tail walked in, scowling at Kira. Oh. OOHH. I forgot about him.
When he saw what I was wearing, he shifted his eyes around frantically in search of some excuse to get out. He knew Kira wouldn't let him out just becuase I was wearing only a bra and shorts. He seemed to make a decision. Then he ran.
...Smack dab into a WALL.
I sighed, pulling on a nice outfit as Kira fussed over the unconscious prince on the floor. Our other friends weren't as big on Avatar as us, so they wouldn't know the difference between real-passed out Zuko and cosplayer-passed out Zuko. So we were trying to get his armor off so he looked somewhat normal. If that was possible.
As soon as we had his armor off and hidden (Thank god he had clothes on under it), someone knocked on our door.
"Coming!" I screamed, which effectively woke Zuko up, because he let out a surprised yelp and tried to push Kira's foot off him. She had been 'worried' that he would sleepwalk, so she had held him down with her foot. Don't ask where she got THAT idea.
It was Alex, one of our guy friends. Emma came around the corner behind him. "Did you guys kidnap a cosplayer or something?" Emma asked, peering over my shoulder to stare at Zuko and Kira, who seemed to be wrestling. I looked behind me, and sure enough, the two were yelling and rolling around next to the wall.
"Ummm. No. That is... Ashton. Yea, uh, he's Kira's new step brother!" I stuttered.
"They don't seem to get along very well." Alex commented, shaking his head.
"You have no idea." I grumbled, leading our friends into the kitchen. "Kira! Alex and Emma are here! Leave him to be emo and come talk!" I yelled over the arguing. Zuko opened his mouth to say something, probably an insult, but Kira told him to shut up as she dusted herself off. He fell silent and just glared at her retreating back.
"Step brother, huh?" Alex said, thankfully not seeing Kira's surprise as he gestured to Zuko. "How old is he?"
"Sixteen and and gets more annoying by the minute." She growled, and I laughed a little at her comment. Just then, Justin, Anna, and Sarah burst through the open door.
"We heard yelling, did we miss something?" Justin asked, dropping Sarah, who had been on his back. We had really silly friends. Zuko stared at them from his corner.
"Who's the kid?" Anna said, throwing a bottle of hand sanitizer at Zuko as she walked towards me. It hit him the side of his head as he stared at Justin and Sarah, who were stealing a quick kiss. They had gotten together a month ago, and they still hadn't lost the sparkle. I was happy for them.
We all snickered at Zuko when he looked at us like we were insane. "Oh Ashton, you're never gonna get it. Just let our awesomeness happen!" I told him, high-fiving Anna and Kira. He gave me the 'What?' look. I ran over to him. "You are officially now American enough to give me the 'What?' look. You may now celebrate!" I said, doing a little dance.
He looked sorta scared as we cheered and clapped for him. Apparently no one clapped about this stuff where he was from. Especially for him.
I walked back over to our friends, laughing my head off with them. I felt sorta bad for Zuko, but at least we included him somewhat, right?
"Why's he so confused?" Alex whispered in my ear.
"English is not his first language. And he's still learning all the concepts of American college students." I whispered back, coming up with an alibi for him.
"Where's he from?"
I panicked. I looked at Zuko, at his physical traits. "Um, Russia."
"Cool!" Alex whispered.
I paused. "Why are we whispering?"
Alex laughed, and I joined in. We all finally ran out of laughing breath, and then Blake walked in, competing our group. "What's with the commotion, I thought we were supposed to actually GO to the mall this time!" He said, erupting a chorus of giggles from the rest of us.
"Kira, should we bring Z-Ashton?" I whispered, pointing to the sulking boy in the corner.
"We can't leave him alone." She said.
Sarah snuck up behind us, whispering, "Uh oh. You guys forgot a baby sitter for your little bro!"
'Ashton' heard us talking about him. "I do not need a babysitter!" He howled. This, of course, caused a chorus of taunting 'Ooooh's and 'He speaks!'. Kira and I teased along with them, the started laughing as we all yelled a line from one of the group's favorite songs.
"HERE'S TO NEVER GROWIN UP!" Whooping and laughter filled the room, and for a moment I had never felt more content. Zuko had even dropped his scowl for an indifferent expression.
"Are we EVER going to get to the mall?!" Blake said, and I smiled.
"Yea! We gotta get Ashton looking normal!" Kira exclaimed, which was followed by more whoops of laughter.
Zuko glared at us.