Chapter Two


On Friday, Ty Lee decides that she hates crutches, and she is done with them. She will probably have to nurse her leg a little bit, but looking at her injury, and looking at this grim, boring town is making her so miserable.

She once was riding her bike, and, while she is an amazing acrobat and on a trampoline or wire or yard can do incredible feats, she is not so great at bikes. Anyway, she once was riding her bike and hit a mailbox, and she punctured her artery.

Ty Lee couldn't move, she hated it, and she hated how annoyed her sisters were to help her at all. So, despite the physical therapy she was prescribed, she just forced herself to walk.

Sheer willpower. It felt weirdly naturally.

It takes her all afternoon, and it hurts. But she finally manages to figure out how to get around the crutches with the right shoe choice and the tricks of balance she learned as a little kid in gymnastics and as a bright eyed, bushy-tailed performer.

All the same, the hiking still seems like a terrible idea. She is just glad to have the mobility to not feel so freaked out by her dreams.

And maybe to meet this Katara...

.

On Saturday, Ty Lee wakes up at four in the morning. The sky is dark and nearly starless and rain drizzles from grey clouds. around her room, dressing in jeans, a t-shirt and a black windbreaker. She grabs her small backpack of hiking supplies and creeps down the stairs.

She grabs a tall bottle of water from the fridge and the iced coffee she prepared. As soon as she finishes her coffee, she hears a car arrive. Prompted by the yellow lights, Ty Lee hurries outside and finds a Jeep with Sokka and Suki sitting in the front. They both jump out and hug Ty Lee tightly.

Ty Lee clambers into the back seat and finds a startlingly beautiful face beside her. Maybe she doesn't hate being set up by her friends. But then Ty Lee suddenly feels a sharp ache in a place she was not expecting.

While Ty Lee anticipated her leg being sore, she did not figure that her head would feel like it was splitting. Her mouth is dry as she feels like she has been stabbed between the eyes.

A sudden flood of memories that make no sense, because Ty Lee has never seen them before and has nothing to compare them too make her falter.

But no one notices. Save perhaps Katara, because she is looking right at Ty Lee as Sokka starts driving and Suki seems to have not even noticed it.

"Hey, Ty Lee," Katara says, smiling and extending a dark hand.

Ty Lee takes a deep breath. "Hey, Katara. I... remember you from school."

You were the loud one with all the opinions who I rolled my eyes at all the time because you kept going on and on and on and on and on about all of that... stuff.

A rather odd expression crosses Katara's face. Ty Lee waits patiently for response. She does not want to blow this.

"I remember you too. Kinda," Katara replies smoothly as the car starts.

Well, Ty Lee gets that response more often than she'd like, and so she nods, unable to supply anything interesting to say. She watches the dark streets move by as Suki drives. Conversation comes eventually but Ty Lee speaks sparsely. Katara sends her head reeling and fills her with gut wrenching anxiety. Ty Lee has a knack for making stupid remarks and she does not want to look like a fool in front of this instantaneous crush. The power and sensuality from Katara is overbearing, and makes Ty Lee feel like a dumb teenage girl.

They finally arrive in Ashland with the sun piercing through a blanket of clouds. The group drives through the forest and parks in front of a well-concealed nature trail. Ty Lee jumps out and stretches her legs, seizing her bag and throwing it over her shoulder.

"You know this trail right?" Ty Lee asks Sokka, not finding the idea of being lost pleasant.

"Of course I do. I always know where I'm going. I'm like a human compass." Sokka looks at her like she is insane.

"He has a map," Katara whispers behind him, tapping the glossy, folded up paper she is holding. Ty Lee giggles behind her hand and Katara winks with those big cobalt eyes.

Ones Ty Lee feels like she has seen more recently than school.

Ty Lee walks into the forest with a certain struggle, the sky blacked out by a canopy of dripping trees. Katara walks close to her, infecting Ty Lee with tension and desire. It smells fresh and crisp, the evergreens stunning. Every piece of foliage is alien to her – she has gotten way too used to the city.

"Can...?" Ty Lee does not have to finish her sentence when Katara offers the support.

"Yeah, this hike was an awful idea. But Sokka said you would want to prove you could do it. Awesome that you're off crutches." Katara sounds warm, sweet.

Ty Lee takes a sweet breath.

"I like the idea that less animals here are venomous," Ty Lee says, trying to keep her mind off of the woman beside her. "I spent my first two years with the circus on a cruiseline, and we stopped in Costa Rica to go on tour, and this guy I was working with got bitten by a fer-de-lance. We rushed him to the hospital."

"Did he make it?" Katara asks, brushing a branch away from her face.

"Thankfully yes. I like to tell stories about nature, but it was the stages that were more dangerous," Ty Lee says. "I once got a really awful shock, though, from being a daredevil on the catwalks where the lighting equipment was being set up. I still have the scars on my wrist."

She pauses and rolls up her sleeve, revealing the white scars. Katara peers at it in some kind of admiration, Suki looks queasy and Sokka nods interestedly.

"Those are weird," Suki remarks with a tiny laugh.

"Yeah. It's really unusual the way it branches upwards. They thought I'd just have a mark from the third degree burn, or so they said. But look at how it looks like a tree," Ty Lee says and Katara smiles faintly.

"Like lightning."

"I never asked how you guys know Ty Lee," Katara says, glancing between Sokka and Ty Lee. "She didn't run with our crowd, did she?"

"We went to school together. I set them up," Ty Lee says brightly. And then she hesitates and wiggles her nose; something feels a bit wrong, but she tries to stay cheery and keep her weight half on Katara's sweaty arm.

"She was Best Lesbian at our wedding," Sokka says, laughing and toying with his expedition machete.

"Best Lesbian, huh?" Katara comments with another smirk. "Will he be best straight dude at your wedding?"

"I don't think I'll get married," Ty Lee says, laughing and waving her hand dismissively.

"I'd get married. But I'm about one bad relationship away from just getting a couple of cats," Katara says, treating misfortune with a comic tone.

"Well, you need to stop dating flighty chicks and chasing straight girls. Or breaking a really nice guy like Aang's heart because a really creepy girl comes along and you move across the country for her," Sokka says loudly and Suki slaps his shoulder. "Ouch. Just a word of advice."

Idle conversation fills the next half hour of hiking. Ty Lee is pondering whether Katara would ever be interested in her as Suki jabbers incessantly. She feels foolish: crowds of shadowy onlookers in the audience are easier to deal with than people up close.

"Oo! Oo! We're almost at my favorite spot!" Suki suddenly exclaims, nearly diving off of the trail. She drags Sokka along with her and Katara and Ty Lee race after her.

They walk through thick brush until they come to a cliff. It juts up above a pool of water below, cold, grey, damp stone. Emerald green trees billow on the other side of the water.

Suki sits down on the cliff top, leaning back, her face illuminated by a sunbeam puncturing a wall of clouds. Sokka sits beside her and Ty Lee slides down to sit beside Katara. Her feet touch Suki's as the four friends relax atop the rough rock.

"I'm jumping in," Katara declares, standing up and whipping off her jacket and shirt. Ty Lee's eyes flash wide as Katara undresses down to a bra and underwear. "Oh, come on? Are we the Victorian fashion police? It's freezing; I'm not getting my clothes wet."

"That's a long drop," Ty Lee comments, peering over the cliff.

"Katara can handle it," Suki says assertively and Sokka nudges her, nodding his head at Ty Lee. Before Ty Lee can decipher the odd action, Katara runs off the cliff and plunges down into the crystalline water. "But you should hang back, Ty Lee. Your leg is still really hurt."

It seems as if she falls in slow motion, twirling down with absolute control. Ty Lee has never encountered someone so superhumanly strong and it leaves her in awe. Even the muscular companions in uncharted territory pale in comparison to this small woman.

Katara pokes her head up through the water, gasping for breath. Her teeth are chattering.

"It's fucking cold!" she calls up to her friends before bursting into shaky laughter.

"It's January, stupid!" Sokka yells, grinning. Suki blushes, pursing her lips.

"It's not that bad! Come on! Polar bear swim!" Katara shouts, bobbing up and down in the water.

Sokka takes off his shirt and jeans, running off the edge and diving in. Ty Lee always knew that he was stronger than most biologists, but something has changed. His muscles have changed from toned to rippling, and his strength and control rival Katara. She thought that there was something different in the way he moves.

His splash reaches feet higher than Katara's.

"You look scared," Suki comments as she stands up. "Believe me, you probably shouldn't."

But she winks and Ty Lee wonders if Suki wants Ty Lee to show off. Because everybody knows Ty Lee is that kid who will eat the weird beetle just for everyone to oo and aww.

Suki dives into the pool in the same fashion. Ty Lee stares over the edge, stunned at how her old friends have changed in a few years. If she were less skeptical, she would think that they had been overcome by some kind of mutation. Regardless of reality or imagination, Ty Lee knows that she does not pack that kind of punch.

Although her brain warns her, she stands up and strips off her clothes. Suki wolf whistles teasingly and Ty Lee flips her off. Gasping for breath. Ty Lee squeezes her eyes shut and dives off of the edge of the cliff.

First, she lacks control and free falls certainly to her death. Her mind slips away from the forest and to the nightclub in her dream. She is held by arms on the stage, red spotlights on her face. The faceless figure approaches, now revealed to be a woman more beautiful than anyone else in the club. She rips out her throat.

Suddenly, Ty Lee opens her eyes and smoothly hits the pool. She plunges into the icy water, the winds knocked out of her. For a moment, she is under water without breath longer than she imagined possible. Someone's hand grabs her and she is yanked into the crisp winter air.

She finds herself face to face with Katara.

"Nicely done," Katara says, nodding in approval. Ty Lee feels heat fill her chest, combating the cold of the water.

Ty Lee glances around and sees Sokka and Suki splashing each other playfully several feet away. She starts sinking when she stops focusing on staying afloat. Katara grabs her and sets Ty Lee's pale feet on her dark chocolate knees.

"Got you covered," Katara remarks, smirking again.

"How is this so easy for you?" Ty Lee breathes, feeling stupid.

"I'm an athlete. I train all the time," Katara replies, taking Ty Lee into her arms. "Hey, why don't you, uh, relax on my lap a bit." She wiggles her eyebrows with a playful tone and Ty Lee does.

There is a weird pain relief, like there is morphine in the water. But Ty Lee does not question it.

"Figures. I'm a casual adventurer," Ty Lee says, trying not to enjoy her position atop of Katara as much as she does. The sensation of relief and healing is probably some kind of hormonal surge that is out of place here. "Still, I can't believe we're not dead."

"You need to try new things," Katara says, guiding Ty Lee towards shallower water after examining Ty Lee's foot for just a few seconds too long.

Ty Lee stands with her feet on the gravel bottom and is shocked at how much easier it is to press her ankle against the ground. Her torso chills as she exposes herself to the air. Katara follows suit and Ty Lee is left breathless. Her body is stunning, wet cloth stuck to perfectly round cleavage. She quickly looks up and sees that Katara's eyes are equally on her new friend. Ty Lee is glad she put on a push-up bra this morning.

"I'm not a flighty chick," Ty Lee dares to say, spellbound.

Suki coughs and Sokka jabs her. "Shut up, I know she is but come on..."

"I'm pretty sure you're not a straight girl either," Katara says, that warmth and confidence, that power making Ty Lee feel hot despite the numbness that must be making it suddenly so easy to walk.

Katara leans forward calmly and presses her lips against Ty Lee's. Fire burning in water. Ty Lee breaks away, remembering the presence of Sokka and Suki. She wades to shore and shivers in the newfound rain. Katara follows.

"You okay?" she asks, her fingers brushing against Ty Lee's hand. Ty Lee welcomes the touch.

"We have an audience," Ty Lee replies, smiling.

Sokka and Suki walk out of the water with pleased expressions. Ty Lee realizes that they were intending for this to happen.

"Time for a climb," Sokka says, heading to the cliff. He easily clambers up, Suki in close pursuit.

Ty Lee walks to the cliff and stares at the daunting rocks. She situates one hand on the closest hold and tries to make her way up. Katara speeds past her as she stumbles, grasping and clawing.

Her foot doesn't protest one time, even though Ty Lee keeps expecting it to. And her friends don't seem worried about it, which is probably because they remember Ty Lee and her stupid stunts in school.

Still, with her injury it takes her at least ten minutes to drag herself to the top, panting. Katara, Sokka and Suki are already dressed and packing up by the time Ty Lee flops down on the rock.

Katara helps her to her feet and hands her clothes. Ty Lee dresses and combs through her hair with her fingers. She chugs from her Arrowhead water-bottle before slipping back into her worn sneakers walking after her friends.

They trek through the wilderness, taking in the beautiful sights. Ty Lee and Katara cannot stop stealing glances. If there is a such thing as a spark, they have discovered it together.

.

Once Ty Lee gets home, her head is swimming with Katara, literally swimming because it keeps getting mixed up with weird ocean fantasies that Ty Lee is not used to. They exchanged phone numbers and Ty Lee waits anxiously for a text or call, because it would make her life. She lies in bed awake for hours fantasizing about what is so close yet so far away, and does try to keep in mind the fact that she gets so carried away with romance.

She keeps examining her foot, and she thinks that there really must have been something in the water. Ty Lee lays back and rests with the television on.

Before she knows she is asleep, she finds herself in a very strange place. She is in a nightclub, or so she thinks. She is wearing a long red dress that caresses her waist and cleavage. It is beaded with rubies and draped in gold. As she pushes through the wild dancers, she is following Katara.

But she is grabbed by the strong arms before she can do anything, as she gasps for air like a dying fish, and she is dragged into the cerulean spotlight. Ty Lee sees Katara's panicked face in the crowd, as they all cheer for Ty Lee's death.

"Kill her, kill her, kill her..." cheers the crowd.

The mystery woman arrives and stands in front of Ty Lee. For the first time, Ty Lee sees the woman's eyes – golden against pale skin and rosy lips. She is beyond beautiful with black hair and long, dark eyelashes.

She is so familiar, like a childhood friend that Ty Lee forgot about and ran into a few years later.

In her hand Ty Lee at first thinks she is holding a knife, but then she realizes that it is bright blue fire, burning bright and beautiful. Ty Lee squeezes her eyes shut and braces herself for death.

But, suddenly, she is somewhere else. She lies intertwined with the mystery woman in a strange, very old timey place. They are in a bed that would fit in some movie about royal liaisons, and there are so many golden dragons.

The mystery woman's burning lips press against Ty Lee's and she feels complete. This is real, this is a memory, and she is sweating from an encounter as she looks at the light pink clothes resting on the maroon sheets beside her.

Ty Lee wakes up with her heart racing. Why, when she can think only about Katara, are her dreams filled with a woman she has never met, she cannot comprehend.

But the stranger must be the embodiment of some sexual longing. Longing for something exciting and adventurous. The stranger is murderous and colored like blood, and the fire too. Her face is probably from some soap opera that FiFi was watching and Ty Lee fell asleep to and forgot about.

Ty Lee cannot sleep after the dream that made her heart pound and warmed her thighs at the same time, prompting her to get up out of her cozy pink blankets and pull on clothes. She readies herself in the bathroom and cooks French toast for breakfast. There is no doubt in her mind that she needs to get out of the house and keep her mind on something other than the dreams that plague her.