Disclaimer: We do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or any of the characters, places, nor plots that come along with it
Disclaimer: We do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or any of the characters, places, nor plots that come along with it. We also do not own Indiana Jones, or other such things that are blatantly not ours, as we would have enough spare time to write something like this versus creating moneymaking things that benefit society.
- - -
Chapter Four
- - -
Marisu and Zuko sat conversing in front of the campfire. Zuko had lit it with firebending, which prompted Marisu to tell him the story of how she saved his uncle.
"I was horrified!" she said of meeting the prison guard, "And then I just threw my hands out in front of me, and suddenly he was on fire! I mean, I've watched the military practice their firebending, but I've never really tried it…"
"You were afraid you would get caught?" Zuko asked comfortingly like many characters from romance novels that he was not. Marisu did not look up at him, but nodded.
"You'll get a chance to try it, Marisu," he assured, "I'll teach you how to firebend." Marisu's face lit up like Rockefeller Center at Christmas time.
"You would really do that for me, Zuko?" she asked happily. He nodded and she swiftly responded with a tight hug. Zuko did not wonder if he should pull away this time. Everyone else at the campfire scooted away from the pair in poorly masked worry.
Zuko woke Marisu up bright and early the next day to start her lessons. Unfortunately, Zuko's efforts were wasted, because Aang was already up to feed Appa and overheard Marisu say something about 'learning firebending'.
"Can I learn too?" Aang asked politely, holding back his excitement.
"No," Zuko uttered flatly, scowling at the less pretty Avatar. Aang glowered at Zuko before Marisu tapped him the shoulder.
"Don't worry, Aang," she whispered, "I'll teach you the firebending Zuko teaches me, but do you think you could teach me the other elements?"
"Yes," Aang said quickly. He regretted this shortly after, realizing that teaching Marisu the other elements may unleash an unknown evil upon the world. He did not bother taking it back, either, because he was too busy wondering how he would explain this to Katara.
Marisu approached Zuko again, "I don't understand why you dislike Aang and his friends so much, Zuko. I think they're nice!" Even an out-of-character Zuko had no response for such a declaration.
It took only a week for Marisu to learn firebending to the level that Zuko had achieved. Snatching the rare opportunity to learn firebending himself, Aang taught Marisu the remaining elements. Apparently it did not occur to him to ask Iroh to teach him firebending at all.
Zuko was amazed by the speed at which Marisu was learning and he made the unfortunate mistake of complimenting her one day. "At this rate, Marisu, it'll only take a year or two for you to learn how to bend lightning."
"Oh, you mean this?" Marisu said as she pointed her arm skyward, and swung it down in the direction of the pile of firewood. Electricity shot from her hands and the wood ignited. Zuko gawked in disbelief at her. Marisu smiled timidly.
"I did that by accident the other day. It really surprised me," she confessed. Zuko kept on gawking.
"Did you just make that lightning bolt, Marisu?"
"Wow, didn't you just start learning how to firebend last week?"
"You sure do learn fast!"
Anonymous voices of praise continued to call after Marisu. Zuko's astonished stare slowly turned into an envious scowl.
While all of the above was taking place, Toph asked if it was possible to even learn basic bending that quickly, but everyone was too busy praising Marisu to notice and so her question was again unacknowledged.
- - -
Zuko sat unhappily, staring at the fire that Marisu had created earlier that morning. He had been thinking for a very long time and decided that he would be quite peeved with Marisu when she returned. She did just that not too soon afterwards.
"Hi, Zuko!" Marisu exclaimed in an irritatingly cheery voice. He glared up at her. Marisu, however, did not seem to notice, and continued, "I built you a statue with my earthbending!" She stepped aside to reveal a statue that had been so skillfully crafted that even Michael Angelo's work would be put to shame.
"I hate it," Zuko said tersely, now out of character in the other extreme. Marisu looked shocked at his harsh words.
"What's wrong with it?" Marisu defended, "It's magnificent in every regard, just like you!"
Now-mean-Zuko ignored her attempts at flattery: "Whatever." Marisu frowned.
"There's… something written on the plaque," Marisu said halfheartedly. Zuko looked, curious to see its contents. It read, 'I love you Prince Zuko – Marisu,' in loopy, elegant script.
"What do you think?" asked Marisu anxiously.
Zuko glowered. "Thanks."
Marisu gasped. Her immensely described emerald eyes looked as though they were on the verge of shedding immensely described diamond tears. "But… Don't you love me too?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm stubborn, and even I did love you, I wouldn't say it to your face, okay!" Zuko shouted bluntly. Marisu's bottom lip quivered and she ran off, covering her face in shame. Zuko immediately regretted what he had just said. "Wait, Marisu!" he called after her, "I didn't mean it!" He ran after her for a short while, but she was much to fast and graceful for him.
Marisu ran into the shelter of the woods, fell to her knees, and cried through the entire page it required to include the lyrics to some break-up song that the readers probably already knew the lyrics to, since the radio had already beaten them over the heads with it.
Katara, who was coincidently looking through that part of the woods for lunch, came upon her. She cautiously advanced toward the fretting maiden, considerate enough to talk to her in her time of grief. "Marisu, did something happen?"
In her hysteria, Marisu responded with something totally unreadable due to the numerous misspellings, unnecessary capitalization, and other dire grammatical errors. Katara sat down next to her, teeth clenched in apprehension, and patted Marisu on the back. "It's okay; calm down."
Marisu sniffled as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Zuko is a big fat jerk!" she wailed.
Katara nodded in agreement. "I know, I know." Katara as well seemed to forget that Marisu was potentially evil and continued to comfort her. "You're just too good for him, that's all."
"No! He's too good for me!" Marisu sobbed, "Zuko-kun is the most kind, handsome, warm-hearted, smart, loving, affectionate, compassionate, best fighter there ever was, and I'm just not good enough!"
Katara frowned, not sure that Zuko was any of those things, and she was puzzled as to just what kind of pet name 'Zuko-kun' was. "I guess you think very highly of him, huh?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Marisu sniffed again, looking up at Katara.
Katara sighed, "Look, Marisu. I don't know what has happened to him since he met you, but he has a bit of a reputation."
Marisu frowned in confusion. Katara opened her mouth to explain further.
"No!" shouted Sokka from behind a few rows of trees as he realized Katara was talking to the source of recent abnormalities. He ran towards his sister, hoping that it was not too late to save her, when it suddenly occurred to him that Marisu could hear anything he could possibly say to warn her. "Erm, hey, Marisu!"
Marisu sniffled and turned her head shyly. Sokka gave Katara a stern look. "Katara, remember that thing you had to do? The really important one?" Katara rolled her eyes at him.
"Sorry, Marisu," she sighed, "But Sokka's right, I have to go. Don't think too much about what Zuko said, okay?"
Marisu wiped her eyes and nodded.
- - -
After a long morning of gathering various flowers, leaves, and barks for his tea-making experiments, Iroh finally believed that he had created a concoction that was both edible and flavorsome. He put the pot of tea over the fire, and sat down on a nearby stone to wait. Having at least another few minutes to ponder, Iroh stared down at the puddle of numerous teas that he had been forced to dispose of because of a single incongruous ingredient. He sincerely hoped that this one would not be the same, because he was getting quite tired of sampling the putrid liquids.
He was still thinking about this when he realized that his tea was about to boil over. He sprang from his resting place and dislodged the pot from the above the flames. He sighed in relief, discerning that nothing had spilled over, and sat down again to pour himself a cup.
"Uncle!" Zuko leaped out from behind tall shrubberies not ten feet to Iroh's right. In his alarm, Iroh had spilt his cup of tea all over the ground. He heaved a sigh in exasperation. Zuko did not realize this, as usual, and kept on talking, "Marisu's gone! I've made a mistake!"
"What kind of mistake?" he responded, not surprised.
"A bad one!" Zuko replied. He was not feeling very original at the time. "I refused her affections and she ran off. I didn't know that she…" Zuko trailed off and hung his head in despair.
Iroh nodded solemnly. "Well, if you don't feel the same way about her as she feels about you, then perhaps it is better this way, as long as you were polite."
"No, Uncle! I do feel the same way! That's the problem!" Zuko bleated passionately.
Iroh had almost spilt his tea again as he poured himself another cup. Nothing else coming to him, he was left with but one thing to ask, "Then why did you deny her?"
"Oh, I don't know," Zuko said more to himself than to his uncle, "I guess I was just jealous of her. She knows how to bend lightning already and I was supposed to be her teacher! It's just not fair, she's too perfect!"
"It certainly seems that way." Iroh frowned, sipping his tea. To his relief, it was much better than the others he had made that morning. "If you have any uncertainties about her at all, perhaps you should consider leaving Marisu to herself for now."
"It's not that. I… I just don't deserve her!" Zuko whined. Iroh choked on his tea as he tried to comprehend such nonsense. Zuko furrowed his brow. "Are you okay, Uncle?"
"Fine, fine," Iroh coughed, "But what if she's using her plotbending to influence-"
"-Plotbending!" Zuko exclaimed, affronted by this accusation. "Uncle, do you think that Marisu is the girl from that stupid prophecy?" The ire was very strong in his voice. Iroh could not believe that he had said what he had aloud.
Zuko did not end the tirade there. "How could you suggest that Marisu would ever do anything so unspeakable, you superstitious old man!"
While Iroh felt as though his feelings should be hurt at Zuko's outburst, they were not. He was not even sure if he was truly dealing with his nephew anymore, and while he was concerned for Zuko, he tried not to smile because the thought of him saying this at any previous point would have been laughably ridiculous. Zuko must have noticed that Iroh was amused, because he became even more outraged and shouted even louder.
"It's not funny, Uncle! Marisu is the most kind, beautiful, warm-hearted, smart, loving, affectionate, compassionate, best fighter there ever was, and I love her!"
"Z… Zuko."
Zuko turned his head towards the source of the familiarly melodic voice. Marisu was watching them from the side of a conveniently blooming tree. Its warm yellow blossoms sinking to the ground around her delicately flawless frame only made the sight of her even more breathtaking. Her clear, shining emerald eyes looking intensely at him, brimming with deep and genial emotion. Her glossy raven hair flowed gently in the subtle, fragrant breeze. A sweet smile was tugging at the corners of her slightly parted rose-colored lips, and as sad as it was, both this paragraph's length and relative insignificance eventually outstretched that of the one describing Marisu in the first chapter.
Zuko's expression brightened melodramatically. "Marisu!" The two ran for each other, arms open. They met in a loving embrace, Marisu's face buried into Zuko's chest, and Zuko leaning his head over her shoulder. It was a bizarre sight to behold. So bizarre, in fact, that Iroh had to look away to stop his head from spinning.
"I knew you loved me, Zuko, I just knew it!" Marisu cried, looking into his golden eyes.
"Don't you ever think otherwise, Marisu," Zuko replied wholeheartedly. xXxZukoHartzMe4evaXxX must have been more talented than she was given credit for, because she claimed she could imagine him saying phrases like these in all seriousness.
"How touching," an ominous voice answered in a typical villainous fashion. Zuko looked up at the source, shoving Marisu behind him protectively. The cliffhanger commenced.