*throws another chapter at y'all* FYI this chapter was completely unplanned but then the latest plotbunny litter was like "what if sleepover?" and I was like "okay then." SO HERE WE ARE!
This chapter introduces one kinda-serious headcanon of mine, one crack headcanon of mine, and a few Fire Nation Royal Family Feels. Enjoy!
"We're gonna freeze to death," Corporal Sango said, staring at the smoldering ruins of five tents.
"No we're not!" Lu Ten insisted, grabbing at a small blaze that was dangerously close to an unburnt tent and immediately putting it out. "Everything is going to be fine! Right Kenta?"
"There still isn't any coffee," Kenta said, dissipating the heat out of some embers that were glowing too brightly for comfort, "so it's all a moot point to me."
"That is not the attitude I am looking for, Kenta! Jouin, how're we doing?"
"WHO THE HELL THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE A FIRE INSIDE A TENT?!" Jouin screeched, spittle flying. "I LITERALLY JUST YELLED AT SOMEONE ABOUT THAT EARLIER TODAY, SO HELP ME SOZIN - "
"May Agni have mercy on their souls," Lu Ten sighed, though honestly he agreed with Jouin's assessment. Seriously, he knew it was cold, but what idiot went against basic fire safety protocol? "Jouin, when you find them, please leave them in one piece. Kenta, we in danger of things blazing up again?"
Kenta looked around for any signs of another fire, but the only light came from the dying embers. "Nah, think we're good."
"What are we gonna do?" Private Lee asked, staring at the charred spaces where tents should have been.
"Well," said Lu Ten. "We should be able to - Jouin, do we have enough supplies to make more tents?"
Jouin took a break from terrorizing some poor private who was apparently a prime suspect for stupidity to shout, "YES SIR!"
"Okay, so tomorrow we'll put up more tents," Lu Ten nodded. "See, Private Lee? Everything's going to be just fine. That's what leadership is - taking action and making decisions for the good of your people."
"Wow," said Private Lee. "Thank you, sir! It comes so easily to you!"
"Well I was literally born for the job, so, you know. It does."
"Question!" said Corporal Yukiko, raising her hand.
"Answer," Lu Ten said, pointing at her.
"So we'll put the tents up tomorrow," Corporal Yukiko said. "Where are we gonna sleep tonight?"
There would have been a moment of silence were it not for the fact that Jouin was still shouting at the hapless private.
"Hey, Jouin?" Lu Ten said. "We've gotta relocate sixty people for the night."
"Just a minute, sir! AND ANOTHER THING - "
"Don't worry," Lu Ten said, "we'll figure that out in a minute. Obviously we're gonna have to have some of the other tents in the area double up - oh, don't grumble, the extra bodies will keep you all warmer!"
The grumbling persisted.
Lu Ten's eye twitched. "Oh come on, people," he said, "we've all gotta pitch in and help here! In fact" - he hooked an arm around Corporal Sango and Private Lee's shoulders - "I'm also gonna sacrifice my personal comfort for the greater good and share my tent with these fine soldiers, so you all can quit complaining!"
"What?" Corporal Sango asked.
"What?" Kenta asked.
"Meep," Private Lee managed, and he fainted dead away.
"Whoa!" Lu Ten said, letting go of Corporal Sango so he could catch Private Lee. "Uh, okay then. I suppose I should've warned him beforehand."
"Yes you should have warned us!" Kenta snapped.
"Sorry, got caught up in the moment," Lu Ten said. To the gathered troops, he added, "Now do the patriotic thing and open your unburned shelters to your tentless countrymen! Lieutenant Jouin will be happy to help you all with placements once he's done shouting." He hoisted Private Lee over his shoulder and looked at Corporal Sango and Kenta. "Okay, I don't know about you two, but I'm tired. Let's get to bed."
"Uh, question?"
Lu Ten turned back to Corporal Yukiko. "Yes?"
She looked from him to the unconscious Private Lee to Corporal Sango and back. "Where am I sleeping?"
Lu Ten rolled his eyes. "You can sleep outside in the melted slush, since you like snow so much. Kidding, kidding, you can come with us, I'm sure we'll find room for you in my massive luxurious tent somewhere."
o0O0o
"Well," Corporal Yukiko said, "it sure is...massive. And luxurious."
Private Lee only whimpered, having revived and was now doing his best to not pass out again from the sheer shining brilliance of his prince's generosity. Lu Ten's tent was indeed huge and splendidly decorated, sporting silks, furniture, proper carpets, and enough pillows and blankets to die of heat stroke.
"What's with the pillow fort?" Corporal Sango muttered.
"It's Fort Freezingsucks and you're all invited inside," Lu Ten said, helpfully shoving Private Lee into the pillows. "Everyone make yourselves comfortable! Who wants tea?"
"NO."
"You don't count, Kenta."
"Tea sounds great!" Corporal Yukiko said, flopping down into the pillow fort. "You got pu'er?"
"Of course! I'm not a barbarian! One pot of pu'er coming right up!"
"Awesome!" Corporal Yukiko said, sprawling over the blankets.
"Yukiko!" Private Lee hissed.
"What? He said to make ourselves comfortable!"
"Trust me, he doesn't mind," Kenta grumbled from where he was brooding on a cushion.
"Yeah guys, seriously, no point in standing on decorum during a sleepover. My tent is your tent, and all that," Lu Ten said, gathering his tea things. "Just go ahead and make yourselves at home and - Corporal Yukiko get that thing off my silk cushions."
"What, this?" she asked, looking at the bristly gray fur she'd taken off her shoulders to spread on her lap. "What's wrong with it?"
"It's hideous!" Lu Ten said. "What even is it?"
Corporal Yukiko puffed herself up proudly. "It's a boarcupine fur! I killed it myself back home. It was delicious. Skinned it myself and tanned the hide to use when I was mountain-climbing and then I thought to bring it when I was deployed to Caj-Bolor. I'm glad I did - it's super warm!"
"It's super gross and looks like it'd be better used as a rug," Lu Ten said, wrinkling his nose.
"It's clean!" Corporal Yukiko insisted. "And it really is warm - kept Private Lee from freezing out there, remember?" She tucked part of the fur over Private Lee's lap.
"It is warm," Private Lee admitted.
"And I promise it's clean, Your Highness, I know how to take care of my stuff! My family works with all sorts of animal hides!"
Lu Ten frowned, but after a moment he sighed. "Fine," he said, "seeing as you're a nonbender and need extra help to stay warm, you can keep your gross fur if it keeps you from freezing to death, I guess. Just keep it away from me."
"Thank you!" Corporal Yukiko beamed.
Lu Ten rolled his eyes. "So yeah, make yourselves at home. Though do yourselves a favor and don't go near the paperwork on the table over there, it's nothing but reports on how big the wall is and it's all super depressing."
"Can I ask what this is?" Corporal Sango asked, pointing at Lu Ten's writing desk, where a number of childish drawings were scattered. The lines were clean enough and the subject matter was obvious - generally a Firebender shooting flames and leading soldiers and being awesome - but the artwork still had something juvenile about it.
Lu Ten immediately brightened. "They're good, aren't they?"
"It looks like a ten-year-old drew it," Corporal Sango snorted, and then she froze as she realized who had probably drawn the things. "I mean, uh…"
Private Lee jumped in to save her, though really he was probably less concerned for her wellbeing than he was for Lu Ten's feelings. "It's very nice artwork, sir!"
"I know, right?" Lu Ten said. "Especially considering Zuli's only six!"
The soldiers all stared at him. "Wait," Corporal Yukiko said after a moment, "you mean Princess Azula?"
"Yeah! She's still learning writing so she needs help with letters, but she can send me pictures easily enough! She's a really good artist, too - like you said, those don't look like a six-year-old drew them. I swear, that girl is good at everything she does!"
"Why is this one of a turtleduck on fire?" Corporal Sango asked.
"Zuli is a visionary," Lu Ten said sagely as he poured water into the teakettle. "And also a bit of a pyromaniac."
"She attempted to set the palace hibiscus bushes on fire during a party once," Kenta said.
"She was four years old and still thought fire was a fun toy she could make for herself," Lu Ten said breezily, setting the kettle over a tiny fire in an approved-for-tiny-fires bowl that would definitely not cause the tent to burn down and bring the Wrath of Jouin down around their heads. "She's grown out of that stage - Aunt Ursa and I made sure she knows she can't just go randomly setting things on fire."
"The last letter I got from Min, she said your Azula burned our Ty's hair ribbons."
"...I'm sure it was an accident," Lu Ten said. "Or maybe Ty Lee let her? I mean, fire is fun, burning things is fun, children play with fire to have fun, Min used to ask us to burn stuff all the time… Look, she's really not as bad as she used to be, okay? She's got more control now. And now that she knows how to respect her gifts, she's becoming quite the student! Aunt Ursa said in her last letter she's already moved up half a year in her bending classes!"
"I've heard rumors that she's a prodigy," Corporal Sango said.
"Yeah, we've been thinking that," Lu Ten said, unwrapping a brick of pressed tea and cutting a chunk of leaves off of it. "Grandpa was, so it makes sense she inherited his talent. She's scary smart and good at everything she does, I swear. She's going to make a fantastic general when she grows up. Completely terrifying, but fantastic. I'm so proud of her." He dropped the leaves into a brown teapot painted with dragons, which he set on a tray with five matching cups.
"So...what's Prince Zuko, like, then?" Corporal Yukiko asked.
"Aw, Zuzu… Okay, so what Azula's got in talent, Zuko makes up for in effort. Things don't come as easily to him as they do for her, but he just digs in his heels and learns it anyway. He's got more determination in his pinky finger than some officers I know have in their whole body! That work ethic is really gonna pay off someday. I'm proud of him, too. I'm so proud of both of them. Honestly I wish they were ten years older so they could be here with us - between Azula's raw power and Zuko's sheer force of will, those kids could probably bring the damn wall down on their own in a week. They're gonna make an amazing team when they grow up."
"Annnnnnnd this is the part where we hurry up and change the subject if we don't want to listen to him ramble on for hours about how amazing his cousins are," Kenta said.
"I don't mind listening to any stories the prince wants to tell!" Private Lee said.
"That's all well and good for you, but trust me, I've lived most of these and the ones I haven't I've heard a million times already," Kenta huffed. "If I have to listen to how amazing Azula is at burning stuff one more time - "
"Spoilsport," Lu Ten huffed. "But fine. Family anecdotes aren't really proper sleepover story fare, anyway. And since this is a sleepover, we'd better do it properly!" He grabbed a bag off the same shelf the teapot had been on and tossed it at Private Lee. "There we go! Sleepover snacks! Properly!"
Private Lee opened the bag and gaped at what was inside. "Oh my Agni you have fire flakes? Where did you get - what am I saying you're the prince of course you have fire flakes. Sir I can't accept this these are hard to get out here!"
Lu Ten shrugged. "Aunt Ursa sends me care packages. I was saving these for a special occasion. Sleepovers showcasing my magnanimous and caring nature as the future ruler of my people are definitely a special occasion. Eat as many as you want!"
"Don't mind if I do," Corporal Sango said, reaching over the still-very-shocked Private Lee to snatch up a handful of fire flakes.
"Now then!" Lu Ten said, keeping an eye on the kettle. "I've provided snacks. Who's got a story?"
"Oooooh!" Corporal Yukiko said. "Anyone know any good ghost stories?"
"Kenta, you're up!" Lu Ten said.
"Um," said Kenta. "I mean, I've got stories about ghosts but nothing I'd consider good…"
Corporal Yukiko wrinkled her nose. "How does that work?"
"I mean...because it's real?"
"You have a real ghost story and it's not good?"
"It's mundanely real," Kenta said, crossing his arms. "Nothing really exciting or chilling, just...stuff. That happens. In my life. And is real."
Corporal Yukiko grimaced. "Seriously? That's all you have to say?"
"Aw, Kenta, you're selling yourself short!" Lu Ten said, idly tapping the teapot. Another minute and the water would be ready to pour. "You're the one with the weird spirit-touched family, you've got plenty of ghost stories! What about that time you and Min and I ran around the Hungry Ghost Festival because Min said there was something trying to suck the energy out of people?"
"Honestly, you and I were pretty useless during that whole thing."
"What about that time Hua Lee went out to watch the Night Marchers and they tried to pull her back to the Spirit World with them?"
"I wasn't even there for that."
"Well what about...uh...huh, I was gonna ask about that ghost that lives in your house, but then I remembered how uninteresting that one actually is."
"There's a ghost that lives in your house?" Corporal Yukiko yelped.
"Can ghosts actually live anywhere?" Corporal Sango wondered. "Doesn't that defeat the point of being a ghost?"
"How is a ghost that lives in your house uninteresting?" Corporal Yukiko asked.
"How is any of the stuff they're talking about uninteresting?" Private Lee added through a mouthful of fire flakes.
"Kenta's house is haunted by the most boring ghost ever," Lu Ten explained, taking the kettle from the flame and placing it on the tray, which he then carried over to his guests and placed on the tea table before sitting down. The first batch of hot water was poured into the waiting teapot. Subconsciously, his internal clock, honed by a lifetime of obsessive tea-making, began counting.
Corporal Yukiko's brows rose. "How is a ghost boring?"
"Apparently it just sorta wanders around and stands in sunbeams and watches people and does absolutely nothing noteworthy," Lu Ten said, rolling his eyes.
"But it's a ghost!"
"I know, you'd think it'd be cooler. I'm still not fully convinced it's real," Lu Ten said. "I mean, Min could totally be making the whole thing up."
"It's real, Lu," Kenta sighed.
"Have you ever seen it?"
"Of course I haven't seen her - I don't have spirit sight."
"Well then!"
"But Dad does, and he sees her often enough."
Lu Ten shrugged. "Still the most boring ghost ever. C'mon Kenta, surely you have something fitting for a sleepover!"
"All my ghost stories end with Min screaming 'KENTA LOOK OUT!' and spitting on me. I didn't inherit the spirit sight, okay? I don't get caught up in that stuff much. It's more of my dad's and cousins' thing."
Lu Ten sighed. "Fine," he said, just as his instinctual tea count-down clock reached zero, and he emptied the teapot over the little dragon figurine on the tray. First pour accomplished, he refilled the pot with more hot water from the kettle and began subconsciously counting again. "Does anyone have any good ghost stories?"
"Ooooh, me!" Corporal Yukiko said. "I've got one about yuki-onna!"
"The snow spirits?" Private Lee choked out.
"I mean, they aren't spirits, they're ghosts of women who died in snowstorms - uh," said Corporal Yukiko, staring worriedly at Private Lee when he started whimpering.
"Okay, yeah, stories about the ghosts of people who died in snow might be hitting a little close to home right now," Lu Ten said. "Anyone else? Heck, I don't even care if we forget ghost stories at this point, there are plenty of other stories out there!"
The tent flap suddenly opened, and Jouin entered with a burst of cold air.
"Jouin!" Lu Ten grinned. "What's the story?"
"Everyone has somewhere to sleep and the idiots responsible have been reprimanded and put on kitchen duty for the next month," Jouin said.
"Wonderful! Great job, Jouin! This is why I trust you to take care of things."
"It's an honor, sir."
"So were you going back to the officers' tent, then?" Lu Ten asked, picking up the teapot. "Or would you rather stay here?" He poured out a cup of tea and added, enticingly, "I made pu'er."
Jouin looked at the cup. "I suppose I'll stay," he said, coming in and sitting on a cushion. "At least for a little while."
"Great!" Lu Ten said, handing him the cup and pouring another, which he handed off to Kenta before serving the rest. "We were just trying to think of stories to share. Ghost stories turned out to be a no-go. Would you happen to have anything interesting? Because if not I'm gonna have to pull out my old favorite - "
Kenta looked up from where he'd been glaring at his teacup, expression immediately lightening. "Oh, please yes - "
" - Love Amongst the Dragons!"
"Yes," Kenta said. Beside him, Corporal Sango perked up.
"It's got everything," Lu Ten continued. "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!"
"Rodents of Unusual Size!" Corporal Sango crowed, looking delighted. "I love that story!"
"I've never actually read it," Corporal Yukiko said cheerily.
"Me neither," Private Lee admitted.
"What?" Lu Ten yelped. "Inconceivable!"
Corporal Sango started snickering. "We're gonna be quoting this all night, aren't we?"
"Oh," said Kenta, "we're gonna have fun storming this castle. I mean, if no one objects?"
"I certainly don't," Jouin said. "If need be I do have a story of my own, but I'll never turn down Love Amongst the Dragons."
"Love Amongst the Dragons it is!" Lu Ten grinned.
"Please tell me you'll be reading from the actual book?" Corporal Sango said.
"I'm affronted that you might think I wouldn't."
Corporal Sango grinned. "Prince Lu Ten, get the book!"
Lu Ten's eyes sparkled as he stood from his seat and stepped toward a shelf. "Book? What book?"
"Corporal Sango, rip his arms off," Kenta said.
"Oh, you mean this book!" Lu Ten said, holding up the book with a flourish before returning to his seat. Kenta and Sango exchanged the grins of co-conspirators who'd just completed a successful multi-person quote, while Corporal Yukiko looked confused; Private Lee looked horrified that anyone would threaten to rip the prince's arms off. "Don't worry Corporal Yukiko, Private Lee, we'll have you cultured in no time!"
"I know this thing's a cult classic," Corporal Yukiko said. "Is it worth the hype?"
"Yes. And if you get the chance I really recommend seeing it as a play, too. Though not by the Ember Island Players, they suck."
"Why's your aunt take you to see them every year, then?" Kenta asked as Lu Ten paged through the book.
"She's a little masochistic like that," Lu Ten said. "Really likes laughing at dumb, over-the-top sappy stuff. Also I think she does it to poke fun at Uncle Ozai? Which I admit I'm always down for, and he makes the best annoyed faces during the show... I dunno, the Ember Island Players are terrible, but they're also a tradition by now, so." He shrugged and lifted the book. "Okay. We ready for this?"
"So ready," Corporal Sango said.
"Fire away, sir," Jouin said, sipping his tea.
"Great! Alright then. Love Amongst the Dragons. By Shiro Asahoshi. Buttercup was raised on a small farm on the island of Cowry. Her favorite pastimes were riding the mongoose-lizard and tormenting the farmgirl who worked there. Her name was Li, but Buttercup never called her that. Nothing gave Buttercup as much pleasure as ordering Li around. 'As you wish' was all Li ever said…"
And so began the greatest Fire Nation cult-classic love story of all time. Lu Ten read it out steadily, with minimal interjections from Kenta and Corporal Sango, and he was gratified to see that Corporal Yukiko and Private Lee did seem pretty entertained by the whole thing.
"That day Buttercup was amazed to discover that when Li was saying 'As you wish,' what she meant was - "
"I love you!" Kenta and Corporal Sango said, and then they high-fived.
"And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved her back," Lu Ten continued.
Private Lee was quietly absorbing the story, but Corporal Yukiko raised her hand. "So, this is cute and very romantic and all, but when do we get to the promised exciting parts?"
"We're getting there!" Lu Ten promised, turning a page. "Li had no money for marriage, so she packed her few belongings and left the farm to seek her fortune across the sea. It was a very emotional time for Buttercup."
Kenta and Corporal Sango were unable to hold in their fannish joy during the declaration of true love scene and helpfully hijacked Lu Ten's reading.
"But what if something happens to you?" Kenta asked, making Buttercup sound needlessly dramatic as he threw a hand over his head.
"Hear this now: I will come for you!" Corporal Sango-as-Li promised.
"But how can you be sure?"
"This is true love. You think this happens every day?"
There was a moment of silence, and then Lu Ten asked, "You gonna finish that scene, or…?"
"We're not kissing," Kenta said flatly.
"I'd kiss him if he looked like Buttercup," Sango said.
"I'm not a girl."
"Exactly."
"Li didn't reach her destination. Her ship was attacked by the Dread Pirate Ro Ba, who never left captives alive."
"Oh," said Corporal Yukiko, "so this is when it gets interesting."
"When Buttercup got the news that Li was murdered, she went into her room and shut the door. And for days, she neither slept nor ate."
"I will never love again," Kenta and Corporal Sango said in dramatic unison, and they exchanged another high-five.
"You two are just gonna quote this whole thing at us, aren't you?" Corporal Yukiko asked.
"Yes!"
They stopped high-fiving though, because by the sixth time or so ("Do you want me to send you back to where you were, unemployed on Whaletail Island?") it became apparent that their hands would go numb. They stuck to the quotes.
"No more rhyming now, I mean it!" Lu Ten said, far too cheery for a character who was supposed to be aggravated.
"ANYBODY WANT A PEANUT?" Kenta and Corporal Sango chorused.
"This is ridiculous and you are ridiculous," Corporal Yukiko giggled, her face in her hands.
They made it halfway through Buttercup's kidnapping to the point where she jumped off the boat, at which point they had to pause after "Do you know what that sound is, Highness? Those are the shrieking eels. If you doubt me, just wait. They always grow louder when they're about to feed on human flesh."
"Shrieking eels?" Corporal Yukiko cackled. "Seriously?"
"Spirits that sounds familiar," Jouin said dryly, pouring more tea. "Whyever am I having this sudden sense of deja vous?"
"Huh," Lu Ten said, looking at his book. "Now that I think about it, I wonder if the author ever had the chance to visit Ba Sing Se."
"Agni knows there's plenty of inspiration in the stupid lake!" Kenta said. "I wonder how our own shrieking eel is doing?"
"What could the damn thing possibly be doing?" Zhao snarled, punching fireballs over the side of the ship.
"Uh, sleeping?" Lieutenant Lee suggested. It'd been hours since they'd last seen the serpent, it was late at night, and it seemed to be the obvious answer.
"Fish don't sleep!" Zhao snapped.
"Uh," said Lieutenant Lee, "actually, I'm pretty sure they - "
"LIEUTENANT! Stop making excuses and get me results!" Zhao glared at the tall, long mountain off the port side separating the lakes. "Where is that thing?"
"Sorry sir! I'm sure it'll pop up eventually! It always does…"
Unbeknownst to either of them, Squeaky the sea serpent was currently curled up some five hundred feet below them on his favorite patch of fallen boulders from the Serpent's Pass, an enormous, waterlogged tree trunk cuddled between his coils. The droning hum of the ship floating above reverberated off the stone, creating a soothing lullaby of white noise that only slightly woke Squeaky up before sending him back to sleep, little bubbles escaping his nostrils every few seconds. An experienced lakeside dweller might have taken note of the bubbles rising from the deep and wisely decided to steer their boat away from what lurked below, and in eighty years or so sonar technology would allow Ba Sing Se University zoologists to pinpoint this exact location as Squeaky's favorite resting place and watch him sleep like total creepers, but for now Squeaky was left in peace, blissfully unaware of the furious Firebender baying for his blood up above.
Not that Squeaky would care even if he had been aware. After two hundred years of living, not much phased you, especially not tiny chompable humans trying to kill you again when they hadn't even been able to manage it when you'd been a hatchling. Squeaky perfectly understood his place in the universe, and that place was as the indisputable apex predator of the lakes.
"Fish don't sleep," Zhao said, glaring at the water. "So we won't sleep."
"Uh," said Lieutenant Lee, who was from a family of fishermen and was thus still pretty certain that fish did, indeed, sleep, and also uncertain that the serpent was actually a fish, anyway, "sir?"
"Tell the helmsman to keep making the rounds," Zhao ordered. "All hands remain at their posts. We're going to find that thing sooner or later."
"Uh," said Lieutenant Lee, trying to remember which tea in the galley had the most caffeine, since he was pretty sure they were all out of coffee, "is that the plan, sir?"
Zhao snarled. "It has to come up at some point. And when it does, it'd better be prepared to die."
"HELLO! MY NAME IS ICHIGO MOYA! YOU KILLED MY FATHER! PREPARE TO DIE!"
"Y'know, I can see why this is a cult classic," Corporal Yukiko said, munching on fire flakes while watching Kenta and Corporal Sango improvise a swordfight with Lu Ten's paintbrushes. "It's very entertaining. And quotable. I'm definitely gonna be quoting along next time."
"Quoting along is part of the experience," Lu Ten said sagely. "In the stage play, it's highly encouraged for the audience to shout quotes. Except for the Ember Island Players version, because they take themselves too seriously as artistes and they suck."
"You should come see how the Green Sand Clan does it, sir," Jouin said. "My uncle plays Miracle Mao."
"Does he have fun storming the castle?" Lu Ten asked, grinning.
"Of course not, sir. It's up to Li and Ichigo Moya and Fei Zi to storm the castle."
"Can we keep reading?" Private Lee asked. "I wanna know if the Dragon Emperor's doing alright against the Water Spirit."
"Oh my spirits I'm so glad I've converted you guys," Lu Ten gushed. Glancing across the tent, he added, "Well, looks like Kenta and Corporal Sango have worn each other out finally."
"I WANT MY FATHER BACK YOU SONUVABITCH!" Kenta and Corporal Sango shouted from where they'd collapsed, giggling, on the rug.
"Uh-huh. Make sure you two put my brushes back properly! Alright, so back to the story…"
Outside it was dark and cold, and the wind whistled amongst the tents, but here in Lu Ten's tent there was warmth and light and laughter and good food and great tea and a story to keep everyone's mind off of the winter. For the night, at least, everything felt like it was going to be okay.
Next time: Morning comes, and I highly recommend you listen to The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss II.
Headcanon time! Love Amongst the Dragons is the Avatarverse version of The Princess Bride and you can pry this headcanon from my cold dead brain matter. I will allow it to be mishmashed with the Dragon Emperor vs Blue Water Spirit thing we had brief glimpses of in The Search, because we need to have dragons in the Princess Bride storyline SOMEWHERE, but the bulk of my Love Amongst the Dragons inspiration is definitely Princess Bride. (I really...don't care about The Search, anyway. I regard most of the comics as B-canon to be honest.) I will fully explore the retold plot eventually, in an adorable oneshot featuring dragonpox-bedridden!Lu Ten and Aunt-not-Grandpa!Ursa entitled Is This A Kissing Book? No idea when I'll finally do that tho. :P
If you've never watched The Princess Bride and thus had no idea what was going on in that section or what I'm talking about now... *gently takes your face in my hands* ...you really need to go watch it, okay? Okay.
Speaking of Princess Bride and regarding the comics as B-canon, yes, I genderbent Westley, and yes, I made her and Buttercup girlfriends, and yes, Corporal Sango is gay, because even though the Korra comics look like they're gonna deal with homophobia and gave us a brief infodump on its history in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, I...never saw the Avatarverse like that? I mean it's an important issue to tackle but it doesn't exist in my headcanon, there are SO many other places conflict can come from in this universe and I'd much rather write about queer folks just living and dealing with problems that aren't "oh no we need to fight for our right to exist!" So this is me making sure that piece of my headcanon is out there, despite the comics canon. *shrugs* At least they agree with the fanon assessment that Avatar Kyoshi was bi.
Other random things -
Lu Ten and his baby cousins make me so happy I love them.
Zhao has no idea how fishing works.
Squeaky is from a long-lived species.
Kenta shares a house with the most boring ghost ever! Wow that sounds so plain and simple I'm sure there's no potential universe-spanning plot elements there. :P
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed and have the time, please leave a review! :D