A/N: Okay, so yall's pm messages finally worked. I'm updating again! I can't promise I'll update very frequently, but I will do my best :) Enjoy!
A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N
HOME SWEET HOME. KIND OF.
"You're on the verge of darkness, firefly,
You dance a lonely path among the others,
Shattered by the dawn, you dance with the shadows,
But the darkness, it smothers."
-Meghan Fields; The Firefly
It was a new thing to have other people staring at my scar again. I'd been either alone or around people who new me so often lately that it was an unforgiving shove back into reality to have people noticing it, and I was getting more than a little uncomfortable there. If I had to guess, I'd say Kaida and Uncle didn't even see it when they looked at me anymore; the mark that painted half my face. To them, it was as much a part of my appearence as my eyes or nose, but these shadowbenders around me; they were all watching me like I was something to steer clear of, rather than a human being, like them or anyone else.
Like the way Sora Aoi's eyes strayed every so often to the side when he glanced back at me.
We weren't so much a group anymore, as we were two pairs of people that happened to be walking in the same direction. While Uncle chose to stay next to me in silence, Kaida and Sora were a few feet in front of us, chattering loudly enough for the entire city to hear. Kaida kept glancing around excitedly, asking Sora about any house, building or landmark that happened to have caught and held her eyes. As it happened, Sora knew plenty of things about the city he lived in, and the two of them didn't shut up the entire walk to our new home.
Something about it all bothered me. Not the fact that Kaida and her new friend weren't shutting up - the girl never really shut up, anyway - but rather the fact that she was not shutting up to someone other than me. I mean, it had taken weeks for the girl to even consider calling me by my actual name, much less have a civilized conversation with me. So, how was it that Sora - this person that Kaida had only just met - could get her to trust him so easily. The whole ordeal didn't sit easily in the pit of my stomach.
As we wove in and out of the maze of pale figures crowding the unblemished streets, my mind kept dragging me back places that I didn't want to go. I could not, for the life of me, figure out whether or not Kaida had lied to me about the other shadowbenders. It was bothering me; not knowing. As much as I tried to convince myself that she wouldn't lie about that kind of thing to me - that she had no logical reason to lie to me - I couldn't fool myself into thinking that she couldn't have done it; that she wouldn't have done it.
She could have. She would have. In fact, she was more than capable.
Everyone there seemed to know her, whether Kaida knew them back or not, and her display in front of me now wasn't helping the situation. Sora had called her by her name. Rei had outright observed that she'd 'returned.' Even RB hadn't looked the slightest bit surprised at her showing up on her very doorstep. And now, as we made our way across the city, it wasn't Kaida that they were all staring at in confusion, surprise and distrust. It was Uncle, and it was me.
Needless to say, it was a welcome sight when Sora finally paused in front of an enormous and beautiful house. It was - like all the other houses in the city - made entirely of white stone and empty space. The structure of it was almost geometric, with straight walls and a leveled-off roof. The simplicity of the building was almost calming in the way it reminded me of how our old house on Ember Island was set up.
For the first time the entire trip there, Kaida and Sora managed to stop talking to each other. While Sora busied himself with searching through the heavy ring of keys that Rei had kindly flung at him on his way back to the square, Kaida stepped back in between Uncle and I, practically beaming.
"This is crazy," she told me simply.
"Yeah," I trailed off unconvincingly. It wasn't just crazy. It was one-hundred-percent insane. I had caught myself several times hoping I might wake up any moment and be back on the ship trying to figure out what to do with myself. Of course, it never happened, and, in the end, Sora finally managed to figure out which key unlocked our door. He quickly slid it off the key ring and handed it off to Uncle, as if afraid he might loose it himself.
"Well," Sora began reluctantly before we entered the house, gazing briefly at his feet, "I'd better go and let Rei know which house you're staying in."
"Okay," Kaida answered first, while the other shadowbender skipped backward down the entrance stairs, and I caught myself almost wishing he'd trip.
"I'll be in the square if anyone needs me," he called back to us, then jogged back the way we came, waving and greeting people he passed by. I watched in silence with the others until he was long out of sight.
"Interesting young man," Uncle commented in an amused tone before proceeding to unlock the door to our new residency. I only huffed in response, just happy to be rid of the over-enthusiastic shadowbender for the time being.
I don't know why I expected the inside of the house to be any different, but the sight was still shocking, despite seeing it coming a mile away. The inside was even more stunningly plain and empty than the outside. Even being down in there, where the only substance they had to work with was rock, you still forgot exactly what that meant. That was what made it all so unexpected, and though the house was completely dark the entire room still managed to shimmer faintly as the door swung open, and the light from the streets shone past, only cut off by our sillhouettes.
Kaida shot an orb of light into a lamp suspended from the ceiling, and the whole place came vividly to life. The furniture was a strange combination of the white stone and the glowing, turquoise crystals from the cave walls, which - before the room had been lit up - had been emitting their familiar, blue light. Now, unveiled by the dark, they were as clear and plain as the glass that made up everything else.
Other than that, however, the house was almost as boring and simple as the exterior suggested. There were no carpets, no paintings, no plants cluttering up the rooms. In fact, there was nothing past what was absolutely necessary; to the point that it almost felt uninviting. Suddenly - without warning - Kaida took off, bolting around the corner and up the stairs.
"I call the biggest room!"
A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N
I definitely would have fought for the room I was now rumagging through. Everything in it was clean and simple, and the view of the city out of the front window was the cherry on top. Despite how pleased I was with my room, through, I had no intention of staying inside of it for very long. I wanted to get out and learn the city like the back of my hand, and, besides, I had sixteen years of not being there to make up for. I would need to get started right away if I ever wanted to get that done.
Everything about what was happening felt like a dream. The reality of all I had just learned and experienced hadn't quite set into my consciousness, yet, so every time I thought about it, it felt like I was being shocked all over again. I supposed it would just take a bit of time for me to get used to the City of Light. Everything there felt so detatched from the rest of the world, like the way you couldn't see the sun or the way Zuko and Iroh were the only people walking around without white hair; and Iroh's hair was technically silver, so he almost blended in as well.
I frowned. Now that I thought about it, Zuko hadn't said hardly a word to me since Sora had found us back outside the city wall. I knew that he didn't like to talk a whole lot, anyway, but he had looked almost irritated when I'd been stealing glances back at him earlier. I supposed that he had to have been uncomfortable around so many shadowbenders, though. Heck, he could hardly stand being around normal people he didn't know. Suddenly, there was a dull rap on the door, followed by Zuko's quiet voice.
"Kaida?"
"Yeah?" I called back, falling onto the surprisingly comfortable bed as he came inside, holding a wad of ivory cloth in one hand. He seemed to be considerably more relaxed than he had been before; something I didn't quite understand but was still glad of.
"I don't think we're in the right rooms," he informed me bluntly, guaging my reaction. I laughed, sitting up lightly.
"No way, Zuko. I called it," I grinned, crossing my arms and basking in the glory of my room. "If you wanted a nicer view, you should have run up the stairs like an idiot before I got the idea."
"No, I'm serious," he persisted, letting the white material in his hand unfold into a silver kimono that very obviously belonged on a girl. "These are all in my closet, and I don't think they're for me."
"You sure, Zuko?" I sputtered, struggling to press my lips together firmly enough that I wouldn't laugh. "You could probably squeeze into it if you really wanted to." I waited for the irritated huff or angry reply or possibly the sound of my door slamming and someone stomping loudly down the hallway, but to my shock he just tossed the kimono to me, his mouth curved up ever so slightly.
"Ha, ha. Very funny," the prince answered calmly, and I was suddenly wary of his lack of a retort. "Just keep it. I wasn't planning on wearing anything from here, anyway." I gazed at him curiously. Something inside me wondered idly why he wasn't as angry as I'd expected him to be, but that wasn't to say I didn't like it, either. I watched Zuko as he turned to leave, but veered in the direction of the stairs, rather than his room. I quirked an eyebrow, automatically sliding onto my feet again. Going somewhere, are we?
I followed the prince downstairs wordlessly, fingering the silver rail stuck to the wall. I wasn't being particularly quiet, and he probably knew I was behind him either way, but I didn't say anything; just followed. I noticed quickly that Iroh had already disappeared from the house, as well. I hadn't the foggiest idea where he would have gone off to, but the living room was bleak and empty without the man. Zuko stopped - so I paused, too - turning back around to stare at me for a minute with a partially bewildered expression, before continuing in the direction of the door. The minute he began moving, I followed again, still not speaking. Finally, halfway down the front steps, Zuko's patience ran out.
"Is there a reason you're following me?"
"Where are you going?" I quizzed, ignoring his question and substituting my own. For a second, the prince looked like he didn't know what to say to that, but recovered quickly enough as I bounced down the stairs next to him.
"Nowhere," he answered dubiously, as if it were obvious. "I'm just going to walk around."
"Hmm . . . okay," I decided, striding down the stairs once again. I would have kept going if I hadn't noticed that Zuko was no longer beside me. In fact, when I looked back at him, his feet were still glued securely to the steps, and he continued to stare doubtfully at me, as if waiting for an answer.
"What?" I demanded, returning the prince's look of bewilderment. "Did you expect me to sit up in my room and let you mope around by yourself?" I crossed my arms expectantly, putting on a bored face for show. Slowly, and with with an almost insultingly suspicious expression, Zuko closed the distance between us. We began to walk in no particular direction, the silence surprisingly easy; until Zuko broke it, that is.
"Not that I'm complaining," the prince murmured, refusing to meet my eyes as we strode through the traffic of people on the pavement, "But since when do you want to go anywhere with me? You didn't exactly enjoy restocking in port towns."
I bit my lip in thought. Darn it, he had me there. It wasn't particularly something I had planned on contemplating. If I was being perfectly honest with myself, I might even say that I wanted to spend time with him, or some crazy nonsense like that; a thought that almost gave me a mini heart attack. If I wanted to be in denial and lie to myself, though, then the answer was that there was no one else around to walk with, so I'd just chosen him. For the time being, I would settle with voluntary denial.
"It's annoying when you get all depressed and disappear for five days," I shrugged, as if that covered it, locking my fingers behind my head. It didn't of course, but he didn't need to know that. "And you're absolutely right. I hated going with you and Iroh into town. All I did was sleep on benches and get kicked out of places." I glared up at the cave ceiling. Stupid theft laws. I was only borrowing it . . .
"You know, you're the one who asked to come with us," Zuko pointed out. "And it's never been f - hey, wait a minute! I don't get depressed." The prince was suddenly scowling in my direction. I planted my hands on my hips, already poised to shoot back.
"Says the guy who never laughs at anything," I replied, grinning with satisfaction. Zuko's lip quirked up at my comment, and I would almost have thought that he was enjoying the argument.
"Guess you're just not as funny as you think you are, huh?" The prince's eyes were suddenly blazing; on fire in a way I'd never seen. We had gotten in arguments before, but I was usually the only one who enjoyed them. Now, Zuko was smirking right back at me, and it was . . . wierd.
"Hey, at least I'm funnier than you are," I pointed out, earning a dubious look from the prince.
"That isn't exactly saying much," he reminded me shortly.
"Whatever, Zuko," I huffed, sticking my nose in the air. "I'm a freaking joy to be around."
"Yeah, you're a ray of sunshine."
Suddenly, we both stopped short, staring at each other. I blinked. Zuko blinked. We didn't move for a moment, still frozen and very much in each other's faces. Then, the next thing I knew, we were nearly doubled over laughing. I just couldn't help it. It was such a stupid thing to be fighting about, but that detail only made it more entertaining to me. Honestly, out of all the things we could have argued over.
That certainly hadn't happened in a while. The last time we'd gotten in a fight had been well over a week ago; probably a new record for us. It actually felt nice to be disagreeing again. We both seemed to recognize that we suddenly weren't angry with each other anymore at the exact same time, because we backed off simultaneously. Zuko looked away, and I scratched my head, neither of us speaking a word.
"Hey," Zuko said finally, shattering the short, silent moment between us. "Where . . . are we?" I pulled myself out of my own mind, taking a look around. In the midst of our, er, conversation, I hadn't been paying a whole lot of attention to where we had been going, so it was an unexpected sight to suddenly find myself surrounded by the most beautiful garden I had ever seen.
It was like a half-and-half courtyard. While some of the flowers and plants growing there were normal - just like the ones you would find anywhere else on earth - it was the other ones that made me do a double take. Embedded deeply into the midnight-colored ground and scatterd evenly about the garden were tens - even hundreds - of little, crystal flowers that caught the light from the lamps around them and shone brightly in the small koi pond at the very center.
"Whoa," I breathed, deflating slightly as I did so. I turned to Zuko, about to ask him what exactly he would do if I decided to push him into the pond by accident, but his expression stopped me from saying anything. He seemed almost . . . out of focus, the way he was looking at me. It was like he didn't even see the garden, or like he was really, really tired. Only, he wasn't tired, he was just . . . staring at me.
My heart spasmed a little as I leaned back, my eyebrows shooting up. I suddenly didn't know what to say; didn't know what to do. So, I did the first thing that popped into my head at that very second. I coughed loudly - like I was choking on something kind of loud. He raised an eyebrow; the gesture demanding an explanation. I laughed nervously.
"You were spaced out," I tried lamely, attempting to change the subject. Zuko opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but whatever he was about to tell me was interrupted by a cold voice.
"You two wouldn't be lost, would you?"
A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N
A/N: Oooo, who is it? And you all should be happy, because I'm trying to heat things up between Kaida and Zuko ;) Read and Review! I'll have more out soon.