Okay... so... yeah... it took a really long time for me to write this and I have no excuse for my tardiness. All I can say is, I hope you like it!
It was coming. It couldn't be described any other way. The tides were changing, and you had two choices, bend like a twig to the winds or burn like paper in a raging wildfire…
It was the next morning, and Aang wanted to be anywhere else in the world than where he was at that moment. He could have been in icy tundra, or a desert with no water, and be happier with his situation there than what he was about to go through. Today was the day he was going to meet his suitors. He groaned and pulled the covers over his head, hoping that he blankets would have enough power to shield him from the world, or at least today. The sun was shining through covers, reminding him to get up. He momentarily wondered who had opened them, had it been his father or Toph.
Aang heard some rustling across his room. Now that it was evident that someone was there and was most likely waiting for him to get up, he peeked out from under the covers to see who it was. The bright sunlight hit him directly in the face. He blinked a few times and squinted. While his eyes adjusted, he could make out a blurry figureHe squinted a bit more to make out the person.
After a few moments, he was able to see that the person was very large and wore a crown on his head. Father…
"Good morning son! Are you ready for your day?" his father asked him cheerily.
Aang yawned and sat up, rubbing what was left of sleep from his eyes. He didn't respond right away, and took a moment to look out the window and see that the sun was still rising. He was surprised.
"Father, what time is it?" Aang asked while suppressing a yawn.
"A little earlier than when you normally wake up, but not too bad."
"Why did you wake me up so early?"
There was a pause and Aang took this moment to get up and start pulling on his white shirt and his brown pants. This was of course done behind the changing curtain, because that would just be awkward to do in front of your father.
"Because son, I wanted to talk to you about this whole courting system, because I known you don't know much about it," his father replied.
Aang kept silent as he started putting on an orange and yellow jacket. He noticed it was very similar to the one his dad sometimes wore, and figured his dad picked his clothes out for him. The jacket was very elaborate and was complicated to put on, for it had buttons and tassels in weird places. He finally figured out that only a small fraction of the buttons was actually used. As he buttoned up the jacket, his father started talking again.
"You see son, you have to keep in mind that even though today you will only be meeting two of the girls today, there are three tomorrow. So don't write off all the other girls just yet," his father explained.
Aang noticed that the new jacket he was wearing had those squared off shoulders that were supposed to "give off and air of importance," or something like that. He always hated them. It reminded him of the time when he was younger and he snuck into the supply closet for the guards. He had tried on some of the armor that could have fit three of him and a helmet, for his legs were too short to wear the leggings. He had run to his mother to tell that he wanted to be a guard when he grew up. She just laughed at him and told him to keep that armor on for an hour and tell her then if he still wanted to be a guard. He did, and his shoulders were so sore afterwards, he went back to his mother and told her he changed his mind, that the armor was too heavy.
"And don't forget to act aloof and listen to each girl talk. That way you can learn more about them and you don't have to tell them anything. Women love to talk about themselves."
The brown boots Aang was trying to put on were giving him a hard time. Even though they were considerably flexible, they kept getting stuck. The prince had to give a big effort to get onto his feet. When he finally did get them on, he tucked his pant legs into the top of them. They didn't go in all the way, and they poofed out a little bit at the top because of it, but he didn't care. If these women had a problem with how he dressed, then he had an even better reason to turn them down to his father. Something along the line of 'All she cared about was how I dressed,' would work just fine.
"Now, for your schedule. This morning, you will be having breakfast with all the women in the Great Hall. I will not be there because I think it's time you learn how to direct conversation on your own. My father did the same thing with me, but all you have to do is get the women to talk, which like I said before, will be easy. Then you will be enjoying the morning with Lady Star. You can do whatever you want. We can arrange for a carriage to take the two of you around town. If you do, I recommend that you do not take any slaves with you. It is my experience that they get in the way. If you don't like that, you could take a long walk around the grounds. Or anything else you can think of. You can come back to the castle around eleven thirty. If you would like, you may eat lunch with all the women, but you are not required to. Afterwards, around one, you are going to go out with Koko. Again, you can do whatever you like with her. "
Aang stepped out from behind the curtain. He grabbed his maroon cloak and tied it around his neck. He hated the way it stuck out more because of the broad shoulders on the jacket. He picked up his crown from its blood red cushion and placed it on his baldhead. His father walked up to him and put his hand on his son's shoulder.
"You look just like your mother son. She would be proud of you," father told son honestly. For a split second, Aang wondered if she would have been proud of his for this courting ceremony, or would she have told him to follow his heart and chase after the one he liked. He only had a moment to think about it before there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," his father called out to the person on the other side. The door opened and in came Toph. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that her hair as down. He also noticed that it was messier than he was used to. She must have just woken up.
He tensed though when he realized that Toph and his father were in the same room. That was something he was always trying to avoid, he even went to a great deal of trouble to give Toph something to do during the introduction ceremony. The plus sides to that were that they avoided each other and his room was now totally clean. The down side, Toph had been severely ticked off at him.
The next couple of seconds seemed to last an incredibly long time to Aang. His eyes rapidly shifted between his father and Toph. He didn't know what he would do if his father went after Toph.
Toph, having seemed to feel his nervousness, actually acted like a slave for that brief moment in time.
"Oh, I'm sorry Your Highness, I didn't mean to interrupt you," she said as she gave a small bow of her head.
King Sako hardly reacted to this. He just stuck his head up higher into the air. "Well, seeing as how we are done here, it's alright. I will see you at breakfast in half an hour son," the king said. He left almost right after.
There was silence in the room after the king left. Toph walked the rest of the way into the room and started making his bed. Aang just stood there, not really knowing what to do. After the silence seemed to be unbearable for a moment longer, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"You look pretty with your hair down." Once he realized what he said he blushed a deep red and looked away from her blind gaze, even though she couldn't actually look at him. What he didn't know was that she wasn't gazing at him at all. She, having frozen in place at his comment, too had turned a deep red shade and looked away, embarrassed, but… in a good way.
"Oh… thanks," she replied quietly.
Aang seemed to think that she didn't believe him, so felt the need to continue. "Really, I mean it, you should wear it like that more often."
"Don't count on it Twinkle Toes. It's only down because I woke up late and didn't have time to put it up," she told him, however, it wasn't in her normal tone. It was less harsh, shier.
Aang airbended himself across the room to her and put his hand against her forehead. "Are you sick again? Do you need to lie down?"
Toph pushed his hand away from her head. "Twinkles, I'm fine. I'm not sick and I don't need to lie down. I'm just… I'm fine."
She was about to tell him, but she changed her mind at the last minute, he just knew it. He looked at her strangely, but took a step away from her. She finished making his bed while he just stood there, the silence being almost too much for him to bear. He had no idea what to say to her, even though it was usually so easy to talk to her.
She turned toward him and just stood there for a while. They just stood there, looking at each other. Aang could see on her face that she was thinking about something, but at the same time, she seemed to be just as at a loss for words as he was. He had the urge to reach forward and grab her face to kiss it. He resisted, but just narrowly.
Toph was the one that snapped out of the trance first. She turned her head so that her ear was the slightest bit closer to the door. She was listening for something.
"You should go, your father will be expecting you in a matter of minutes. The clock just struck seven," she told him evenly. She then punched him in the shoulder. "Good luck Twinkle Toes." She started to leave the room, but Aang grabbed her hand.
"Wait… meet me here for lunch," he told her.
"Don't you have to eat with your floozies?" she questioned.
"Not for lunch And besides, wouldn't you like to eat some actually good food, instead of the crap I know you eat everyday," Aang stated.
"Do you honestly think that you can bribe me with food Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked in a teasing tone.
"You can order anything you want," Aang suggested. He inadvertently squeezed her hand a little while he said this. Even though he didn't realize he did it, Toph did. She slyly slipped her hand out of his with him hardly noticing.
"Fine Twinkles, I'll eat lunch with you."
"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" Toph yelled to herself as she banged her head against the table. "I'm such an idiot…"
"What's the matter Toph?" a voice asked her. Toph set her foot on the ground and noticed it was Suki's vibrations. Toph did not move her head from her arms that were resting on the table.
"Hey Suki."
"What's the matter?" Suki asked as she pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down next to her.
"I'm an idiot." She could almost hear Suki roll her eyes.
"I got that part. Why are you an idiot?"
"Because I'm so confused. I don't know what's going on. Do I like him or not? Does he like me or not? Could t-"
"Wait, who are you even talking about?" Suki cut in. Toph could sense her heart rate going a mile a minute in nervousness.
"Don't worry, I'm not talking about Snoozles. I'm talking about…" Toph didn't finish her sentence, but Suki filled in the blanks.
"Oh my god, you mean the prince?!"
"Shhh! Don't talk so loud!" Toph snapped at her. Suki immediately dropped her voice.
"You like him?!" Toph groaned.
"I don't know! I mean, I kind of do, but he's got all those girls hanging around him, and sometimes he drives me nuts! And I'm so stupid!" Toph banged her head against the table again. Suki put a hand on Toph's shoulder to stop her.
"How about you stop calling yourself stupid and tell me why that's a problem."
"Because Suki, what if he sees me as just a friend, or just as his slave? That would be awful and really awkward. But he's so funny, and nice, and sweet." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Toph realized that she was spilling her guts out and bitching and moaning about a guy! No! Toph Bei Fong did not have boy problems. She was not some girly girl.
"Oh wow, I'm acting like such a wuss. I don't need any help because I don't have any problems! It's just temporary insanity." She started to get up when Suki pushed her back into her chair.
"How about I offer you some advice for your "non-existent" problems?"
Toph stayed still and listened because she was vaguely interested in what Suki had to say.
"Look Toph, falling in love-"
"Whoa there! I never said anything about love!" Toph exclaimed.
"Just listen to what I have to say! Now, falling in love with someone is hard. It's scary and frustrating, and at some points you just want to run. But you have no control over it. I can't really explain it, because it's different for everyone, but you can't fight it, you just have to run with it."
With that, Suki left, and Toph stayed right were she was, thinking, for a long, long time.
After the worst breakfast of his life, Aang decided that it would be best if he took Star on a carriage ride to 'see the town around the castle.' Star had told him that 'was a romantic idea and just had to go and get ready for it.' Aang had no idea how one gets ready for a carriage ride, but since the 'date' was supposed to last between eight and eleven thirty, and it was now eight thirty, he really didn't mind all that much.
As he waited for Star, he sat down on one of the couches in the front hall and thought back to breakfast and how he never wanted to go through that again.
When Aang arrived in the Great Hall, all the girls were waiting for him to arrive. They hadn't sat down yet though, because they were going to race towards the two seats next to him. He pretended not to notice though, and just sat down in his normal seat while all the girls crowed around the two seats on either side of him. Since he really didn't know anyone's name yet, he couldn't really identify which ones did actually sit next to him. All he knew was that all of them crept him out.
As the six of them sat and waited for the food to be brought out, there was an awkward silence in the room. Aang knew he was supposed to start out the conversation, so he asked them the first thing that came to mind.
"So, do each of you ladies like your rooms?" he asked to the whole group.
The women were very eager to talk to him to impress him with their answers, so they all started talking at once. His eyes widened a bit in surprise. He had to figure out a way for them to get their talking through without getting a headache.
He rose up his hand to (hopefully!) silence them. Thankfully they quieted down.
"Umm, how about you go around the table and speak individually so that you're not all talking at once," he suggested, heavily emphasizing the individually part. He pointed the girl on his right. "Why don't you start?"
The girl giggled excitedly, then started talking. "I love my room! It ahs such a good view of the grounds behind the castle." Aang's heart seemed to stop for a minute. Had she seen him and Toph? "I have a great view of the new garden that's being built for your future wife." The girl batted her eyelashes at him, and he was almost positive that she had her foot next to his.
He pulled his foot closer to him, making sure the girl couldn't reach it anymore. He was however great full that her window was facing the opposite direction from where the two of them hung out. "Oh… umm… that's great," he replied, not really sure what to say.
"So kind of wife are you looking for!?" one girl asked from across the table.
"Koko!" the girl next to her scolded.
"What? I'm curious!" the other girl, Koko, defended.
Aang felt his face turn red and he rubbed the back of his neck. This was awkward. "Well… umm… you see… you know maybe this should be discussed at another time," Aang suggested, hoping they let him off the hook.
"Oh come on, just tell us one thing you're looking for in a girl," of the women suggested. "Umm… okay. I-I like a girl that's always herself. Someone that doesn't change for anything." He knew it was probably a bad idea to them all this, but what was he supposed to do?
He definitely knew it was a mistake when he noticed all the girls immediately started fixing their hair and dresses. Did they not listen to anything he just said?
Before anyone could say anything else, the slaves brought out the food.
The breakfast wasn't like a normal breakfast, where each person was brought their own plate, large dishes of food were brought out and placed in the middle of the table and empty plates were placed in front of each person. The guests could take whatever they liked without being obligated to eat what was in front of them.
Aang immediately spooned out some miso soup, got a bowl of steamed rice, grabbed some natto, nori, and pickles, and started eating. As he was eating, he couldn't help but notice that each of the women only took small portions of rice and one pickle each. Aang had to wonder how they could survive on such little food.
"Wouldn't you ladies like some more food? There's plenty to go around," Aang suggested not wanting them to go hungry.
"Oh don't worry Your Highness, we will be perfectly fine," answered an older looking woman. She looked like she was at least ten years older than him. When she smiled at Aang, it sent chills down his spine. It disturbed him, to say the least.
Aang snapped himself out of thoughts after that. Most of what happened afterwards was just silence, which he was grateful for.
As Aang continued to wait for Star, he wondered how those girls could eat next to nothing and not go hungry all day. Didn't they get hungry? Was this what Toph had told him about, how girls were forced to do certain things because men supposedly liked it. He shrugged it off, knowing he wasn't actually going to choose any of these girls, so what did he care what they did?
But he knew he did, if only because he knew no one should live like that. Knowing it would still be a while until Star was ready, he got up and did the right thing. He went to the kitchen to make them extra food to bring with.
The carriage bumped and rattled on the dirt road as the pair were driven through the town. The horses went at a slow pace through the wasteland, giving the two time to look around. The great buildings that took up lots of space were empty and decayed, with a gray and stale air around them. Smoke seemed to cover the area in a thick cloud with its ashes caking the ground. No leaves were on the trees, if there had been any to begin with, for they were so bare and blackened, the trees could have very well suffocated from the bad air years ago. No wind blew through the area, so the rancid smell of misery and dying hopes was potent to the by passers.
Through the smoke, faint voices could be heard, with a buzz of excitement and mostly fear. The carriage that was now passing through their town was a reminder of the position they were currently in, and who was to blame for it. Only the towns people's eyes and outline could be seen through the smoke to those inside the carriage, turning them into ghosts, that could be seen but never heard. As the carriage made the loudest sound that had been heard by theses people in months, guards surrounding the carriage yelled at the people to back up and give their prince space so he and the woman he was courting could enjoy their date without low life like them intruding. The guards roared that if there were any intrusions, punishment would follow soon after. The whole world seemed to slow to a stop.
Star had closed her blind on her window so that she didn't have to see the wretchedness of the real world. Aang, however, couldn't seem to take his eyes off of it. Over the heads of the guards that were trying to keep him from view of the people, he could see the eyes of the people, staring up at him, waiting for him to do some sort of miracle, or destroy them.
Soon, a small clearing a rose in the distance, and solely on the fact that the clearing was heavily guarded, he knew that's were Star and himself would be eating their brunch.
The carriage came to a subtly stop and he heard a knock on the door. The door opened and gave view to a grassy clearing that had been cleaned up a lot. Aang could see the large dirt patches in the ground were large dead trees had been removed from the area to make it look better. It also gave the guards the ability to look around for any intruders.
There was next to no conversation while the two ate, mainly because Aang was so shocked by what the surroundings were like, and Star was silent because she was raised to not speak unless spoken to.
As the guards packed up the remnants of their food, which was a good amount because Star once again refused to eat too much, Aang took the time to get a good look around at the wasteland. Star came to stand next to him as he spoke his thoughts.
"It's sad, isn't it?"
"Yes, it really is. Those pathetic people need to learn to do something better with their lives," Star said in a mourning voice.
Aang looked at her with a shocked expression after she said this. What?
"What are you talking about?" he asked her, seriously wanting to know what was going through her head.
"With no disrespect your highness, but these people are worthless. All they do is sit around in their own filth. How can they stand that? They should just get up and move somewhere else," Star stated simply, her nose high in the air.
"What if this is the best they have?" Aang shot back at her, now thoroughly annoyed that she was talking so badly of these people.
"Then they deserve it. If this is the best they can do then they don't deserve anything. Your father was right to take it from them." Star must have been thinking she was winning him over by talking highly of what Aang's father has done.
On the contrary, however, Aang's opinion of Star was declining rapidly.
He started walking over to the carriage, with Star at his heels. But before he reached the carriage, Star let out a scream and Aang felt a tug on his cloak. Thinking it was Star trying to get him to protect her from whatever, he roughly pulled at his cloak and turned around. Only it wasn't Star, it was a little boy pulling on it. Aang noticed the hole in the ground next to the child and knew immediately that the kid was an earth bender.
Star's screams had alerted the guards, which came running to them, getting ready to punish the kid for his interruption. Not wanting the kid to bear any kind of punishment though, Aang held up his hand, signaling for the guards to stop. The guard that was closest to him question his judgment.
"Your highness, this filthy child has just interrupted your date with Lady Star, he needs to be punished."
"No. I want to hear what he has to say," Aang told him firmly in a voice he hardy ever used. The guard was surprised, but didn't argue any further, not wanting to tick off the prince.
Aang knelt down to eye level with the boy. His face showed that he was at least eight, but you would never know it by his height. The poor kid's height had be stunted by a lack of nutrients, so he looked like he was six. His eyes were sunken and dead with no fire in them and his hair looked like a dead bush. Its color was a dirty brown, similar to Ty Lee's, but this child's was matted and some parts had obviously fallen out, even though the knots were keeping it close to his head. His skin had lost most of its darker pigment and it hung on him like a rag. His ribs could be seen through his thin shirt and his stomach seemed to touch his back. In whole, all that made him was bones and skin.
"Please Sa', coul' ya spa' some food? We' starven he'e, an' we was wonden if you woul' help us," the little boy pleaded with Aang, his heavy eyes enforcing his plea even more.
Aang gave a sad smile to the boy, stood up, and took the left over food from one of the guards that was holding it and handed it to the boy, complete with the blanket he and Star had been sitting on too. He handed these to the boy. The boy's eyes widened in surprise when he saw all the food, and Aang had a sickening feeling that this was equivalent to almost the total amount he's seen in his whole life.
Aang smiled at the boy and rubbed the top of the his head.
"Just be sure to share," Aang told him. The boy beamed up at him.
"Of cous' Sa'," the little boy said before he ran back to his family across the street.
Aang got up soon after and joined Star in the carriage, for she had jumped in there soon after she screamed. Their destination: the castle.
Once Aang was seated inside, the carriage started moving. He heard Star shift in the seat next to him and he felt her hand on his shoulder.
"That was a really sweet thing you did Aang," she told him, while staring at him. Aang was shocked and looked back at her. Maybe she really did care. Maybe she actually had a heart. Maybe the two of them could actually be friends.
"I mean, it's so depressing that there's someone out there that's skinnier than me! I would love to be that skinny, but I can never seem to manage to get that skinny! But now that you have given that kid food, he will not be skinnier than me! Thank you Aang!" Star squealed happily, hugging him. After looking at her ecstatic face, Aang felt like he might hurl. Forget them being friends, Aang didn't know if he would even be able to look at her again.
"It was awful Toph, I've never seen anything so horrible in my life. Everything was dead, the people looked like all hope was lost, and everything around them said it was."
Toph and Aang were sitting on the couch in his room, supposedly eating lunch, however, the food had been left untouched. Aang's legs were pulled up to his chest with his arms wrapped around them. He was still in shock from what he had seen outside. Toph could not believe what she was hearing. All of a sudden, being with Aang inside of the castle was an extreme luxury.
"And Star! I cannot believe her! How could she think that starving to death is a good thing? That's awful!"
Toph scooted over to Aang and hesitantly reached out to him. She had never been much of a comforter, but he really needed her. She wrapped one of her arms around his shoulders.
"Aang, everything will be okay, I know it. When you become King, you'll do good things for everyone," she told him.
"But my father obviously doesn't think that. He thinks I'll continue his work," he told her sadly, leaning into her.
"So then don't," she told him simply. He smiled at her and hugged her.
"Thanks Toph."
Toph could feel the heart rising to her cheek and she could hear Aang's heart beating rapidly, so she decided to break this up before things got awkward.
"So are we done with the sad talk, because I'm hungry," she asked sarcastically. Aang laughed at her.
"Yeah, dig in!"
As Aang watched Toph start devouring the food after their hug broke up, he couldn't help but smile at her as she ate like a normal person, not trying to be the skinniest person in the world. He also got the feeling that from now on, things would be different, that something new was starting. That his old life was coming to its end. That twilight was finally coming.
Yay! I definitely think this was one of my better chapters! I hope you all liked it!
Please review, it's the only way this story can get better!
