Avatar: The Warring Earth
Book One—Fire
By Twins of the Pen
Disclaimer: Avatar in itself belongs to Nickelodeon and Bryan Konietzko/Michael DiMartino. The only things that belong to Twins of the Pen are the original characters.
Tiki was wearing a rather sour look on her face, watching Shun as he slept. If she had known the favor he was asking her for would be so boring, she probably would have refused. But then she admonished herself for thinking that way; someone had to make sure to wake Shun up every couple of hours to make sure he was okay. Exhausting though their early morning battle was, Shun was still concussed, and would have to be checked on regularly.
Tiki let out a gusty sigh. This was boring. Syaoran had left to go get ready for his afternoon practice with ZanYi, Lili had taken off on foot as soon as she was unbound from her master to parts unknown of the camp, (Tiki had made sure the lemur would not fly away again by binding Lili's wings to her arms with ribbons. It was a little harsh, but Tiki was too paranoid to let her out into the open sky by herself again), and ZanYi was off who-knew-where reporting or giving orders or something. Either way, Tiki was quite alone with the slumbering Shun who, she realized, did not snore. She found this odd, since he seemed like the snoring type of guy.
Tiki had already finished her morning meditation, and it was nearing the afternoon when she decided to prod Shun awake again.
"Shun?" Tiki sang as she pinched one of his cheeks, "Come on, Shun, get up already. You're gonna miss lunch!"
Shun groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes as he groaned, "Quit it, Nyla."
Tiki blinked. "Who?" she asked curiously. Slowly, Shun moved his arm so he could peer blearily over at her. He seemed surprised to find her there.
"Oh, hey, Teeks," he greeted as he sat up slowly, being careful not to overdo it. He should move his head slowly. "Is it time for me to get up again?"
"Who's Nyla?" Tiki asked, ignoring his question in favor of her own. Shun looked over at her in shock.
"What?"
"You called me Nyla," Tiki prompted, "Who's Nyla?"
Shun did not answer right away. He looked away from Tiki, propping an arm up over his knee and staring off into space. Tiki counted to fifty in her head before he answered.
"My sister," he explained, reaching up to touch the wolf's fang that hung around his neck. "I must have been dreaming about her if I called you by her name… I haven't seen her since she was four."
The loneliness in Shun's tone affected Tiki; she curled up into a ball, her chin resting on her knees as she watched him. So he had a younger sibling… that must have been nice. If her parents hadn't been captured when she was young, would Tiki be an older sister by now?
"So you have a little sister?" she asked delicately, not wishing to upset him further. But Shun didn't seem to mind her asking about his family, if his smile was any indication.
"And two older brothers," he told her, "though Nyla's probably not so little anymore. She's about a year younger than you."
Tiki imagined a girl about her age with the same eyes and smile as Shun, and she smiled. "What about your brothers?"
"Kohaku should be in his thirties by now, he's the eldest," Shun answered, his eyes far away as he rubbed his stubbly chin, "and Jin should be… twenty-eight? No, twenty-seven; he's only four years older than me."
Tiki did some quick mental math, and then she gaped at Shun. "You're only twenty-three?!" she gasped in shock. "You look like you're in your thirties!"
"Ouch, Teeks," Shun mumbled, wincing as if her blow to his pride was physical. "Are you saying I look old?"
"I'm saying you're too big to be so young!" Tiki corrected him. Shun chuckled; truthfully, this was not the first time he had received such a reaction. It was just so much funnier because it was Tiki.
"You're only twenty-three?" came Syaoran's inquisitive voice as he walked into the room, baffled and bewildered. His green gaze looked over the man, as if trying to fetter out whether that statement was true or not. Shun just looked so much larger, and acted so wise. It was difficult to grasp that he was so close to their age.
This also meant he was very close to the lieutenant in age. Syaoran frowned a little as he sat on his cot. After returning to the camp, they had been given their quarters back, and thankfully it seemed it had not been ransacked. Apparently their escape had been diversion enough.
"Tiki," he said, looking to the small airbender with a quirked eyebrow, "why are you bothering Shun? He should be resting right now."
"I asked her to," Shun admitted before Tiki could retort, "I read somewhere that it's not good for someone with a concussion to sleep too long for the first twenty-four hours… but since I've never had a concussion before, I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. So better safe than sorry, right?"
"See, I'm not bothering him, I'm helping him!" Tiki burst out indignantly, pouting at Syaoran before getting to her feet. "I'm gonna go get you some lunch, okay, Shun? Just stay right there." And Tiki marched out of the room, as if determined to prove that she was being more of a help than a hindrance.
"Thanks, Teeks," Shun called after the little airbender before settling back down onto his pillow, his arm crossed behind his head. Was it that surprising that he was only twenty-three years old? Shun wondered briefly if he should feel self-conscious about this before shrugging the musings away and closing his eyes.
"I'll probably be missing your training this afternoon, Syaoran," the large waterbender informed the Avatar, his eyes still closed. "Just wake me up later when you need healing, and I'll fix you right up. And convince ZanYi to do the same please. You know how she gets."
The corners of Shun's mouth twisted upwards as he said this, as if amused by the stubborn behavior ZanYi tended to exhibit which required him to persuade her into being healed. It was a fine line the lieutenant walked, between being proud and being wise.
Syaoran knew exactly what Shun meant by that. And while he was tempted to say that the lieutenant could easily be healed by someone else, he decided against it. Shun was their comrade, their teammate. The large man had everyone's backs, including his. Including the lieutenant's.
"Ugh, how do you do it?" he managed to ask out loud before realizing what he had said. Syaoran realized as such and smacked his forehead, his cheeks becoming a little pink. He sighed. There was no way to get out of this one now; he was far too honest to be able to think of a sufficient lie quickly.
Looking at the large waterbender, his eyes glowed with curiosity, but green in more ways than one. "How do you manage to stay on such good terms with her now?" Lieutenant Tsong had hated his guts only just a few days before. "You're one of the only people I've seen here that manage to call her by her first name and get away with it. And she actually talks to you."
ZanYi didn't scold Shun for messing up his firebending forms, didn't try to protect him like he was a small child. And she kicked up no fuss at all when he touched her. Something Syaoran had noticed around the military, aside from nobody calling her by her first name, was that no one, aside from perhaps her brother or Ransik, touched her even in a friendly manner. It was almost eerie, like an unspoken code. Or perhaps they were all just too hesitant, like he was.
Shun had opened his eyes and turned to look at Syaoran as he was speaking. The Avatar looked more flustered than Shun had ever seen him, and the large waterbender worked hard to keep amusement off his face, for he was sure that Syaoran would not appreciate being laughed at. But had the Avatar finally realized his feelings for his firebending teacher? Shun had thought Syaoran was being quite obvious, but maybe it was only Shun who thought so. Tiki hadn't seemed to notice anything; it would have been the first thing she wanted to gossip about with him, Shun was sure.
The large waterbender sat up and turned to face Syaoran, mulling over the younger man's questions. The honest truth of the matter was that Shun never really thought about any of those things. Once he figured out what made ZanYi tick, the rest was relatively easy to figure out. But maybe it wasn't so simple to others? Shun rubbed his stubbly chin, trying to figure out how to best phrase his advice in order to help Syaoran out. The Avatar must be at a loss if he was coming to Shun for advice.
"I think the thing people forget the most about ZanYi," he began, feeling out his words before he said them, "is that she's human. Yes, she is the hardworking Lieutenant Tsong who works harder than anyone to make sure the Resistance will win this war. But she is also ZanYi, a proud, stubborn, remarkable person. But still just a person, just like you and me. I think, once you learn to start making the distinction, that you'll find socializing with her a lot easier. Oh, and you have an advantage because you can learn from my mistake: never tell ZanYi what she can and can't do. Just try and support her decisions, because she always knows what she's doing. I had to learn that the hard way."
Shun allowed himself a knowing smirk as he met Syaoran's eyes. "Good luck, Avatar."
"Lunch!" Tiki announced a moment later, carrying a tray laden with food. In the celebration of taking back Omashu, the cook had really outdone himself. But the trays were heavy, so Tiki was making them hover with her bending, and she air-ferried Shun's tray to him.
"Thanks, Teeks," Shun thanked the little airbender, and she beamed in response. Shun's glance in Syaoran's direction was meaningful as he took the first bite of his lunch. "Don't you have training to get to, Avatar?"
Syaoran pondered over Shun's words as he nodded and bid them well before exiting the room. What the man had said made logical sense, but Syaoran was having a difficult time understanding it. There was always more to people than meet's the eye. However his teacher lived and breathed the military; being the Lieutenant washer identity. She made that quite clear in every action and decision she made. Even the qualities Shun had listed about her were what made her such an efficient leader.
Walking out of the building, he took a deep breath. Despite not fully understanding, Syaoran was going to try and heed his teammate's words. And trying to treat Lieutenant ZanYi Tsong like an average person was going to be a brave, and perhaps foolhardy challenge.
He saw her out in the distance and allowed a determined set to take over his face. Walking ever closer, the Avatar was about to call out her name when he realized what she was doing.
Hearing the footsteps falter and stop behind her, ZanYi turned away from her brother to find Syaoran. "Good, you're here. Are you ready for your training?" she asked him. She could only gauge from the resilient look in his eyes that he was. However, Zaron held up a halting hand.
"You're still holding training today?" he asked, looking to his sister as if she was a few cabbages short of a cabbage merchant. And Syaoran could understand the line of questioning. After all, she had just helped lead an invasion to take back the city, been in briefings since, and now was going to hold private training for the Avatar, all under a less than mediocre night's rest.
ZanYi matched the sergeant major's gaze with one of indifference. "Yes, I am. I am his firebending teacher, in case you've forgotten," she reminded him. Zaron gave her a look that quite plainly said that he had not forgotten. And then the older brother turned a look onto Syaoran that reminded the earthbender quite quickly why the man had gotten his ranking. The look was sharp, as if he were sizing Syaoran up.
"Well, I'm sure the Avatar would benefit from having two firebenders in today's training, wouldn't you say?" Zaron suggested, and Syaoran couldn't smother the urge to gulp. He thought that sounded like a frightening idea, and was not reassured that, as she looked between the two males, ZanYi began to smirk.
"I'll allow that today," she permitted confidently, and Zaron began to smirk at the Avatar as well. The two of them wore twin expressions and all of the confidence Syaoran had just had burst into flames. Everything he needed to know was in those paired sets of amber eyes. This training session was not going to go like he had planned.
Syaoran knew he was going to become a crispy critter just by the expression on Zaron's face when he said, "Let's get started then."
"Never again…"
Those were the words he uttered as Syaoran stumbled through the hallway. He smelled smoke, and he knew it was himself. He probably looked just as bad as he had after the battle that early morning. His clothes were tattered, and he was certain part of his hair was probably singed, but Syaoran knew he was probably due for a hair cut anyway. And surprisingly, he wasn't incredibly burnt himself. He scoffed. Syaoran wasn't a crispy critter; he just resembled one.
Meandering into the room they occupied, he sat down heavily on his cot, levying a steady look over at Shun and his cot. "Don't ever tell me the lieutenant is just a person again. She is anything but that." And that was heavily apparent throughout the past couple hours of training with both Tsongs.
Shun sat upright when he caught sight of Syaoran, the book he was reading lay forgotten in his lap.
"What happened to you?" he asked, almost fearing the answer. Was Syaoran's singed appearance Shun's fault, after giving what he deemed to be suitable advice to the Avatar? A wave of guilt washed over the large waterbender, and he got up to approach Syaoran. "She didn't burn you too bad, did she? Let's have a look."
As Shun bent over Syaoran with his canteen at the ready, a new voice floated through the room.
"Oh, Syaoran, you're back from training?"
Shun glanced over to find Tiki striding in, wearing nothing but a towel with Lili in her arms. The little airbender's long brown hair was down and dripping wet; she had obviously just finished bathing. As Tiki moved over to her cot, she got a better view of Syaoran, and her jaw dropped.
"What did she do, barbecue you over a roast pit?!" Tiki exclaimed, taking in Syaoran's appearance with a horrified look. Shun chuckled.
"Rather than worrying about what Syaoran looks like, you should worry about your own appearance, Teeks. You do realize you're only wearing a towel in a room with two men?" he pointed out. Tiki stuck her tongue out at him, but her cheeks became rather rosy as well. She set Lili down on her cot—the lemur proceeded to shake herself dry—before snagging a pair of shorts and a tank top from a pile of clean laundry she was given.
"Fine, I'm going to change, then," Tiki announced, stepping behind an old folding screen that happened to be in the room. "Don't look!" she warned Syaoran and Shun sternly, poking her head out for a brief moment before disappearing behind the folding screen again.
"We'll try and resist," Shun joked, grinning as he returned his attention to Syaoran's wounds. Surprisingly, there weren't too many burns on the Avatar. "You must have done well today, Syaoran."
Tiki emerged from the folding screen a second later. The tank top was a little big on her, but she didn't seem to mind as she climbed onto her cot, patting Lili's head before reaching for a brush she had borrowed. She began to brush through her long hair, closing her eyes and smiling serenely. This familiar ritual almost made her believe she was back home with her mother, taking turns to brush out each other's hair. It made her feel almost… normal.
Shun, already finished healing Syaoran, smiled at the content on Tiki's face.
"This is the first time I've seen you with your hair down, Teeks," he commented as he went back to his cot and picked up his book. "It's longer than I thought."
"I've never cut it," Tiki announced proudly. "After all, a girl's hair is her pride and joy."
"I'm not so sure that applies to all women," Shun disagreed, thinking of ZanYi and her shoulder-length raven hair.
Syaoran shook his head, disagreeing as well. There was no way that the lieutenant's hair was her pride and joy in his book. "The lieutenant's only pride and joy seems to be firebending, and with good reason," he told Tiki before looking back to Shun, "and the only reason I'm not burned as bad as I look is because she had mercy on me."
Once the waterbender was done healing him, Syaoran stripped of his shirt, tired of the ashy smell it was giving off. Training had been just as awful as he had feared it would be. He suddenly had a new understanding and appreciation for all of the soldiers who worked with Lieutenant Tsong. "The sergeant major joined us for training today," he told them, looking meaningfully at Shun. He'd asked for advice, and then he couldn't even implement it because of that big wrench in the plan.
Shun nodded, picking up on the Avatar's hint. No wonder he looked so defeated...and Shun was thinking he had gotten Syaoran in trouble instead. He hadn't accounted for Zaron at all.
Rubbing a hand against his brown hair, Syaoran was finding bits of it shorter than he'd last recalled; that was due to Zaron's fireballs. "The lieutenant spent half of the training just trying to make sure he didn't scorch me to bits." The Avatar then looked to Tiki, eyeing as she peacefully brushed her hair, looking as dainty as ever. "You must have a thing for aggression if you're crushing on him."
"Hopefully his participation in your training was just a one time thing," Shun said, trying to get Syaoran to look on the bright side. Shun had never actually seen Zaron fight, but he sensed that the sergeant major was every bit as fierce as his lieutenant sister, if not more.
Tiki stuck her nose in the air at Syaoran's comment.
"You wouldn't understand a sophisticated man like Zaron," said Tiki, conveniently ignoring the fact that she knew next to nothing about Zaron herself. "The fact that he is able to defend himself—and well—makes him all the more desirable. It's like he's a warrior, dedicated to protecting his princess until his dying breath!" Tiki sighed a love-struck sigh and actually swooned on her cot. Shun slapped a hand over his mouth to keep his laughter from erupting, his whole body shaking from the effort.
"Ah, but Syaoran, you should watch what you say," the large waterbender chimed in, giving the Avatar a teasing grin. "After all, it would be embarrassing if your words were turned around on you, wouldn't it?"
Tiki looked back and forward between the two men, confused at the direction the conversation had taken. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, clueless. Shun merely smiled.
"Nothing you should worry about, Teeks," he assured her, returning to his book.
"Aw c'mon, tell me!" the little airbender pouted. Shun's grin widened, but he refused to say another word.
Syaoran gave a mystified look at Tiki, still reeling from the fact that she had just swooned. Swooned! How women would swoon over such a ferocious fighter as Sergeant Major Tsong was beyond him. Ignoring that Shun had almost just given him away, Syaoran looked squarely at Tiki. "The only princess that man is going to protect would be the lieutenant," he told her flatly. The man had practically scowled every time he shot a fireball at her. "They're probably still debating about whether she should be allowing me to fire at her with everything I've got."
"Which she should not be doing," came a foreign voice and Syaoran winced. Looking slowly to the doorframe, he found Zaron lazily resting an arm on it as he leaned in to the room. ZanYi came up beside him, leaning her body on the other side of the frame. She quirked a challenging brow to Syaoran—the very same look Zaron was giving her at that moment.
"Call me 'princess' one more time," she provoked him, her jaw twitching. Syaoran did indeed visibly gulp at that. He had not meant for either of them to hear their conversation, but it seemed as if he was going to be in more trouble with the lieutenant at that moment. It did suddenly strike him, however, that had their kingdom not have become a republic, the woman and her brother would be the princess and prince of the Fire Nation, one of them possibly the Fire Lord.
Syaoran gulped again.
Turning away from him, ZanYi addressed her brother with the same gaze. "You can go away now."
Staring just as persistently at her, Zaron did not budge. "Not until you get those burns healed."
"You're obnoxious."
"And you're taking risks you shouldn't in training."
ZanYi openly rolled her eyes, which seemed to have no effect on Zaron. Looking to Shun as she sat down on her cot, she stripped of her jacket, revealing a set of burns on her arms, no worse than average from their training session. "Mind getting rid of these so the sergeant major can return to his own quarters?" she asked of the waterbender.
"Sure," Shun agreed, moving to sit next to ZanYi. He took her left wrist with one hand and weaved water around her arm with the other, touching her as delicately as he always did. Looking up for a brief moment, Shun shot a grin at Zaron. "Nice to see you, Sergeant Major." The large waterbender wasn't exactly sure how much of their conversation the Tsong siblings had heard, but he felt it was best to play it casual… for Syaoran's sake, at least.
"Likewise," he responded to Shun, watching the man's hands intently as they worked over his sister's arm. If Syaoran did not know better, it was almost as if the firebender was watching to ensure the healer was doing his job right. However, after training the with two of them, it seemed more likely that the sergeant major was watching to make sure Shun's hands stayed on his sister's arm.
"Zaron!" Tiki had cried out joyously, flinging her brush to the side—it nearly hit Syaoran—and leaping off her cot. She was about to run in slow motion towards the man of her dreams when a sudden chill around one of her ankles stayed her. Tiki looked down and gasped in outrage: one of her ankles had been frozen to one of the legs of her cot. "Shun!" she raged, her gray orbs glaring at the large waterbender.
"Sorry, Teeks. My hand slipped," he explained without looking at her, although his grin was a little more devious than usual. Tiki glared harder, suddenly wishing she could firebend with looks alone.
'Slipped?! Yeah right!' How dare Shun keep her away from her soulmate? He really wasn't being fair at all.
Zaron was thankful again for Shun, feeling as though the waterbender had chained back a rabid beast. Briefly, Zaron's critical eye grazed over Syaoran, and his brow quirked, just as his sister's would. And the Avatar was not entirely sure why. Until he realized he was still not wearing a shirt. "Um, I think I'm going to go take a shower now," Syaoran noted uncomfortably, gathering a fresh pair of clothes to take with him. The sergeant major watched him carefully as Syaoran shuffled past him to head down the hall to the showers.
ZanYi let out an aggravated sound, tilting her head up to look at her brother. "Enough. You already picked on him enough during training today," she chastised, and her brother only smirked back.
"He's the Avatar. Gotta buck up a little bit." Zaron looked to Shun again, only with the puzzled eyes that he had given the man back in the tunnels. ZanYi ignored it flat-out. "Is this normal for after training?" he asked the waterbender mildly. ZanYi could not tell whether he meant the burns or Shun's healing.
"Yes, this is all normal," she answered in Shun's stead. Her brother was starting to grate upon her. So ZanYi turned to the little airbender in the room. "Hey, Tiki, I'm sure the my brother would love to hear your singing voice."
Tiki, who had been struggling pointlessly against the icy shackle around her ankle, brightened up at ZanYi's suggestion.
"Really? Then I'll sing a love song!" Tiki announced, giving a fussy little cough before belting out, "Oh, Zaron, you're so fine! You're so fine, you blow my mind, hey, Zaron! Hey, hey! Hey, Zaron! Hey, hey!"
Shun would have laughed if Tiki's singing wasn't so horrible. As he moved to attend to ZanYi's other arm, he gave her a martyred expression.
"Why would you do that? I thought you loved your brother," he chastised her, wincing as Tiki's voice reverberated around the room. His focus wasn't going to hold very long under this condition. Hopefully Tiki would stop soon… though it was a very risky bet that she would.
ZanYi was cringing as well at the sound, but it was exactly what she had hoped for. Between the audacious sounds and the horrific lyrics, Zaron even found himself dying a little on the inside with each and every moment. He glared at his sister, knowing exactly what she had just done.
He held his hands up briefly in surrender and then left the room, not missing the sneer on ZanYi's lips. As soon as she was sure Zaron was gone, she turned to Tiki. With the hand Shun was not currently holding, she swiped a blade of fire to Tiki's feet, melting the ice at her feet. "If you hurry, Tiki, you can probably still catch him."
This should teach her brother to stop intruding. Normally he was pretty good about giving her space, but either because she had a new team, or because of post-combat jitters, Zaron was worse than usual. ZanYi was just giving him a reminder why she was the one in Special Forces—and why not to trifle with her.
Shun stared in disbelief at ZanYi as Tiki skipped happily out of the room, now belting out at the top of her lungs, "And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII will always LOOOOOOOOOOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOUUUU~~~!" Her voice eventually, mercifully, faded away, and Shun was able to resume his work, shaking his head.
"I can't decide if you're mischievous or just plain evil," he told her, looking both amused and horrified. "She won't give him a moment's peace tonight. You understand that, right?"
After he was done with ZanYi's right arm, Shun gave her a once over. There were still scars littering her collarbone and stomach; he never had a chance to heal them after their narrow escape the other night. Without asking, Shun moved to kneel down in front of ZanYi, his water-veiled fingers lightly tracing over the scars on ZanYi's collarbone, healing them. Strangely, the large waterbender was acutely aware of the fact that he was alone with ZanYi. He couldn't fathom why this fact was being brought to his attention—he had been alone with ZanYi plenty of times before. Why should now be any different?
Shun's thoughts flitted to Syaoran for a moment, and he thought of an answer: now that the younger boy had confided his feelings for the lieutenant to him, Shun was feeling almost… guilty. But he was just doing his job. Why should he feel guilty that he was touching ZanYi? It was part of his job and he couldn't help it. Still, the worrisome feeling wouldn't go away. The large waterbender pushed it to the back of his mind to deal with later. The task at hand required all of his full concentration, because ZanYi's faded scars took a lot more to heal than fresh burns.
"He's just worried about you, you know?" Shun finished his thought softly, returning to the subject matter he was discussing: Zaron. As he looked up, Shun was mildly surprised to find that his face was quite close to ZanYi's. Hastily, he dropped his gaze back to his work. "You can understand what that's like, right?"
"I know exactly what that's like," she answered Shun quite confidently. And the man knew that for a fact by this point. Then again, that was probably what prompted the question. "Doesn't make being overbearing excusable though. He's just taking advantage of the fact that you all are new here." What her brother lacked in technique and precision, he made up for in passion. It was that drive, that conviction that made him a leader to his unit.
Despite their shared proximity, ZanYi felt herself go a little cold. There were parts of her that went physically cold, like the faded scarring that Shun continued to work on. And there were other parts that went cold on their own, like her spirit. It was if the fighting fire in her had been extinguished. Exhaustion started to take over, allowing her to loosen up further.
"Besides, the time to worry about trivial things has come and gone," she continued softly. Unlike her at the time, her brother had known exactly what he was signing up for when he went into the military. He'd known she would be tossed from place to place, known he would not be there all the time. And while their relationship was close and intense, there were some things that even time could not fix.
Now that her brother was gone, the closeness of her and Shun no longer even registered to her. It meant nothing, and therefore it did not matter. He was just doing his job, a job that required closeness and touch.
Something in ZanYi's tone made Shun glance up and meet her eyes once more. Though her golden irises had darkened from some unknown emotion, the rest of her face gave nothing away, and her words were cryptic. Shun could only guess at their meaning. He felt like he should say something to comfort her, but for once, words failed him. So instead he kept silent and kept working.
Most of the scars on ZanYi's collarbone were gone. There were still one or two marks left that, though Shun tried his hardest, he could not budge them. Frowning as if he meant to intimidate the scars, Shun vowed to come back later and instead moved on to ZanYi's abdomen. There were lots of angry marks here too, and Shun sighed as he set to work on them.
"I sure have my work cut out for me," he mumbled to himself, fingers roving over the flesh of ZanYi's stomach. He hoped she wasn't ticklish—though he sincerely doubted it—otherwise this part of the healing job was going to be very troublesome for the both of them.
However, ZanYi was not ticklish, and therefore she had no problem as Shun's fingers did their work, slowly healing the several scars that stretched across her stomach. Surveying her collarbone, she found that even he could not completely erase some of the scars. "You really do. Good luck," she agreed with him.
With brightened vigor, she recalled with realization that she had news to share with Shun. "I almost forgot," she mumbled, fishing through her pockets, trying her best not to move her core so that she wouldn't disrupt the healing. Out of one of her pockets, she pulled out a grenade, the symbol of the aged Fire Nation emblazoned over an Equalist symbol. "We won, tied, apparently," she told him, dangling it in front of him. Knowing the reaction she would get, she added, "Don't worry, it's dead."
Therefore when she tossed over onto Shun's bed, ZanYi knew it would not go off. Her team had taken great care to disarm it a long time ago. "The Agni-Kais hold a competition every time we go into combat," the lieutenant started to explain, "and the winner is whoever is voted to have sustained the most injuries and live through it. Apparently we tied. Getting blown up gave us bonus points."
ZanYi snickered. It had been quite a while since the last time she had been gifted with the 'award'. Her and Shun had managed to dethrone one of her more scar-prone soldiers.
Shun did not laugh. Rather, he turned to stare incredulously at the so-called 'award' he and ZanYi had apparently tied for. Why would they have an award system like that?
"I sincerely hope that award is meant to be ironic," he grumbled, turning back to his task, the frown still prominent on his face and looking very out of place, since he was more prone to smiling. 'If that award isn't ironic, the AKs have a very sick sense of humor.' Shun kept that particular criticism to himself, knowing that ZanYi would have his head if he said one negative word about her unit out loud. But how could they find that amusing? He didn't… but it was perhaps because he was a compassionate healer that he was not able to chuckle along with ZanYi at the joke.
Not that she had expected him to find it amusing, though. ZanYi figured the healer would not. However, she did notice the severe frown on his face. Even Tiki did not manage to put that on him, and the lieutenant assumed the girl would be able to make anyone do so.
"It's not an ironic award," ZanYi told him. While it had sounded quite odd to her at first, after a while it had grown on her as well. Then again, she probably had not found it humorous at first because she was the first recipient. But either way, it was difficult to explain such a thing to what her AKs would consider an outsider.
"Think of it as an encouragement award," she started to explain, weighing each word as she spoke. "When you come out of there, sometimes you're barely breathing. Sometimes, if it's bad enough, the pain is so bad you just want to get put out of your misery already."
ZanYi knew she'd had a handful of those herself. Combat was no vacation. "That award right there," she continued, nodding her head in its direction, as it rested on Shun's bed, "reminds the AKs what they're fighting for, reminds them that they managed to keep fighting and stay alive, even at the worst. It's their way of showing support to each other."
Shun paused in his healing of a particularly stubborn scar above ZanYi's belly button to think on what she said. Now that he understood the true meaning behind the award, his frown lessened, his expression becoming thoughtful. Although the humor was still a little twisted to him, he could understand how such a silly-sounding award could be a sign of support for those who become badly injured on the battlefield. And if he and ZanYi had been the ones to win such an award, he supposed he could assume that there had not been any injuries that were worse than theirs. Being concussed was no picnic, but it wasn't that big of a deal either. Personally, the large waterbender thought that ZanYi should keep the award, what with her having to deal with shrapnel and all.
"Then, I'm honored… I guess," he added uncertainly. He didn't fully get it, but he did understand that the AKs were showing him and their lieutenant support, and that was the part that touched him. He finished healing the scarring on ZanYi's stomach and nodded. They had been easier to take care of; the scars that still remained on ZanYi's collarbone leered at him, mocking him. He tried not to pay them too much attention.
"Okay. Let's take care of the scars left on your back and—!" Shun was forced to cut the rest of his sentence off: one of his feet had got caught on the other as he was standing up.
His weight was used as negative momentum, and before he knew it, the large waterbender was toppling over. ZanYi did not have enough time to get out of the way, and Shun fell on top of her, pinning her to the cot. He kicked his legs free of each other, let out a heavy sigh, and then pushed himself up, looking down at the lieutenant with a mortified expression.
"I'm sorry," he apologized heavily, "I'm not usually this clumsy, I swear."
What was happening to him? This was the second time he had run into ZanYi in the past twenty-four hours. If he wasn't careful, he was going to end up squashing the poor girl.
ZanYi was about to wave it off with another jab at his size, but the words remained her throat as she saw past the man to the doorframe. And the sight was enough to make her growl unpleasantly instead. "He's not usually that clumsy, I swear," she repeated matter-of-factly.
One of the worst possible witnesses stood in the jam: Zaron. To make matters worse, he had Tiki tucked under his arm. The lieutenant supposed he'd been attempting to carry her back and leave her out of his hearing range when he'd walked in. The older firebender glowered at the back of Shun's head, saying nothing at first.
Tiki watched the scene unfold, her eyes wide. She had been blissful a moment before, being carried by her so-called hero, even if it looked as if she was being lugged around like a traveling bag. But when she and Zaron witnessed Shun on top of ZanYi back in Team Avatar's room, Tiki quite forgot her own romance and started focusing on the potential romance between Shun and ZanYi.
"Jeez, get a room, you two!" she had called before Zaron set her down on her cot and she had caught sight of the murderous look he wore. Now she wished she had never said anything at all.
ZanYi stood up, giving Zaron the same look that he was giving Shun.
"See my lack of scars?" she inquired, gesturing to her abdomen and collarbone. "He was healing them and tripped over his two big feet. Besides, we have gone over this—"
"Enough."
She frowned further at him as he cut her off. Zaron dropped Tiki on the nearest cot and stood in front of his sister, glaring down at her. ZanYi did the same right back. "Shun," he eventually said, his eyes never leaving the lieutenant's, "may I speak with you in the hall?"
Shun took one look at the expression on Zaron's face and heaved a sigh. He could already tell this was going to go as well as the time he had confronted ZanYi about taking the Avatar to Omashu. It seemed as if, when he wasn't in trouble with one of the Tsong siblings, he was in trouble with the other. Still, there was nothing to be done now. Shun had to face the music.
"Sure," he agreed, making sure his canteen was still strapped to him as he stood up and passed the siblings to head out into the hall. Tiki, with a frightened look at the glaring siblings, darted out after Shun.
"Shun, what were you thinking?" she asked, misinterpreting the situation. "Zaron's gonna kill you!"
"Go back inside the room, Tiki," Shun asserted, frowning down at the little airbender. "This is between me and the sergeant major."
"But!"
"I'm guilty of nothing but my clumsiness," he assured her, "and I will tell Zaron as much. Now go back in the room."
Tiki gave him another fearful glance, but she did as she was told. She, as well as Shun, suspected that, though Zaron had asked to speak to the large waterbender, not much talking would be done. Silently, she wished Shun luck. She liked Zaron, but she wouldn't like him too much if he ended up scorching Shun to a crisp.
When she came back into the room, she watched as Zaron continued to stare down at ZanYi, as if the two were fighting their own battle wordlessly. When he turned to go out into the hall, she grabbed his arm, halting his departure. "Zaron," she stopped him her voice hard, "do not blow this up into something it isn't." He tried to shrug her off, but ZanYi's grip only got tighter around his elbow.
"This is between me and the waterbender," Zaron told her, using his other hand to shove off his sister's grasp. She not perturbed. ZanYi moved completely into his way this time, eyes narrowed up at him.
"No, it is not," she disagreed. "You don't know anything and you're not listening."
"Let me take care of this."
"No." ZanYi stood up even straighter, refusing to move from his path. "You have no part in this. It's none of your business and you are not my father." The last biting words yielded Zaron and for a brief moment, a deep hurt resonated on his face. ZanYi's, on the other hand, did not change. "You missed that chance. So don't even try to pretend like it."
There was silence, anger, and hurt. In the end, Zaron pushed past ZanYi and Tiki as she came back into the room. Charging down the hall, he looked at Shun heavily, as if he were a moving target. When he stopped before the waterbender, it mattered not what his size was. His fists were tight and clenched at his sides. "Just what do you think you were doing to my sister?" he spat out lowly.
"Absolutely nothing," Shun replied, his tone calm but full of conviction. He had done nothing wrong. There was no reason for him to feel guilty. "It was an accident. I was kneeling down, healing ZanYi's scars. When I made to stand up, I was tripped up by my own two feet, and I fell. I was in the process of moving when you walked in."
Shun glanced down and saw that the sergeant major's fists were clenched. Casually, he moved a hand to rest on his canteen.
"I understand how it must have looked," Shun continued, still calm, "but I assure you it was just an accident that will never be repeated. I would never disrespect your sister that way. You don't have to believe me, but I am telling you the truth. And if you attack me, I'm giving you fair warning that I will defend myself to the best of my ability."
Shun planted his feet, meeting the furious Zaron's gaze unflinchingly. "All I apologize for is my clumsiness. Other than that, I did nothing wrong."
"All of that is true," said ZanYi from behind Zaron. His enraged eyes flickered to his sister, who he distinctly recalled leaving behind in her quarters. He watched in silence as the woman put herself between him and Shun, staring him down. ZanYi was taking deep breaths, as if trying to calm down her own irritation. Then she encouraged her brother to do the same.
"Just breathe, Zaron," she told him, trying to get him to calm down. Generally speaking, some supposed he was the more mild one of the two. The difference was the amount of control they had when they were upset. And ZanYi could tell Zaron was about to blow. "Calm down now or you're going to have to explain to the general later why you didn't. I don't think you need that on your record."
His eyes flickered from his sister, to the man behind her and back. He seemed to hear the reasoning, but was reluctant to listen. "I trusted your teammate here to have your back. Instead, I find him covering your front," he seethed. And the admission was enough to make ZanYi irked a bit inside as well.
She shot a look back to Shun before taking a handle on her brother again. "We have both already said it was not like that. I even told you that before," she reminded him. "But you cannot forget that it was Shun who went with me to save you in the attack last night, Shun that has been patching me up after training and combat, and Shun who saved me from getting blown up into tiny bits this morning. I'd say he's doing a good job heeding your request."
The light started to get through to Zaron, and ZanYi watched as his fists slowly unclenched. She sighed in relief quietly, knowing they weren't out of the woods quite yet. "You're exhausted, anxious, and we haven't seen much of each other lately. And forget what I said before. Just calm down."
Shun watched the siblings, trying not to display how nervous he felt. It had been fine when it was just him and Zaron, but now ZanYi was in the way. Shun was trusting in their strong bond as brother and sister to not allow any harm to come to ZanYi, but he had never seen Zaron lose his temper, so he could not be sure that the sergeant major wouldn't injure the lieutenant by accident in his fury. Shun would have rathered ZanYi stayed in the room, though he was grateful beyond words that she was backing him up. But now it sounded like it was a sibling issue rather than an issue between him and Zaron. Shun wondered if he should leave, but he was certain that Zaron was not quite finished with him yet, and would see his exiting as running away.
"There you are, Shun!"
Shun turned, surprised to find Sikka heading their way. Of all the times to seek him out…
Sikka's smile faded as she took in the scene before her; she hesitated a step or two away from Shun. "Um," she began, glancing up at him curiously, "am I interrupting…?"
"What is it, Sikka?" Shun asked. The sooner she finished with whatever business she seemed to have with him, the sooner she could leave. Sikka's face turned a pretty rose color, and she glanced down at what Shun realized was a basket with a bundle that smelled strongly of chocolate.
"Well, when I told a few of the healers in my troop that you had been concussed while trying to protect the lieutenant," she explained with a shifty glance to the woman in question, "we got together and baked these. You know, as a 'get well soon' gesture."
Shun stared, wordlessly taking the basket that Sikka thrust into his arms. First an award from the AKs, and now baked goods from the waterbenders? What was next, a statue from the earthbenders?
"…Thanks," he managed to get out, sounding surprised even to himself. Sikka beamed.
"I hope you like chocolate chip," she said. "Well, that was all. Have a good night. Uh, Lieutenant, Sergeant Major," Sikka acknowledged somewhat awkwardly, bowing to the Tsong siblings in turn before leaving the way she came. Shun still stared down at the basket as Sikka left. Hesitantly, as if he almost expected it to be a joke, he reached out and drew the cloth covering the cookies away. As the smell hit him, Shun was reminded of home, when his mother would bake cookies for them whenever he and his siblings had been extra-good… which was once a week, really. Forgetting where he was, Shun allowed a small smile to creep up on his face, his cheeks flushed.
"That was really nice," he mumbled to himself, "I'll have to thank them properly."
ZanYi had never looked away from Zaron as Sikka had come into their midst. She heard her kind words, and she could smell the home baked goods. The only comfort the lieutenant got from the smell, though, was the sentiment it brought from the waterbenders. As usual, Sikka had great timing, even when it didn't appear to be so. ZanYi watched carefully as Zaron's muscles loosened, his gaze starting to become more curious than irritable.
"You got a concussion when you tried to protect ZanYi?" he asked slowly, as if verifying that he'd heard correctly as he peered above his sister's head to look at Shun. He searched and found the wound on the man's head, though it was much smaller than it had been earlier.
"Yes, and he had a gaping head wound from it," ZanYi answered, but her brother's stare traveled back to hers for only a brief moment before resting back on Shun.
"I believe I asked the waterbender," he told her, and ZanYi had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes, since that would not help at the moment.
Shun snapped out of his sentimental moment and remembered where he was. Zaron's question brought back the unpleasantness of the early morning, washing away the happy memories Shun once shared with his family.
"Yes, I did get a concussion," he affirmed, but then his eyes suddenly darkened. "That wasn't enough, though…" he muttered. The look of pain on ZanYi's face was still fresh in his mind. It disturbed the large waterbender to know she could look that way. It was that memory that prompted Shun to bow to Zaron.
"I apologize, Sergeant Major Tsong," he began, speaking freely now that everything was in the open, "you asked me to protect your sister, but I could do nothing to guard against the shrapnel that impaled her. I wasn't even well enough to heal her myself; Sikka had to do it. For that shortcoming, I am sorry."
Shun was not sure whether or not he was doing himself any favors by bringing up the shrapnel, but he was only being honest. He sincerely felt bad about ZanYi having to suffer through such an event, even if she was tougher than most people he had ever met.
Zaron, however, already knew about the shrapnel. Not only did word travel, but ZanYi had told him herself after she'd sent her report to the general. She had, however, not mentioned Shun's role in the whole event, just that he'd been injured in the bomb as well.
It was all starting to placate him, and ZanYi could see the angry fire go out in his eyes. Zaron looked from Shun's bowed form to his defiant sister, a forced resign on his face.
"Did one of you win the award?"
"Tied."
ZanYi smirked, knowing that Zaron was calm enough now that she did not need to fret about a possible combustion in the hallway. Looking back to the healer, she ordered, "Stand up, Shun. You did nothing wrong, so stop apologizing." Whirling back to her brother, she concluded, "And you: start apologizing."
Zaron seemed to wrestle with it for a moment, but between the accusatory look from the lieutenant and the resulting—but begrudging—guilt that was seeping in after his flash of anger, he felt no choice. Looking back back to Shun, he said, "No, I apologize. I was out of line for overreacting, especially when you have done an exemplary job of watching out for ZanYi, though I feel we may both need protection from her now."
"Oh, yes," she agreed, looking at the two men. The last thing she needed was her brother making such requests behind her back. It undermined her hard work and her authority, a breach of protocol and of trust.
Shun straightened back up, startled. That was it? Not even one burn to make an example out of him? Was Zaron really letting him off the hook?
As this realization started to dawn, Shun began to laugh. It did not last long, in light of the fact that he was now in trouble with the other Tsong sibling, but Shun felt so relieved that he could not help but let slip a chuckle or two. The look on ZanYi's face was enough to sober him a moment later, however.
"I told you it would get crowded," he muttered to Zaron, referring to ZanYi's doghouse before addressing the lieutenant herself. "To be fair, ZanYi, even if your brother hadn't asked me to, I would have done my best to have your back. It's in my nature, as I'm sure you've realized by now."
"Gentle to a fault." The words of his brothers from so long ago still rang true to this day. And Shun was just fine with that.
"I don't really care if you would have done it or not," ZanYi told him point blank. She knew for a fact Shun seemed to be the type to look out for everybody; she'd known that since they first met and he saved Tiki from drowning. "That does not excuse either of you from making deals about me behind my back."
She gave her brother the same deadpan that she had just given Shun, and Zaron walked slowly towards her. "Now, ZanYi…"
"Don't even give me that," she stopped him. "You were the one who was about to scorch Shun like fresh fowl. So get going, cool off, and we'll talk tomorrow."
Zaron frowned at his sister, debating how he wanted to play this. He walked over to his sister and slowly raised a hand to her, his eyes trying earnestly to make peace. Reluctantly, she clasped it with a short flame before dropping her hand and letting him skulk off.
Then she looked to Shun again, eyes a bit narrow. "Be thankful I did not know about your deal until after I stepped in, otherwise I would have contemplated letting him burn you."
"Thank you," Shun replied simply with a slight smile. It hardly bothered him that she was mad at him. She had helped him avoid a fight with her scary older brother, and Shun knew when to be grateful. But the Tsong siblings were certainly a handful. If this was the kind of fire that ran in their blood, Shun could understand how one man—their ancestor—had come so close to ruling the entire world.
"Is it safe yet?"
Shun looked down the hall. Tiki was peering meekly around the corner, her hair back into its twin tail style, though they drooped with her worried look. The large waterbender wasn't certain of the answer himself, so he turned to ZanYi, eyebrows raised. He wasn't quite sure if she was finished yelling at him or not, so whether or not it was "safe yet" was entirely her call.
ZanYi glanced back to find Tiki peering out nervously and she massaged her own head, feeling the exhaustion and the stress load of the last day and a half piling up. "Yes, it's safe now, Tiki," she told the small airbender, looking back only briefly at Shun to let him know this was not the end of this.
She surveyed the small girl and sighed. Thankfully Zaron had not seemed to have hurt her in his irritation with her singing, though she supposed that probably would have increased his anger levels already before the incident. "I apologize for the sergeant major's behavior," she told them both wearily. The day was just far too long at this point, and it always seemed to get longer. "Let's just say that sometimes he has anger management issues."
Which is one reason in particular why she had been assigned to the AKs and he had not.
Shun shrugged. No harm, no foul. And he wasn't really ever one to hold a grudge anyway. "It's fine. I'm just glad he understood in the end," the large waterbender said, taking a cookie from the basket Sikka gave to him.
'I do, however, feel bad for whoever is crazy enough to fall in love with his little sister,' Shun thought, briefly thinking of Syaoran with a touch of pity. The guy had no idea what he was in for if he really wanted to pursue a relationship with ZanYi.
"These are really good," Shun noted after he tried a cookie, smiling as the warm chocolate melted on his tongue. This batch must have been straight from the oven. "Sikka and her friends are going to make their future in-laws very happy with their baking."
"Sikka gave you cookies?" Tiki exclaimed once she had reached Shun, her eyes bugging out. When had Sikka managed to pass him a basket of cookies during that whole showdown? She had been scared to watch, so she must have just missed the waterbending woman.
"It's my 'get well soon' gift," Shun informed the small airbender, moving the basket just out of Tiki's reach. She pouted at him; he smiled at her.
"That's boring. I thought Sikka was giving you cookies because she likes you," Tiki mumbled, looking underwhelmed. Shun blinked.
"Sikka doesn't like me," he denied immediately, "She was just being nice."
Tiki leveled a look at the giant, her expression speaking volumes. "Shun… are you blind?" she asked him point blank. Shun frowned, taking issue with the tiny airbender's tone.
"Sikka does not like me," Shun asserted again, "She has Ransik." Tiki gaped at this piece of information.
"Wha—Sikka and Ransik are a thing?!"
"You didn't know? Don't you see the way he looks at her?"
"Don't you see the way she looks at you?"
"What way?" Shun asked, obviously confused. Tiki slapped her forehead and turned her back on him.
"Boys!" she ejected before heading back to the room in a huff. Shun stared after her for a full five seconds before turning his perplexed expression onto ZanYi.
"I have no idea what just happened," he admitted without shame. Women. Who could understand them?
Under normal circumstances, ZanYi would have found the interaction to merit a bit of amusement. However, in light of her mood and state of weariness, she could not give that. Instead she just weighed her sight on Shun, irritation making it heavy. She was about to say something to him, but there was a crackle in her pocket and ZanYi let out an exasperated breath. Pulling the comm out of her pocket and putting it into her ear, the lieutenant growled, "What?"
ZanYi had to listen intently for a few minutes, her focus taken from Shun and the problems at hand. Eventually, she sighed and nodded, knowing the voice at the other end could not see her. "Tell them I will be there in just a minute. Over and out."
The device was shoved back in her pocket and she massaged her head with a hand again. Every time she thought the day could not get any longer… "I have to go to a meeting, so I won't be at dinner and probably back late," she informed the waterbender.
Gold looked up to search for his sapphire, still mildly irritated. "I know you're concussed, but I'm going to need you to watch Tiki and make sure she doesn't cause any trouble, or drag Syaoran into any trouble, whenever he gets out of the shower." If an outsider did not know any better, they would certainly think she was discussing small children. Not that it was far off—Tiki was one, as far as the lieutenant was concerned.
A corner of Shun's mouth turned down. He knew for a fact ZanYi didn't have a decent night of sleep the night before, and now it appeared she was going to have a late night once again. He hoped all of her hard work in the past twenty-four hours wouldn't make her pass out from exhaustion, though it was certainly looking that way.
"I'm fine," he brushed off the 'concussion' comment; he had been sleeping most of the day, and he really never felt better. "And don't worry, I'll keep an eye on Tiki."
Shun imagined how Tiki would look if she overheard the lieutenant speaking about her as if she were five years old, and he repressed a smile. After bidding the lieutenant a good night, Shun headed back to Team Avatar's quarters.
"Wanna play a game, Teeks?" Shun asked as he entered the room, intending to keep the tiny airbender busy for as long as possible. But when he looked over to Tiki's cot, he found that she was preoccupied already: she sat cross-legged, breathing slowly, her fists pressed together. Shun watched her for a while until his curiosity got the better of him. "What are you doing, Teeks?"
"Shh," Tiki answered, opening an eye to give the giant waterbender an exasperated look, "I'm meditating. You have to be quiet."
"Oh," Shun replied in surprise, "sorry. Uh… just let me know when you're done and we'll go to dinner, okay?"
Tiki didn't reply, but Shun took her silence as a yes. Allowing himself one more cookie before he set the basket down on his nightstand, Shun returned to his cot and his book. The Avatar would be back soon, the giant waterbender mused, and then he and Syaoran—plus Tiki, if she was done with her meditation—would head to dinner. Hopefully ZanYi would be having something to eat, even if she couldn't dine with them this evening.
Tip-toeing softly into the room, Syaoran peered around, as if concerned that a komodo rhino was going to come out charging. Thankfully, neither Tsong was in sight, Tiki was meditating, and Shun seemed content with a book. Henceforth, it was completely and utterly safe now.
The Avatar let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding and dropped his dirty clothes, folded, under his bed. His shower had been quite long; part of it was because he was utterly filthy, but part of it was because he had feared going back to find Zaron still here. And that was a healthy fear. Syaoran could hear raised voices all the way down the hall.
"So, what exactly happened?" he whispered across the room to Shun, trying to keep his voice low for Tiki. If she was going to be quiet, Syaoran sure enough was not going to stop her. "I heard loud voices… Is that a grenade?" he trailed off as his voice rose, alarmed, seeing the bomb on the waterbender's bed. Had things been worse than he had imagined? "What was so bad that you ended up with a grenade?"
Tiki's eyes flew open. She was annoyed at first—all she wanted was a little peace and quiet. Was that so much to ask? But when she processed what exactly Syaoran was saying, her annoyance turned into alarm.
"When did a grenade get into the room?" she asked, jumping down from her cot and huddling underneath it in fear. "Did Zaron try to blow you up when I wasn't looking?!"
"Both of you calm down," Shun requested, not even bothering to look up from his book. One of his large hands felt around the sheets until he located the grenade, and he held it up for them to see. "It's been deactivated. It's a sort of joke award from the Agni-Kais. They give this grenade to the person who was injured the most in battle. Apparently, ZanYi and I tied for it."
"…That's a little morbid," Tiki criticized, cautiously creeping out from under her cot, her wary eyes on the grenade in Shun's hand. The giant waterbender looked up from his book and smiled.
"That's what I thought too," he admitted, "but ZanYi says it's a way of showing support for injured comrades. Sort of a 'get well soon' gesture."
"Why didn't they just bake you some cookies like Sikka and her friends did?" Tiki asked, her expression sly. Shun frowned at her innuendo.
"It's not their thing, I suppose," he answered, returning to his book and letting the award fall back to the foot of his cot. Tiki winced when it bounced, but when no explosion resulted, she heaved a sigh of relief and returned to her meditating. After receiving such a nasty shock, she was in need of some relaxation.
Syaoran couldn't fathom such an award, so he was fairly thankful that he himself was not the one to win the award from the AKs. He kept staring at the deactivated explosive, expecting it to explode any minute. Once he felt comfortable enough that it wouldn't blow up, the Avatar relaxed again.
"Wait, if that's from the AKs…" he pieced together, looking from the grenade to Tiki and back to Shun, "then why would Sergeant Major Tsong be trying to blow you up? Were you part of the argument I heard in the hall?"
That did not make sense. Sure, it seemed from training that contrary to popular belief, the Tsongs were not always on the exact same page. But how on earth could Shun have gotten himself in trouble with them? He had just gotten back on the lieutenant's good side, and he seemed quite fine with Zaron. "What the heck did I miss?"
"Ohhhh, that's right! You missed the whole thing!" Tiki realized, her peaceful expression giving way to her feline smirk. Shun froze in the middle of turning a page in his book and sighed. Here was another misunderstanding in the making…
"Okay, so get this: Zaron and I are heading back here, him carrying me romantically—"
"Tiki—" Shun tried to interrupt Tiki's overzealous storytelling, but she waved him down.
"Come on, let me tell it! So anyway, we get back to the room just in time to see Shun on top of ZanYi!"
The scandal in Tiki's tone was enough to make Shun slap his forehead. He hated the fact that he was turning red at that moment.
"So then Zaron gets all huffy and asks to see Shun in the hall. I thought he was gonna be a goner, but he was apparently saved by ZanYi, who defended him. She said some pretty mean things to Zaron too! I was watching the whole thing and—"
"It was an accident," Shun asserted, a little put out that Tiki had missed the most crucial part of the incident. "I was kneeling in front of ZanYi, healing her scars, and when I tried to get up, I tripped over my feet and fell on top of her. It was a clumsy moment that led to a huge misunderstanding."
"Oh yeah, that too," Tiki remembered too late. Shun slapped his forehead again. "Oh, and Sikka gave Shun cookies too! I don't know about you, Syaoran, but I'm pretty sure that means—"
"Tiki, go back to your meditating," Shun said sternly, frowning at the tiny airbender. Tiki, for her part, look affronted.
"Well then, I can take a hint," she huffed, resuming her meditating position. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said no more. Shun shook his head at her, and then turned to meet the Avatar's eyes.
"It was an accident," he repeated lowly and slowly, never looking away from Syaoran. It was crucial that the Avatar believe him. Shun was not interested in ZanYi, and he didn't need Syaoran, who had just realized his feelings for the lieutenant, thinking otherwise. More importantly, he did not need two of his teammates mad at him right now, otherwise the only person he would be able to have a conversation with was Tiki. Now that was a scary thought.
Syaoran could not tell if Shun was understating the incident—possible—or if Tiki was exaggerating it—probable. So he turned to see the severity in Shun's eyes and, taking into account his nature, Syaoran knew that it was just an accident. An incredibly embarrassing accident, it seemed, but an accident, nonetheless.
Again, he was thankful for being able to slip away to take a long, hot shower. Syaoran was not entirely sure what he would have done in such an incident. Chances are he would have just gaped and been rooted with confusion.
"Sounds like it sucked," he said slowly, giving a sympathizing look to Shun to let him know he understood. He did feel, though, the emphasis Shun was placing on it was laid on a bit thick. It was not as if Syaoran was in love with the lieutenant. He just wasn't sure if he only saw her as a teacher, either. "I'm surprised Sergeant Major Tsong left you in one piece."
"Yeah," Shun agreed, relieved that Syaoran understood. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and was punished by an angry throbbing from the tender spot on the back of his head. Wincing, the giant waterbender pulled his hand back to see if there was blood on his hand. There wasn't, which meant the wound hadn't reopened. That was good.
Still staring at his hand, Shun said, "The sergeant major backed off when he found out I was concussed while trying to save ZanYi from the bomb." Again, Shun vowed to find a way to thank Sikka properly—if she had not shown up when she did, he probably would have been scorched to a crisp.
"Anyway, it became a moot point in the end," Shun said, leaning back on his cot with a sigh, "ZanYi's angry at both of us now."
"What did you do this time?" Tiki could not help but chime in again, opening an eye to peer curiously at Shun. The giant waterbender lay there for a moment, contemplating whether or not to answer Tiki. In the end, he chose not.
"Are you done? If we hurry, we could probably still grab some dinner," said Shun, not-so-subtly changing the subject. Luckily for him, Tiki was instantly distracted by the promise of food, so she didn't notice.
"Yeah, let's go!" she enthused, hopping off her cot once more. With a flip of her twin tails, she turned to the Avatar. "Coming, Syaoran?"
Syaoran, however, had not been distracted by the promise of food for once, and therefore noticed how Shun avoided answering the question. And while he was not sure what to make of that, he could only hope Shun had a good reason. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," he told her, rising to his feet. He looked once to ZanYi's cot, knowing she would not be in attendance, as usual. Following after Tiki and Shun, he took his leave from the room, hoping food would placate his worries as it normally did.
A/N from Eva: (Muffling her giggles) I love this chapter. You have no idea. XD I hope you all were just as entertained as DJ and I were when we wrote it. XD And now to the acknowledgements!
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