Eight years ago
One of the acclaimed features of the palace at the centre of the Northern Water Tribe were the great ice doors, remade every day in a new design by tribal waterbenders and artists, but Tetsuya, as he usually did, ignored them entered the palace through a side-entrance, much less grand, but more practical. He made his way to the family quarters for the royal tribe, nodding in greeting to palace inhabitants that he passed.
At least, those who noticed him. The palace was a flurry of activity, full to the brim with guests of state, and one little ten-year-old boy with a talent for self-effacement did not register very high with the servants and politicians.
This did not matter to Tetsuya. He knew exactly where he was going, and knocked confidently at Midorima-kun's bedroom. He entered the bedroom only when his knocks went unanswered.
"Midorima-kun?" he said. "How are you doing?"
The waterbender, tucked into a mountain of furs, glared blearily in the direction of the blurry silhouette of the older boy. "Sick," he said, his normally crisp voice thickened with phlegm. "As Master Tyo would no doubt have told you."
"My grandmother's news made me decide to come," admitted Tetsuya. "She said you would be well after some bed rest, though."
"Yes, I know perfectly well what the healer who treated me had to say about my case," said Midorima-kun, mustering sarcasm. "Why are you repeating it?"
"Because after what happened," said Tetsuya austerely, "I feel I am talking to a child who needs to be reminded of the wisdom of taking simple precautions when he has the charge of a young boy who looks to him for protection and safety."
Midorima flinched, and half struggled out of his blankets.
"If you only came to-AH-AH-CHOO," he sneezed, then, rather disconsolately, wiped his nose on a fresh handkerchief from the stack placed lovingly next to his head. "To- ugh- be mean to me, go away."
Tetsuya regretted himself: Midorima-kun looked truly miserable. The younger boy stared at the white cloth bunched in his fist. "I should have been more careful," he said. "But he begged to be allowed to come."
Tetsuya's heart was touched and he weakened further. "It was an accident," he said.
"I should have left him in the nursery with my sister," said Midorima-kun, ignoring this.
Tetsuya did not think that the Fire Nation prince, who had not looked much younger than Midorima-kun himself, would have tamely submitted to being relegated to the nursery with Midorima's three-year-old sister, and said so.
"I should have stopped him," said Midorima-kun tragically. "I should have." He closed his eyes.
Tetsuya waited a moment to see if Midorima-kun had anything further to add, but it appeared that he had fallen asleep. Dutifully, Tetsuya tucked Midorima-kun more securely into his fur blankets, and smoothing Midorima's hair, took his leave of the waterbender.
He wandered through the halls of carved ice, looking for the newly formed guest quarters.
They had been erected for the royal visit, and were far grander than the rooms Tetsuya has just left. Waterbenders had worked for weeks not just to build them, but decorate them with sweeping ceilings and beautiful carvings, sculpting fire out of ice. Midorima had talked for weeks, full of pride and self-importance, about forming the centerpiece for the Firelord's room himself. Tetsuya had seen his sketches for the ice creation: ambitious, difficult, and beautiful.
Tetsuya was so occupied in admiring the corridor that as he turned, staring upwards, to see how the great dragons leaped across an ocean, he bumped into another boy about his age.
"Ah, I apologize," Tetsuya said, stepping back.
"No, I did not see you," said the other boy, just as politely. He was wearing red and gold, and had the Fire Nation look. He must have been one of the delegation; the son of one of the diplomats, perhaps.
"Could you tell me where to find Prince Taiga?" Tetsuya asked. He added, as the other boy looked at him without any expression, "if he's not receiving guests, I understand."
"Are you aware that Prince Taiga is ill?" said the other boy.
"Yes," Tetsuya said. He hastened to give assurance that he hadn't just wandered in on another nation's royalty on a whim. "When he fell into the Spirit Oasis, Midorima-kun dragged him out with my assistance. And it was to my house and my grandmother's attentions that we brought him."
The Fire Nation boy nodded, his face relaxing. "I see," he said. "I am going that way myself. I am Seijuurou. Taiga is my younger brother. I met your grandmother the other night when she was attending him."
"Yes," said Tetsuya, automatically obeying Seijuurou's motion to fall in next to him. Then he blinked. He was in the company of Prince Seijuurou, the crown prince of the Fire Nation. Tetsuya had not thought to meet a Fire Nation royal without an easily identifiable topknot or the prominent golden headpiece; Seijuurou's long hair was down and tied back.
The prince was talking: Tetsuya hastened to attend. "Thank you for your attention," he was saying. "Taiga was sleeping last I looked in, and Master Tyo said he needed only bed rest and the utmost quiet." A sudden, sweet smile flashed over his features, engaging, irresistible. "Nothing annoys and frets Taiga more than being constantly attended and watched over," he said. "Master Tyo's perspicacity is to be lauded."
Tetsuya smiled at Seijuurou in turn. It felt impossible not to. "Except by his own brother?" he said.
The smile vanished off Seijuurou's face. "Especially his own brother," he said. "However, if his visitor is his rescuer, I am sure he will be happy to see you."
"He is unlikely to remember me, he was very fast going into shock when we met," apologised Tetsuya. "I came to offer Maruo's apologies."
"To apologize for… the polar bear-dog?" said Seijuurou.
"To assure him that Maruo did not mean him any harm," said Tetsuya. He had been afraid of this. Midorima-kun did not much like Maruo either. Tetsuya had promised to look after Maruo, after Shige had moved away. "He's very friendly, and very enthusiastic, but… very large."
"I don't doubt your dog's friendly intentions," said Seijuurou. "Taiga is afraid of all dogs, I'm sorry to say. He had an encounter with one of my father's dogs when he was young."
"Lion-dogs?" said Tetsuya. "Polar bear-dogs? Penguin-dogs? Dog-jellies? Beetle-dogs?"
"All dogs," said Seijuurou. The curl of his mouth was not inviting, but he recovered his temper and smiled at Tetsuya. "I must apologize in my turn to the Moon and Ocean spirits for my brother's intrusion into their home, no?"
"Tui and La were not the least discomfited by his abrupt entry, I assure you," said Tetsuya. "They've weathered far worse."
"One fire nation assault after another," murmured Seijuurou, dry. Tetsuya laughed.
Seijuurou rewarded Tetsuya for laughing with that surprisingly sweet smile, and opened the door to his brother's room.
Taiga's bed, like Midorima's, was buried under mountains of furs: unlike Midorima-kun, the prince had thrashed about restlessly and was dangling one arm over the side of the bed in his deep sleep, his small face flushed and sweating. Someone with a great deal of foresight had made the foundation of the prince's bed stone, not ice: even now, as he turned in his uneasy sleep, the wall nearest to him dripped water.
Seijuurou frowned, fit to crack marble. "Excuse me," murmured the prince.
Seijuurou took hold of Taiga's sleeping gear and set his bed back to rights with heaves of effort. As he did so, Tetsuya, feeling a little ill-at-ease, occupied himself with examining the ice sculpture created to decorate this room.
The ocean scene with flying cat-fish was nowhere near as elaborate as the scale model of the Fire Nation palace made for the Fire Lord, but Tetsuya thought he detected Midorima-kun's taste for precision in the leaping waves. He looked back to see that Seijuurou had restored his brother to some order, tucked him back in, wiped down the worst of his sweat, exchanged one cold towel for another (rapidly steaming on the younger boy's head) and was holding that small hand, so piteously outstretched, in his.
"I am very sorry," said Tetsuya.
Seijuurou looked at him as though he had trouble recollecting why Tetsuya should so presume to intrude. "Oh," he said, tucking Taiga's arm back into the furs. "No. It was an accident. Shintarou gave me a full account and also takes the blame squarely upon his own shoulders. If the fault lies with anyone, it is with me. I was too preoccupied with the meetings and sessions to fulfill my promise to take him around the city on a private excursion. Shintarou was kind enough to take him out of the palace for a small outing to a holy site, nothing more."
He looked a bit like he would have liked to take hold of Taiga's hand again. He did not.
"Your father-" said Tetsuya, then bit his cheek.
"Too busy with affairs of international importance," said Seijuurou. "The opportunity to examine the Northern Spirit Portal, you understand, cannot be missed."
Tetsuya, uncomfortable, kept silent. Since his younger brother was obviously in no state for guests, Seijuurou opened the door and showed Tetsuya out.
"Thank you for coming to see him," said the prince. "If he had been awake, I'm sure he would have appreciated it."
"Thank you for letting me in to see him," said Tetsuya.
The smile once again touched Seijuurou's face. "Certainly," he said. "You saved him from drowning, after all." He paused. "If you have the time," he added, diffidently, "do you play pai-sho? Your grandmother honoured me with a game the other day. I usually partner Shintarou, but he is indisposed."
The Fire Nation prince, ten years old like Tetsuya, had beaten Grandmother, a Grand Master of pai-sho, in nineteen moves. For the first time, he seemed to focus entirely on the water tribe boy, waiting for his reply.
"I would be honoured," said Tetsuya. "Your highness- ah, I mean, Seijuurou-kun." Tetsuya paused too, and smiled. "That- that would be nice."
.0.
Six years ago
The light Alex saw through her eyelids was patchy, but this was nothing new. She heard voices murmuring and sensed movement, which she supposed was her so-called landlord No-Ear, even though she'd told him time and time again if he kept cleaning pointedly around her spot on the attic overhang she'd burn down his whole damn bar.
He never bought it, but then again, he let her sleep there for peanuts. And, crucially, he had no forwarding address and no interest in what she was doing, ever.
The murmuring got louder. Alex cracked open her eyes, although she didn't know why she bothered. It wasn't like she was going to see any better with them open.
She was looking at- she squinted. Two… kids?
"Hey," said brat number one, who had red eyes.
"Excuse me," said brat number two, who had blue eyes.
Alex blinked, and groaned. Obviously she'd been hit harder than she thought. That was what she got for fighting in an underground ring for the sake of no questions asked. If she closed her eyes, surely the hallucination would go away. Maybe the blood was already pooling in her brain, and she'd be dead soon.
"Hey, is she even alive?" said the red-eyed one.
"She's breathing," said the blue-eyed one, holding his hand over her mouth. "Master? Master, are you awake?"
Alex opened her eyes. "What did you call me?" she said.
"Master!" said the red-eyed one.
"We want you to be our sensei," said the blue-eyed one.
"Listen," she said. "I'm not a babysitter. And since you obviously can't tell by yourselves, I'm going to tell you. I'm going blind, boys. It's already affecting my bending. I got my ass handed to me by some loser. I'm no one's master anymore."
"But you're the best!" said the red-eyed one. "We didn't even know you were blind and you still fought so good! Until that last fight," he amended. "But you could take him, I think."
"I can still see some," said Alex. She sat up, igniting her fist. "I can see that you guys are sorry little brats, and if you keep bothering me, I'll make you guys wish you were never born, got it?"
"Uh," said the blue-eyed one. "We're um. To your left."
Alex sighed. "I know that. I can hear your annoying voices. This is a warning shot."
"We won't go!" said the red-eyed one. "I'm Taiga, and he's Tatsuya. We want you to be our firebending master!"
Alex moved her arm and sent flames running all over the stone floor.
"WE'RE COMING BACK TOMORROW," screamed the red-eyed one- Taiga- from the door that his friend had dragged him to, out of range of the fire. "YOU'RE GOING TO TEACH US."
"YOU'RE GOING TO GET A FAT LIP, BRAT," Alex roared back.
They came back the next day, and the next. They made a huge ruckus, cheering for her from the sidelines and screaming for her to vouch for them when they got thrown out for being little brats and making too much noise. They'd found out where she lived, and soon maximised their time with her by meeting her there every day and accompanying her to the slightly worse part of town the ring was located in. She learned they were brothers, but not really, only yes. Tatsuya was the brains of this operation, and Taiga was… she wasn't sure, actually. She'd have to pay attention to them to find out.
She couldn't get a single damn thing done, and every day she got less respect from the punks who turned up at the ring with her.
"Don't you have parents?" she demanded of them.
"No," said Tatsuya cheerfully. "I'm an orphan."
"No one cares what happens to me," said Taiga. "That's why we're brothers. We look out for each other!" He looked very serious. At least, Alex assumed. "That's what brothers do."
"Oh boo-hoo," said Alex. "Go away."
"No, no," said Taiga. "Look, we worked out one of your moves!"
"I can't see," said Alex, turning away. Ignoring her, the boys moved in tandem and bent fire- a looping swirl of punches.
Alex paused. "It's based on an airbender technique," she said. "They form whirlwinds and keep them going by managing air pressure and maintaining a steady flow. You kids are doing it all wrong."
"Woah," said Taiga.
"How would you suggest we adjust our technique?" said Tatsuya.
"How should I know?" said Alex. "I'm not teaching you."
"Maybe you can just tell us when we're getting it wrong," suggested Tatsuya. "Taiga, let's try it again, for Alex-sensei."
"You move with the fire," said Alex, before realising she'd been tricked, and the boys were now trying and failing to keep small firestorms alive in swirls before them. She sighed deeply, tucked her hand under her jacket, and went back to sleep.
The day they didn't come, Alex did not notice. She was so occupied not noticing, in fact, that No-ear had progressed from making his witty comments on her turtleducklings and into making worried comments about her turtleducklings by the time she noticed that he was glaring at her as though he expected her to see it.
"What?" she said.
He sniffed. "Those boys are awful late today," he said.
"Those boys should be at home," she said. "With their lack of parents, dreaming blissfully of school and a productive future."
He glared at her, and since Alex didn't have to stand for this, she got up and started on her trek to the ring.
It seemed longer, somehow, without the boys at her heels. Damn, she was a soft touch in her old age.
Fire billowed out of a shopfront's open door. This wasn't unusual for this neighbourhood, and nor were the shouts issuing from the inside, threats and obscenities.
What was unusual, even to Alex's jaded and failing eyes, was that some of that fire was a bright, brilliant blue.
Unable to resist, Alex took a look inside instead of hurrying away- to see Tatsuya trading blows with a couple of lowlifes twice his size, and Taiga scuffling with a woman who'd lifted him in the air and was pushing him against the wooden wall trying to gain purchase.
"Sensei!" Taiga cried, catching sight of her.
Tatsuya, teeth gritted, said a very bad word and got clipped with a fiery fist, sending him sprawling.
Alex hissed out steam and walked into the building, announcing herself with two long ribbons of flame.
The two men jumped back from Tatsuya and he rolled to line up with Alex, leaping up into a fighting stance at her side. "Taiga-" he said.
"I know," said Alex. "Agni, this is why I told you kids to stay away from here!"
"Who the hell are you?" said the woman, backing up with the wriggling Taiga still held firmly.
"Put the boy down and give him over," said Alex. "You've banged him up enough to teach him a lesson. Unless you mean to kill him, probably time to call it quits."
"No!" said Taiga. "They stole something from us! We want it back!"
"They probably stole it first, anyway. We can get a reward for turning it in, and your names need never come into it," the woman said. "That's the best deal you're going to get today, brats."
"We didn't steal it!" yelled Taiga. "We didn't steal anything! That's ours! You stole it from us!"
"Where'd street scum like you get like a thing like that?" the woman asked, scornfully. She patted a dirty pouch at her belt. "I bet you don't even know what you'd get for it."
"Burned alive," said Tatsuya. "Alex, we're not leaving without it."
Alex could have kicked him herself. A brat like that, talking like he was a man.
"Who are you, anyway?" said one of the men.
"She's a master!" spat Taiga. "She'll destroy you."
Alex tried to ignore him. They were edging towards a door at the back of the building, and there were three of them to contend with just Taiga now.
"I read about you!" said one of the men, snapping his fingers. "I thought you looked familiar. You were a master. But you got some eye disease, and healers in four continents couldn't cure you. So you just upped stakes and vanished. You used to be feted by kings, and now you're here in the gutter with us!"
"She's a master!" Tatsuya said, fiercely. "She's better than any of you!"
"The blind bender!" said the one who could, apparently, read. He brayed out a laugh. "Too bad you weren't born an earthbender, Garcia! Maybe you could have been the next Toph!"
Alex breathed in, and let fire pour out of her hands.
"Ha, did that hit a nerve?" jeered the other man.
Ropes of fire. Control, control, control. It burned and didn't burn, constant and clever. It breathed little tongues of flame out to lick their feet and faces, but as long as she kept control it would never burn out, and if they tried to cross it, it would cost them dearly.
Before the thugs even knew it, they were cut off. Tatsuya, flaring that unusual blue fire out of his fists, ran in and around Alex's flames, exactly as she'd accidentally taught him. Without leverage, without escape routes, they had no choice but to try to square up to him- and lose hold of Taiga, who reacted incredibly fast.
Taiga twisted himself out of the woman's grasp mid-air, scything fire down with his legs as he flipped out of her grasp. He landed and headbutted her in the stomach, stealing the pouch back as she gasped out her air and gasped in smoke. Tatsuya grabbed him and they ran back to Alex, slipping through the sea of flame she was controlling as though they'd been born to do it.
"I'm still a master," said Alex, as a parting shot. She let the fire go out, abruptly. There was nothing burned, not even soot on the walls or floor. The three huddled together, blackened and in shock. "In the gutter or no. These kids are going to be the next Garcias someday, you know? Watch for them. They might come back for you." No one tried to stop them leaving, and Alex heaved a sigh of relief.
On the way back Taiga hugged her suddenly, burying his face in her stomach. "You came!" he said. "You really came! I knew you were still really good. How did you do that? Will you show us how to now?"
Alex touched his hair, though hesitantly. Pouring out all that fire- for the first time in so long, she'd felt like she could see again. And it had been true, what she'd said to the boys: she was a master, even now, even still. Always. She was the one who'd thought she could take it away from herself. "You boys really aren't that bad," she said. "Those were some nice moves. You could do with a lot of polish, though."
Tatsuya, always the quieter one, laid his hand in the crook of her free elbow, and they held onto her until she brought them back to the bar.
"Hey!" said No-Ear. "You bringing trouble to my house, woman?"
"I brought you your damn turtleducklings," returned Alex. "I thought you'd be worried about them."
"I'm worried this dirt you're tracking in is never going to come out, is what I'm worried about," he said, but tromped quickly to the back to fetch his brawl kit.
"Here," said Taiga, unwrapping the grimy package he'd fought so hard for and passing it to Tatsuya. "Tatsuya, keep it safe, okay?"
The trinket glittered as he passed it over, and Alex, her eyes widening, snatched it up to peer at it.
The golden flame of the Fire Nation glittered in her palm, its gleam unmistakable.
"Brats, where did you get this?" she said. She held it out of his reach. "Ah-ah! THE TRUTH."
Taiga sounded mulish, dropping to his heels. "My family gave it to me. I gave it to Tatsuya. It's his! GIVE IT BACK!"
"In my time, kid," said Alex, collapsing on a stool. "Go get yourself wrapped up. If you die, I'm never going to hear the end of it from No-Ear." Taiga's eyes flashed at her- actually flashed, like he was some tough shit- but Tatsuya motioned firmly for Taiga to go, and the younger boy obeyed.
"Well?" she said to Tatsuya.
"It's not mine," said Tatsuya. "It really is Taiga's. He gave it to me a long time ago, as a symbol of our brotherhood."
"You mean," said Alex, "that one of the princes of the Fire Nation, this country we're currently in, right now, has been running around getting into fights on the street, sneaking into black market bending rings, and generally acting like the scruffy little hooligan he completely is?"
"Yup," said Tatsuya, holding his hand out for the pendant.
"And you just let him do this?" said Alex, handing it back to him.
Tatsuya looked up at her and smiled, wry, sideways, as though it had been dragged out of his mouth on a hook. It made her heart hurt a little to see such a painful smile on such a young face. "How would I stop him?" he said. "He won't go back to that fancy firebending school. He hates it."
"There is that," she said, and ruffled his hair. "I guess I'm a teacher now. I'm gonna need to find a dojo… and I'm going to work you brats until you drop."
.0.
Five years ago
The spire of the tallest tower in the Northern Air Temple was technically off-limits to novice airbenders, not because people in general thought it was a good idea to try and forbid young benders to do anything, but because the winds channeled by the temple's structure funneled out at the tops of the towers into roaring maelstroms, and at the centre tower strongest of all.
But of course, Ryouta was no novice. It was child's play for him to ride navigate the wind currents up there, and after a tricky bit with a crosswind, Ryouta landed on the spire and crouched low- only to find someone else was already there. He glared at the interloper.
"This is my place," said Ryouta. "Go away."
"I don't see your name on it," said Shou, uncrossing his legs and picking up his glider. "What, no hello?"
Ryouta eyed him with great dislike. "Aren't you supposed to be at the Eastern Air Temple?" he said.
"Rude," said Shou, obviously enjoying himself. "Hello Ryouta. It's been so long since I've seen you. I flew in with Shuu. The elders are all here clucking over you, so if we want to get anything done we need to toady on up here and see if they're willing to detach their lips from your butt for one second to get some work done."
Ryouta cringed. But if Shuu was here, then maybe... "What- what are you here to do?" he said, cursing the dry air this high up, but Shou ignored this question. His sharp eyes looked Ryouta over.
"Why's your head shaved, anyway," said Shou. "You look stupid. Are you hoping they'll let you become a monk early?" He smirked. "Give up on the whole Avatar thing and skip straight to mummifying yourself in some cave looking for enlightenment?"
This, at least, Ryouta had an answer for. "I'm getting my tattoos," said Ryouta, pulling his shoulders back with pride. Youngest in hundreds, if not thousands of years. "I passed the tests. They said I'm ready." He cast a superior glance at Shou. Just because he was a few minutes older, he thought he was so great. "When are you getting your mastery, again?"
Shou's face twisted. "That's not fair," he said. "They only let you test out early because you're the Avatar!" He surged to his feet. The wind picked up. "You passed a stupid test they probably rigged for you anyway, and you get to be called a master? You get to have your tattoos? You can't even beat me in a fight!"
"That was a year ago!" said Ryouta. He got to his feet too, and had to plant himself to keep from being blown away. "I'm better now. I deserve it."
Shou laughed, nastily. "Deserve it?" he said. "If anyone deserves it, it's me. You're not the only one who got better, Ryouta." He flipped his glider up and raised it in a fighting stance.
Ryouta mirrored his action, then hesitated. The winds were still strong: too strong. If he opened his glider here-
Shou saw that moment of hesitation, and struck. Focused on the butt of his staff, the spike of air hit Ryouta in the gut and blasted him off the roof.
Ryouta fought the winds on his way down. He struggled with the catches on his glider, bending gushes to just keep himself from being impaled by a lesser tower, needle-sharp.
Shou leaped, laughing, and sent slashing air down at Ryouta's falling body. He flicked open his glider and surfed it down, down, riding the path he'd cut open for himself.
Ryouta barely managed to snap open his glider and dive out of the way. Shards of paint and shrapnel followed him as the wind slashes sliced into the tower. Ryouta looked up and diverted Shou, batting his body to the side.
Shou landed on his feet, and whirling, kicked up the shattered roof tiles and threw them at Ryouta.
Ryouta smashed them with the glider, whipping the air around it. He finished the move by sending the whirlwind flying towards Shou, seasoned with fire. Looking contemptuous, Shou batted it aside and, ducking low, ran across the roof. He kicked Ryouta's shin, destabilizing his stance, and hit him in the chest with the butt of his glider, sending Ryouta once again toppling off the roof.
Ryouta hit the treetops this time, struggling to catch his breath. Shou's hit had hurt, and every time Ryouta tried to breathe in, the pain made him gasp back out.
"You don't deserve anything!" said Shou, looking down on him, breathing hard. "You have all this power and you can't even use it. You don't even know how to use it! The Avatar State? Bending all four elements? All you do is sit around looking pretty and doing what you're told. If I had your power, I'd do whatever I wanted! And I'm stronger than you, so I can still do that. You're weak, Ryouta. You don't deserve to be the Avatar. I'd literally be doing the world a favour by killing you right now." He raised his glider again.
Ryouta saw it coming and rolled sideways, dropping through the branches. They scratched at his face and he had to break a few branches, but the canopy of the tree-tops broke the momentum of Shou's strikes, and they both hit the flat ground at the same time.
"You won't kill me," said Ryouta.
"Notice you don't say can't," sneered Shou. They ran towards each other and their gliders hit, setting off dizzying blasts of air. They traded blows without either gaining purchase, struggling for leverage. Their gliders locked and Shou used his bigger size to press Ryouta back, his arms straining. Ryouta gritted his teeth, trying to find a way to break free.
"C'mon, Ryouta!" yelled Shou. "You can't be afraid of dying. Nine months and there'll be another you! Probably better-looking and a lot smarter!"
Ryouta's back hit the rock, and he gasped and collapsed. Shou looked terribly, horribly triumphant as he shaped another razor-sharp wind on the tip of his glider, and raised it for the finishing blow.
"You're weak," he sneered, and brought his glider scything down- onto rock, raised by Ryouta's raised fist.
Ryouta felt as though he had to control his body from a great distance, forcing his legs to stand, his arms to push himself up, and watching light spill over everything. He saw everything more clearly than he ever had before. He threw punches at Shou's body, and each bolt of air struck the other airbender with more force than Ryouta had thought he could summon. He stomped- how did he know how to do this? He was only going to learn earth after water- and Shou tripped over rock, sprawling on the ground. Ryouta drew a swirl of fire in the air, and whipped both together until the fire went so hot it burned clear. It was time to end this, a threat to the Avatar, a threat to his life and world-
"ENOUGH," thundered several voices at once, booming on the wind. Air began to rise around them, dissipating Ryouta's fire, and whipping up dust, distracting him. Hands touched his arms and soothed him down, hands that Ryouta didn't want to hurt, belonging to those who meant him no harm.
Someone leaped into the battlefield and dragged Shou away. Ryouta knew him. He did, didn't he? The light was so bright. The light- the light-
The world went dark, and Ryouta fell forward onto his knees, his energy draining away. THe voices were draining away, too. Who-?
The last thing he heard, shouted over a storm of worry and concern and furor, was Shuu's voice, raised at Shou, or at Ryouta, with all the authority of his sixteen years and a lifetime of ordering around younger airbenders. "-what the hell you two were thinking, getting into a fight again! Is this any way for brothers to act?"
200 comment threads, or I kill Nigou.
