Life of Air

Chapter 14

The Play – Part 2

We all walked out of the theater to get some air, most everyone grateful for the reprieve from the show.

Zuko scoffed. "So far this intermission is the best part of the play."

"Yeah!" Sokka said with a huff, waving a piece of dried meat in the air. "The playwright seems to think I'm just an idiot that tells bad jokes about meat all the time."

"You tell bad jokes about plenty of other topics." Suki said with a teasing smile.

"I know!" he replied and took a bite of his dried meat.

"At least that Sokka character kinda looks like you, that woman playing the Avatar does resemble me at all." Aang said, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I don't know," Toph started with a smirk, "you are more in touch with your feminine side than most guys." This lead Aang to stand up and growl at her in anger.

"Relax Aang, they aren't true portrayals." Katara said with a calm that no one else seemed to have. "I mean it's not like I'm some preachy crybaby that gives long speeches about hope all the time."

Aang rubbed the back of his neck and sat back down facing away from her. "Yeah... that isn't you at all."

"Listen friends, it's obvious that the playwright did his research. I know it must hurt but what you're seeing up there is the truth." Toph said, a grin adorning her features.

Tanro slapped his hand down on the Avatar's shoulder. "Take it all in fun kids, it's not that big of a deal so no need to be so serious about it. Just use it as a reason to laugh at yourself."

"It's hard for me to say much since I've only known you all for a short time.." I said, my voice soft. "But what I see up there are small bits of your personalities taken to extremes by a man who has never even met you. I wouldn't worry so much about how you're portrayed on that stage. It's a play and it's in the past, you have a much more important future to look to."

Toph wrapped her arm around me and pulled me in close with a loud laugh. "See you guys, even the sheltered airbender and lord boulder head aren't taking it seriously and they grew up in a cave!"

I gave a small chuckle to her statement and smiled at all the others. "It's about to start again, we should go back to see how this playwright person has portrayed Toph."

"Yeah!" Toph exclaimed and punched the air. Everyone seemed to lighten up a little with smiles and such and started back into the theater.

The curtain rose to a scene of green buildings and rocks with the Avatar trio. Actor Aang flew around the theater on a wire in search of a earthbending teacher with no luck. Then a deep and throaty voice came from below the stage.

"You can't find an earthbender in the sky, you have to look under ground." The man I assumed must be playing Toph said as he rose from under a stage rock and threw it. Everyone in our section was trying hard not to laugh too loud, except Zuko who only looked on in pure shock and Toph who was trying to listen intently with a confused expression on her face.

"Oh my! An earthbender! Who are you?" actor Aang exclaimed.

Actor Toph spat on the ground then pointed to himself. "My names Toph, 'cause it sounds like tough, and that's just what I am." He said while flexing his huge muscles.

"Wait a minute. I sound like a guy, a really buff guy." Toph said in confusion.

Katara leaned next to her. "Well Toph, what you hear up there is the truth. Hurts doesn't it?"

Toph then smiled big. "Are you kidding me? I wouldn't have cast it any other way!" She said then giggled. "At least it's not a flying, bald lady."

"So, you're blind?" Actor Aang asked while waving her hand in front of his face.

The giant hulk of a man chuckled. "I can see you doing that, I see everything you see, except I don't see like you do. I release a sonic wave from my mouth." He said then proceeded to scream at the trio. "There, I got a pretty good look at you." He said once he was finished.

Next there came a scene of actor Zuko and his uncle in something I think was suppose to be dramatic but the portrayal left a lot to be desired in that respect. Actor Iroh told actor Zuko that they needed to speak of his hair. Actor Zuko replied by saying they should split up while he flipped his now long locks of hair around his face before they both walked off the stage. I shook my head but couldn't help the small giggle that escaped my lips.

The scene after this was one of the whole collection of main characters through out the play plus a new addition, Azula. I watched as she faked that she had seen actor Zuko's honor and escaped to everyone's confusion. She came up in another scene with her on top of a large metal machine of sorts that they called a drill. Actor Aang dramatically announced that if she continued to drill the wall of Ba Sing Se would come down. It was a rather boring scene, lasting far too long with no dialogue or action. I looked down to see most of the theater goers yawning and falling asleep.

There were more Ba Sing Se adventures to follow, as well as one with the character Jet having been taken control of by something and going crazy. He apparently needed to serve the earth king and that involved trying to kill the actor gang but was 'crushed' by a rock that floated down from the sky instead.

"Did Jet just... die?" Zuko asked.

"You know... it was really unclear." Sokka answered.

The next scene had actor Zuko and actor Katara alone in a cave of crystals. It seemed normal to me at first, them avoiding each other, but then things got strange when the overly sensual actor version of Katara started to tell actor Zuko how attractive she thought he was. This confused me but I kept watching intently. Actor Zuko reacted how I assumed the real Zuko would react in this situation, telling her not to make fun of him and turning away from her, then saying that he thought she was the Avatar's girl, just as we all knew was the truth. Actor Katara laughed at this and said she thought of him as a little brother, nothing romantic. The next surprise from these two was a mutual and 'romantic' hug of sorts.

Aang reacted to this scene a lot worse than I thought he would by getting up to leave the theater. No one seemed to pay any mind to this except for Sokka who asked him to get him snacks while he was gone. I started to get up and go after him but I was pushed back into my seat by my older brother who actually stood and stretched. "I think I'll go get snacks too." He then grabbed Zuko's arm and pulled him along with him. "You come too, princey."

Zuko's POV

I let Tanro drag me out of the theater, though I didn't have much choice, until he stopped and tossed me against a wall in a hallway. The earthbender crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, still not looking at me.

"You just can't listen, can you?" He said.

I looked away from him. "It isn't your choice who she wants."

He then slammed his fist into the wall next to my head, glaring at me. "It is my choice to let you live though."

His words were hard and threatening, but I knew he just wanted to scare me. He didn't think I was good enough for Iyashi, but neither did I. She made her choice and that's what mattered to me. No matter how much this man wanted to threaten me, I wasn't going to just leave her. I glared back at him.

"You hurt me and you hurt her, I know you care about your sister more than that." I said. "Besides, it's not like I'm going down without a fight."

He continued to glare then released a sigh along with his hard gaze, standing back away from me. "You're not who I would have picked, but Iyashi has a good judge of character and I trust her for that. I just needed to make sure you were serious."

I raised an eyebrow. "So all the threats... that was just a test? You threatened me before anything even happened between us. What were you doing then? Did you just hate me?"

Tanro smirked. "Oh come on princey, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that my baby sis had the hots for you since you stepped foot in the temple. I just had to put in a little insurance before you figured it out."

I shook my head and breathed a sigh of relief, knowing I had just found an ally that I wasn't expecting to find. This meant that Iyashi and I weren't going to need to be so secretive anymore, since it was her brother we were really hiding from and not the rest of the group. Then a thought came to mind.

"Hey, how did you know that we were.. you know?" I asked, rubbing the back of my neck and avoiding his eyes.

Tanro laughed. "You two didn't even think about that little blind earthbender, she saw every little move you two made and told me about it today when we were sparring."

"Oh yeah, I didn't even think about Toph..." I said, shaking my head slightly at how dumb I had been to forget that Toph was going to see every time Iyashi and I touched in a more than just friendly manor. The revelation made me wonder if she had told anyone else of what she had discovered or just Iyashi's brother.

When we started going back to the play the others were coming out and we went with them back to the hallway. Katara went to find Aang, Sokka and Suki went to sneak back stage, and Tanro lead Iyashi away to have a private talk with her. That left Toph and I to ourselves.

Iyashi's POV

"Tanro, this isn't funny." I said, stopping in my tracks, pulling my arm from his grip, and crossing my arms over my chest.

He crossed his arms as well, grinning at me in a knowing way which only irritated me more. "Oh I think it's hilarious. Just watching you squirm is like looking at you as a little five year old squirt again. Besides, you don't even know what I'm going to say."

I rolled my eyes then fixed him with an irritated stare. "Fine then, what are you going to say?"

My eldest brother took a breath and looked at me for a moment, as though he were trying to gather the words. "I just wanted to tell you... that you have my blessing."

My jaw fell slack at Tanro words and I couldn't help but stare at him in a combination of disbelief and confusion. "Your... blessing? W-what do you mean?"

"You and that hot headed prince, I know you two are an item or whatever you want to call it, and I give my blessing... if it matters to you." He then laid his big, strong hands on my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, smiling in my face. "Look here little one, you matter to me more than anything and I may come off as overly protective, but I know that you're just as stubborn as I am and you've made up your mind about this. I always kinda had a feeling you would anyway."

I jumped and wrapped my arms around my brother's neck, hugging him tight. "Oh I always knew you had a good heart you big rock head!"

He laughed and patted my back. "Alright, alright, just don't choke me."

Once we were done hugging we went back to join the others getting ready to go back and finish the play. Once I saw Zuko my entire body felt warmer and I reach out to take his hand. He smiled at me and squeeze back and I knew we both were in the same mindset, having gotten blessings from my brother. I knew we didn't need his blessings, or anyone else's for that matter, but it still felt great to know that someone so important to me finally respected my choice.

Toph then punch Zuko and laughed before walking away from us. I cocked my head in confusion at the young earthbenders actions, but Zuko waved his hand as if to tell me it was something we could talk about later. Once everyone else joined us it was kind of surprising no one said anything about our hands being locked, but I guessed everyone just didn't want to embarrass us or something by mentioning the sudden closeness.

With everyone back again we continued to watch the play but I held little interest. Tanro and I had traded seats and I sat next to Zuko, I was honestly more concerned with sitting next to the prince than whatever was happening on the stage. His warmth radiated from our entwined fingers throughout my entire body and the tightness in my chest was accompanied by a flutter in my stomach. It was wonderful.

The play's invasion failed and the actor gang picked up Zuko as a new member, though that was short and didn't really have any explanation. There was no mention of the Western Air Temple or of my people or me for that matter which was a good thing. Sokka tried to leave then but Suki pulled him back down telling him that the play wasn't over yet. I guessed that this was what the glorious playwright had decided was going to happen. Actor Zuko and his sister fought, with him losing very dramatically in a burst of fire screaming honor. I felt Zuko tense up at this part and patted his leg, everyone else looked at him as well, obviously feeling bad for him having to watch his own death of sorts.

The finale of the play was a word heavy battle between actor Aang and the Fire Lord with too much shock and fear from actor Aang. The battle took place during the comet and ended with Aang being engulfed dramatically by a large curtain of flame and dying rather slowly. The Fire Lord gave a speech of the victory for the Fire Nation which lead the whole theater to stand and applaud and cheer except for our section.

As we walked back to the beach house Sokka summed up the entire experience rather well.

"That... wasn't a good play. But the effects were decent."

A/N - This chapter was mostly about finishing up the play but adding in Tanro's blessing was important to me. I mean how did Zuko and Iyashi really think they could hide their relationship from anyone when Toph can literally feel everything going on around her? Let me know what you think!