A/N- Okay, before you kill or flame or insert a virus into my computer, I'd like to apologize for being so late in updating! But on the bright side, a lot of stuff happened, such as finding out who the evil woman was, one of the funniest episodes of Avatar, I learned how to make AMVs, and, I started High School!
So, find it in your hearts to not kill me?
CHAPTER 17- Night
Courage. What a ridiculous thought.
Zuko frowned as he stared at the ceiling. Chikara or De or whatever his name was had been kind enough to have more rooms prepared, giving all of them privacy. So of course now that it was quiet enough to get a good nights sleep, he found it impossible.
Damn Avatar.
Sure, he was able to firebend. I guess it's plausible, but it doesn't have nearly enough strength as anger. When he gets scared, and all his courage is gone, that's when he'll need firebending, and it won't be there. The poor boy needs to figure that out!
Rolling to the side, he closed his eyes tightly. He was tired, but he just couldn't sleep! He was beginning to hate kids. A lot.
It's not like this is a big deal. It's just that if he dies, it'll be a hell of a headache finding the next one. Of course, that one will be water, and there can't be that many. Just the north and south…
Damn Avatar.
Over in Aangs room, sleeping was proving to be anything but difficult. He was having trouble staying awake.
He sat crossed-legged in front of three carefully placed candles, a determined look on his face.
Focus…focus… Wow, focusing makes you really tire-
"GYA!" Aang yelled, throwing his fists up in anger. Almost immediately, the tiny flames burst, destroying half of each candle. The airbender sighed.
"Stupid fire, always exploding." He mumbled, standing up and blowing out the poor wax sticks. Removing his shirt and shoes, he climbed into the very large bed arranged for him.
He wanted to learn firebending, and he seemed to be very good at it. This didn't surprise him much, though. He was the Avatar, and it was only natural for the elements to come easily to him. What bothered him was the fact that since he started learning, things had become very tense. Chikara was always mumbling to himself and some of the people in the castle about having to work on the possibility of a large Fire Nation raid, bigger then the one General Iroh led. Sokka kept avoiding him and Katara never looked happy, she always seemed scared. Zuko was growing impatient with the training, saying that it was going too slow and that they should just forget earthbending, concentrating on firebending. This in turn caused a lot of meals to be filled with arguments between him and Chikara, who said if they were to cut out an element, it should be fire.
The only one that was relatively normal was Tsuyosa, who just seemed to sleep more. Aang had even caught her sound asleep in the dining hall when everyone else was out site-seeing, face buried in a half-eaten platter of platypusbear meat. Aang had asked if it had anything to do with the comet getting closer, but the dragon shrugged it off and quickly suggested a game of pai-cho. The airbender couldn't remember if he ever brought the subject up again.
Katara lay in her bed, sleeping quietly, and Tsuyosa smiled a little. Even though there were plenty of rooms, the waterbender still slept with the dragon, saying "It's nice, kinda like a sleepover."
It had never crossed her mind that much, but tonight Tsuyosa couldn't help but think of what all of this mess had done to Katara. She and her brother had grown up without a mother or father; she even doubted their grandmother helped a lot. Maybe for a bit of support and normal caretaker stuff, but not a parent.
"That must've sucked." Tsuyosa whispered under her breath. For as long as she could remember, even she had had something of a family. Yugasa, Chikara, and Junsuisa had all been her siblings in a way. And the Royal Dragons, Lord Yami and Lady Hikari, were always going to be her parents. Without them, Tsuyosa didn't know what she would do.
"But…Now things are getting…complicated…" looking up at the large window taking up over half the wall, Tsuyosa got up and walked over to it, carefully opening it and climbing out onto the ledge. The window did not have a balcony, but the goddess had the balance of the, well, gods.
"Hm, the moon's dark; red, like blood." Staring across the courtyard to the opposite building, she saw the dark window to the room where Zuko was sleeping. She could just see dark shadows moving, and a small candle flickering in the room next to it; Aangs.
"It seems no one's sleeping tonight." Craning her neck up as far as it would go, she cracked a grin at the ominous red moon, and took a step forward, off the ledge.
"It seems no one's aware…"
A/N- Aieeee, this was so short! I'm so sorry about this, guys!
R&R, please!