Chapter 8: Ozai's Practice Session
"Hey Shawn! Are you ready to come watch Ozai's practice?" Nico asked as I was getting dressed in the next room.
"Almost!...There! You can't even tell I was fighting last night! Come on let's go!" I said as we walked down into the practice room.
"Ah...Double Bender! Come and counter my moves, if you can, and let's see how good you are!" Ozai's voice strong and clear. Signs of a king.
I am so ready for this I mean my father taught Ozai! And he taught me how to counter attacks, the attacks he taught Ozai! Okay Shawntel calm your self. Inhale through nose and exhale through mouth.
As Ozai did some of his moves and I counter them with ease. He cranks his moves up a notch and so do I. I keep perfect time with him, we were synchronized together, we are one. After a while I did a double-flip over him and then got in a stance good enough to give a huge finishing blow, he stopped.
"You are a very good counter-attacker. You will go far...for a while...Zuko! Nico! Teach the D.B. here some fire-bending. Once all three of you are at the same level come to see me. Have Iroh help you." Ozai said and we left to go get Iroh.
"IROH!" Zuko said, his voice ringing off the walls. So much like his father, yet so different...
"Yes nephew, what is it?" His voice calm and clear came from the dinning room.
"Uncle can you help us practice today?" Obviously he hadn't told him about me being a 'double bender'.
"Why sure Zuko! Right after my tea, so sit down!" After Iroh finished his tea we started for the practice room. "What about the girl? Won't it be boring for her?" Iroh pointed to me with a disapproving face.
"Oh don't worry! She's practicing fire-bending too." Zuko said as we entered the room.
"Okay Zuko help Shawntel get the stance right. No, no, no! Get right behind her and move her like she is you, like you would yourself." The old man watched as Zuko was trying to help me out.
Why did we have to make- out last night! Why did we have to have hormones! Could he be any closer to me! COULD I BE ANY MORE PARINOID! Uh oh! BAMB!
"I am so sorry Zuko! I wasn't paying attention! Are you okay? Oh my gosh I didn't mean to fall on top of you!" Could I not have enough apologizes in one sentence! Am I schizophrenic? And if I am then why am I not answering?
Zuko burst out laughing, he had on hand on my scar, just because of the fall. I had one hand on his chest and the other hand pinned his hand, that wasn't on my scar, against the floor, trying to get up. As he fell he spun me and I fell with him, and that's how we ended up.
"Why are you laughing! If I were in your position I would be swearing at me!" I stared at him. He would just not stop laughing and it was starting to bug me...
"It's the fact that you all of a sudden like melted in my arms and I didn't know what to do and fell. That and the sudden spinning, the way we ended up, & what happened before uncle caught us. AND what happened last night before the dream!" He raised an eyebrow to that. The last part of the statement he said only loud enough for me to hear.
"Like I said, I wasn't paying attention, you spun me, and a dare. And last night was because I am so used to kissing Nico good night. Zuko looks at me funny, if you catch my drift. NOT LIKE THAT YOU SICKO! Last night was purely physical...I didn't want to sleep with Nico because he snores." My voice almost unheard but still threatening. I fell next to him and we both laughed.
"Alright! ALRIGHT! Let's get back to work!" Iroh's voice hoarse, he wanted to finish this. We both got up and I followed Zuko's example (more like I followed his body.) although this time almost focused. Until he was adjusting my stance and grabbed my thigh and a flame flew at the target. Perfect shot.
"Hey look! Zuko found a fire gun!" Nico said and started laughing, but quickly stopped as he saw the disapproving face of Iroh.
"Here, just one more adjustment...(he grabbed my hips and moved them)..and there!" Zuko said as he got into the stance next to me.
"Good now just like you did earlier aim your flames at the target. Here, watch Zuko." Iroh said as Zuko was practicing. I watched his body and tried it myself. It got easier after a while, we moved on to a harder move and I kept watching Zuko.
"Okay that's enough for today! Shawntel would you duce all the dummies?" Iroh winked at me. Time to practice my water bending!
"Sure! Why not? Practice does make perfection." I said and stared at Zuko. He 'humphed' at my joke and walked out of the room.
"My nephew is getting back to his old self again. You are very skilled for your age in water bending Shawntel." Iroh said as I did some water tricks to get ride of the the flames.
"It's all thanks to Zuko...He's the one who sent me to the North Pole and wouldn't let me leave there until he thought I was far enough in my training...I'm going back there in a couple of weeks." I said as I duce the last flame with a mini hail storm.
"Tell Master Pakku hi for me...we haven't talked in years..." Iroh let the thought simmer as he left.
I stayed and practiced my water bending. I knew the guys were taking showers so I didn't want to just sit there all sweaty.
"Hey Shawn are you in here?" Nico's voice rang through the halls. I can never get any time to myself can I? Why do I even ask myself questions?
"Yeah I'm in here!" I said as a hail storm grew in size until it grew all the way to the four corners of the room.
"Hey, hey, HEY! Calm down I just wanted to tell you that lunch is ready and the bathroom is open. Don't get all hail stormy." Nico's head said threw the door. He knew not to upset me when a hail storm was growing. It told him two things: 1. I was emotionally unstable at that time and 2. I was ready to claw the next person to walk threw the door.
"Okay be there in a little bit." I said as nicely as I could. I got up and I opened the door right into Zuko's face. He was just as upset as I was so he was just about to choke me. He had his hands around my throat pinning me to the wall, even though I was only 5' 3" and he was like 6' 2", face to face. His hand filled with flames about to collide with my face, and he dropped me to the ground gasping for air. His golden eyes looked terrorized at what happened. I sat there afraid to move, not sure of what was going to happen next.
"Come on. Lunch is ready." Zuko said as he grabbed my arm, pulled me up, and dragged me to the dinning room.
"Finally now we can eat!" Iroh said sipping his tea.
"Thank-you for not harming me Zuko." I said under my breath to Zuko as the retired general and the Fire-Lord were talking and Nico was stuffing his face.
"You should be lucky I saw your eyes, red, full of fear, scared." he hissed back at me. "Father, the preparations for the ball are going as planned."
"Good! Now Shawntel...was it? I nodded When do you plan on getting your dress?" Fire-Lord Ozai said not even looking up from his food.
"I planned on going this afternoon." I said as I ignored the questioning looks from my brother and the prince.
We all left the table, I went with the Fire-Lord and with a servant named Kinagi, a handbag filled with gold, silver, and copper coins, I walked out of the palace and into the market place.
A/N: Page 28 in my notebook! Yay! I know Zuko is like really ooc but that's only because lots of people think of him as a mean bastard, I don't. I think he's good. Oh well think what you want. To the people who have reviewed thank-you! I replied to all the reviews I've gotten so far and I will keep replying to reviews too!XD Peace out all!