AN: Hey guys! Sorry if it took long to do this ch. I was rackin my brain for an idea...then it hit me...at like...three o'clock in the morning lol...so I've been writing my heart out today! well I hope you guys are enjoying this...or even readingit...I have no idea if you areor not...but w/e...Ionly know of three people who are reading...I got like 110 hits...two reviews (thankful for both of em!), I'm on one person's alert list and on anothers fave list...can't complain I guess...in fact I'm a very happy person right now! So here ya go! Ch. 4 of The Doom of Innocence...R&R ENJOY!
The Doom of Innocence
Ch. 4 Tea for Two
The sun was high in the sky shining brightly down on the ocean below, making it glitter in fierce beauty.
Zuko walked slowly through the ship's halls searching for his uncle. Iroh had fallen ill the previous day and Zuko wanted to check on him, as well as tell his uncle of the suspicions he was having of Meisha. It had been at least two days since he and Meisha had had their argument, and he was in no hurry to make up.
When he arrived at his uncle's room, he was surprised to see Meisha, of all people, sitting by Iroh's bedside serving him tea, and actually chatting merrily with him.
"And then he told me –" she paused when she saw Zuko standing there staring directly at her.
"Ahh, Prince Zuko, you're just in time to hear –" Iroh was about to say, but Zuko cut him off.
"What are you doing?" he asked coldly, staring suspiciously at her and then his uncle's cup.
"Having tea with your uncle, would you like to join us?" she asked sweetly. "It's a special type of herbal tea that I just made, and it will make Iroh here feel much better." She smiled looking at Iroh who was immensely enjoying her tea.
"And it's very good tea too," Iroh stated, it was obvious that he was delighted with having someone to enjoy tea with.
"Humph," Zuko glared, a little jealous butignoring his uncle's comment. "Well, what's in it?" his eyes gleaming fiercely. "Or is that classified too?"
"What you would put in normal tea, but with special healing herbs added!" she said defensively, knowing very well what he was leading at.
"Be more specific," he demanded balling his fists tightly.
"What do you mean, its just tea!" she screamed.
"Let me make myself more specific," he said, thinking this would really blow her up. "On terms you would understand." He slowly approached her and whispered, "What type of poison did you give my uncle?" his eyes were a mix of fear and hatred.
Upon having heard his nephew's accusation, Iroh, who at the time was drinking the tea, chocked and spit it out and thenglared at Zuko.
"ZUKO!" Iroh exclaimed ashamed his nephew would say something such as that.
"What!" she screamed jumping up, careful to not jar her ribs.
"Humph, quit playing innocent, I know what you did." Zuko smirked, she had another thing coming if she thought he would fall for that innocent, confused look.
"I can't believe you, you still actually believe I'm hiding something from you?" she cried, very tempted to burn Zuko to a crisp right there on the spot.
"Yes, yes actuallyI do." He smirked at the position he had put her in.
"So you just accuse me of poisoning your uncle, because of some stupid idea you got in your thick head, when in reality all I'm trying to do is help!" she couldn't believe him.
"Humph, as far as I'm concerned," his eyes narrowed, "You're just some drifter or an assassin hired by Zhao to eliminate my uncle and me so he can capture the Avatar without interference."
"Just who do you think you are to insult me like that!" she demanded, now very angry.
"Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne." He stated trying to intimidate her into confessing so he could quickly aid his uncle.
Iroh was shocked at his nephew's behavior.
"Yeah, a banished prince with no honor whatsoever." She retorted boldly, not intimidated by him at all.
"What would you know of honor, like I said, your probably just an assassin who was rejected by her family and friends, and has no honor, no home, no dignity, and no appreciation for life. In fact the only thing you probably do have is a cold-blooded desire to see innocent blood spilled over onto a cold floor." He said smirking at the expression on her face.
She stood there silently, taking in all that he said. She wanted to make a comeback but her tongue formed no words. She wanted to punch him but her arms betrayed her. She wanted to run off to the shadows and be alone but her feet remained frozen. She wanted to cry out over all the losses and mistakes of her past, but her pride would never allow that. She wanted most of all to go home and let everything go back to the way it was before, but she had no one to run to and her past was irreversible.
Zuko watched, amused at all of the emotions displayed on her visage.
She silently looked to him, hurt reflected through her honey colored eyes. Without warning she swiftly slapped him on his right cheek.
"I hate you." She whispered softly and shuffled out of the room as quickly as her injuries would allow. Running to her room before the tears became obvious.
Zuko stood there shocked at all that had occurred.When he tried to reach back and grab her, he stopped short when he saw a faint tear trickle down her cheek.
Heturned to his uncle who stared gravely at him, disappointment written all over his face.
"Prince Zuko," Iroh sighed, "When will you learn to respect other people's differences? It was only herbal tea, I watched her make it. If you would stop judging her based on your own assumptions and actually consider her feelings in all of this, you might just findMiss Meisha to be a wonderful friend. But keep that haughty attitude you've got and in the end all you will get is pain and loneliness."
"I-I'm sorry to have disturbed you…uncle." Zuko said walking out the door leaving his uncle aloneto muse in his thoughts.
Zuko walked slowly to his quarters, reviewing everything that was said, the he paused.
Why did I say that? He thought and shook his head. Those weren't the kind of things he would normally say to anyone, especially a woman. He shook his head again and sighed as he headed to his room to meditate.
Meisha finally managed to get to her room without much disturbance from the crew. She locked her door and plopped down on her bed. Burying her head in the pillows, she allowed her tears to shed freely, as she had not done in many years. At first she cried passionately with such fierceness that reflected all the pain and hate she kept bottled up for so long. Soon all the tears were gone. She sat upright and brushed any that remained away.
She would not allow her past to put everything she had worked so hard for, hanging in the balance. She closed her eyes and focused her energy and thoughts until she reached a trance-like state. The power she felt burning within her was fierce and untamable – for now at least.
She felt fire fly from her fingertips and start to slowly circle around her, trailing the line of her thoughts; becoming stronger as emotions swept over her like a giant wave.
As her emotions grew stronger, she felt herself mentally separating the balance of yin and yang and then allowing it to crash back together, causing lighting to fly through her fingers.
The Fire and lightning bolt intermingled while circling around her, eventually becoming one and turning into a strange blue fire that slowly made its way around her; all the time becoming faster and more aggressive.
Memories suddenly flooded her mind.
A young boy and girl were standing idly in a court yard close by the palace where the Fire Lord himself was meeting with their father over certain war matters.
"You see Meisha, the rules of Apple Flaming go like this; you aim for an apple, or two if possible, and knock it out of the tree with your flame, but you have to avoid burning the tee down," said a young boyof about fifteen. "Knock the apple down and you get five points! Burn the tree down….and you pretty much lose the game, not to mention the trouble you'd get in!" he exclaimed looking down at the eager twelve-year-old Meisha.
"Umm….like this?" she asked shooting a big red apple down from the tree.
"Hmmm….not bad….for a beginner," he said teasingly. "But watch this," he made his index and middle finger form a "V" and shot down two apples which flew back and knocked down four more.
"Thirty points for me!" he smiled at his sister's gaped open mouth.
"Hey, no fair!" she said, playfully pushing him to the ground. He quickly reached out and pulled her down with him. They both broke out into a mindless fit of laughter.
"Oh Jie, your such a show off." She sighed lying beside her brother, staring at the clouds.
"Yeah, maybe….just a little," he said slyly. They laughed again.
The blue fire that had been circling Meisha suddenly separated back into two individual elements and then disappeared completelyas she lostall focus.
She opened her eyes, now somewhat more calm, she stood up; she would never be able to get back into that state of mind that day. She looked out her window; it was starting to get dark.
How long did I meditate? She thought watching the sun slowly turn the sky to a bright pink.
Jie...
She laid back on her bed and tried to sleep; the memory of her brother's face, still firmly planted in her mind's eye, as she slowly drifted to sleep.
AN: Ok...yeah...second argument...second time when the chapter ends with Meisha falling asleep. For some strange reason...when I was writing ch. 3...I kept thinking of Azula when I was writing that little convo b/t Meisha and Zuko at the end...believe me she WILL NOT be like Azula...not the whole time at least...lol. I kinda thought the poisoning Iroh thing was lame...but I couldn't think of nuthin that would get Zuko all suspicious like...ya know? AND FYI: HE STARTED IT NOT HER...lol. I know she seemed like a little b in the last ch. but she really aint - not always anyway. Well there ya go...I just slaved over a notebook andthen a keyboard andskiped my lunch break...all for you guys! So please review...Reviews are like the foundation of what motivates the story...although I love to do it anyways, it would be nice to get some motivation goin on! lol well I'll shut up now...gotta think of ch. 5...gosh...my head hurts...anyways! hope ya enjoyed it! SEE YA...REVIEW!