Disclaimer: I covet Avatar. I dream about Avatar. I don't own Avatar, so I will steal Avatar from the Avatar studio.
Happy New Year!
So…bright sunny southern California right? Wrong. It's pouring right now. It was yesterday also. I got to stand out in it and pick up the packaging peanuts that had miraculously escaped from their trash can prison where they had been confined since Christmas. In an act of revenge for containing them in a very unsuitable living space, they mercilessly spread themselves all over my patio and pool. So I got to pick up wet packaging peanuts, which actually became bloated from osmosis, with the help of my two golden labs. (And when I say help, I mean them jumping around everywhere, getting in the way.)
But I then had a nice day where I made a nice cup of warm tea, got into the ugly-but-comfy sweatpants that you would never be caught dead in outside of your house, and settled in for a Naruto marathon on cartoon network.
I have actually had a cold for about half a week now, which means that I've been coughing up more than a lung. So I decided to skip the "lovely" get together my family holds this time every year, and do my homework instead. (Hah.)
22
"Now Zuko, it's not fair to do this shirtless. You're distracting me." Kila said jokingly, walking to the opposite side of her yard.
"My chest is distracting you?" Zuko said, somewhat amused.
"Yes, by how misshapen it is." Kila taunted.
"Now Kila honey, that wasn't very nice." Her mother reprimanded, walking outside. "Say you're sorry."
"Mrs. Okame, your daughter's attempt was so pathetic, it wasn't even an insult. Therefore, I am not offended." Zuko replied in a very princely matter.
"OH! So now you think you're so high and mighty." Kila said, a tad aggravated. "Well I guess I'm going to have to bring you down a few pegs." She pulled her short hair into a ponytail, unaffectedly trying to get it out of her eyes. Sadly, the way she had mauled it back at Jets' hideout, it was more in her face than before.
"There is no way you could even get close to me. Just because you were able to beat Zhao means nothing."
"Don't get so full of yourself."
"I'm not, I'm just telling the truth."
"AG! Well, Kate says you're a dick!"
Zuko was taken aback at this one rant. "Who's Kate?"
Kila blinked a couple times and then smiled weakly. "Um…my stalker."
"YOU HAVE A STALKER?" This outcry came from Maria, Kila's mother, now joining the conversation.
"Well, not really, but kinda." Kila waved her hand. "It's not a big deal. Moving on! ZUKO! I shall defeat you!"
"Are we finally gonna get started then?" He complained, now standing with his arms folded out of boredom.
"YES!" Kila screamed out of frustration. She got into her fighting stance and stood there, waiting.
Zuko got into his stance as well and waited.
And they waited and waited and waited…
"Aren't you gonna go?" Kila asked, quite put out after three minutes had passed and nothing happened.
"I never throw the first punch." Zuko responded.
"I don't either, that's what uncle told me." Kila said.
"Oh, this is ridiculous. I'm going inside." Maria said, rolling her eyes. "Kila, this little game of yours is over."
"What little game?" Adam asked, now walking outside to join the group.
"Kila has this idea that she can shoot fire out of her hands." Maria explained.
"Really? COOL!" Adam said, quite excited at the idea.
"No honey, don't encourage her." Her mother said, rubbing her temples.
"Okokokokok. Zuko, on three, we both fire at the same time. Got it?" Kila said, trying to get this started.
"Fine. One," Zuko began.
"Two…"
"THREE!" they shouted together.
…still nothing happened.
"Zuko you sly bastard-" Kila began.
However, her mother interrupted. "HEY! We do not use that language in this house!"
"- you were going to have me shoot first, weren't you?" Kila continued.
"Oh, like you weren't going to do the exact same thing." Zuko said in his defense. "And seeing as we're blowing this large secret now, you had best start calling me by my proper name."
"Fine. Prince Zuko, say you're prayers." Kila said, saying his title with malice. And then she spun on one leg, bringing the other up with the momentum and shot fire at him.
"FINALLY." Zuko said exasperated. He pushed her attempt off to the side and pumped his fists out at rapid speed, sending a storm of fire at Kila. She caught all of his blasts and sent them right back all at the same time, creating a very large fireball indeed.
But Zuko just pushed that off to the side as well, and advanced forward closer towards Kila. She mimicked his moves, and soon they were an arms length apart, trying to strike each other down.
"COOL!" Adam shouted, rooting them both on. Her mother just watched in awe. How was this possible? Was Kila telling the truth the whole time?
Punch after punch, blow after blow was dealt, and not one missile hit its target. It was obvious that at the speed they were fighting at, their energy would soon diminish. Yet both in the party were too stubborn to retreat.
And then it happened. Zuko had aimed high, and Kila aimed low. Zuko went up on one leg to swipe her head clean off, and Kila slid towards the ground and kicked his foot out of place. Zuko fell and hit his head on the ground, growling. But Kila jumped back up on her feet and placed her fists right at his face, a triumphant grin plastered on.
"That was the same attack you used to knock Zhao down. How unimaginative." Zuko complained.
"Hey, if it worked, then I'll take it." Kila said, unclenching her hands and offering to help him up. He batted her hands away and stood up himself, quite annoyed.
"DUDEEE! THAT WAS SOOOO COOOOOOL!" Adam screamed from the edge where he had been watching. "TEACH ME ZUKO! TEACH ME!"
"I won, why can't I teach you?" Kila said, confused.
"He's cooler than you are." Adam finished, and rushed over to his new hero to beg for lessons.
Kila blinked a couple of times, trying to understand her little brothers mind. Not reaching any understandable conclusions, she walked over to her mother who was white from terror.
"You…fire…close…fight…always?" She said very slowly.
"Um…didn't quite understand you there mom." Kila replied, scratching her head.
"You're always fighting like that? Around fire?" She translated.
"Oh, we're not always fighting like that. That's an Agni Kai, which basically means it's a fight between two firebenders. It doesn't happen very often. I've only had one other in the time I was missing here, and that was with Zhao."
"He's that man that you said kidnapped you."
"Well, he didn't technically kidnap me, remember? I just gave you his description cause I don't like him, and you know how unimaginative I am. He is the one who gave me this scar though." Kila replied, pointing to her arm.
"And he gave Zuko his scar?"
"I actually don't know where Zuko got that one. But it was before I met him I suppose, because I remember always seeing him with it."
Her mother nodded, trying to understand everything. "So…you being an ava…eva…-"
"Avatar" Kila said, helping out.
"Right, that. So, you being an avatar that means you can do what again?"
"Bend all the elements: air, water, earth, fire. Zuko can't do that. There's already an avatar in his time period."
"And there's only one…?"
"Right."
"I still don't understand this."
"Don't worry."
"So it means you're going to have to go back then?"
"Yes."
"Well…I'm not happy about this. But I suppose that Zuko…prince Zuko I mean, must get back to his home. I'm sure that his parents are worried about where he disappeared too."
Kila was suddenly thrust about the idea of Zuko's parents. He never talked about them, so Kila just assumed that he didn't have them. But of coarse he did…his father was controlling the fire nation, wasn't he? As Kila tried to think about this, she turned around and saw Zuko, going through his basic moves to re-vamp himself. And there was Adam, mimicking his every move.
Kila smiled at the adorable sight.
That night during dinner, Adam kept trying to meditate and draw a flame.
"You know Adam; you could very well be an earthbender. Why don't you try that?" Kila said, giggling.
"Ooooooam. Ooooam." Adam continued with his meditation sounds.
"You don't make that sound. Be quiet." Zuko complained, dipping his spoon into the mashed potatoes.
"And finish your broccoli." Maria told Adam also.
Later that night, Zuko was sleeping peacefully when he was kicked in the side. He sleepily batted Kila's foot away and rolled over, thinking it was time to wake up for school.
"Zukkkkkkkkkooooooo…" Kila whispered in his ear.
Zuko groaned. "What?" he asked harshly.
"Get up." Came the same whisper.
He rubbed his eyes and glanced at the clock. "It's two in the morning."
"Thanks for that update. Come on." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of bed. "I want you to do something." She then pulled a reluctant Zuko out of the warm confines of his blankets out of Adams room, into her own, and out her window onto the roof. "Look." She said, pointing to the sky.
Zuko looked up. There was a large, shinning orb smack dab in the middle of many stars, smiling down at the two teens. He shrugged. "So it's a full moon."
"Right. You know what that means. Wish to wake up back on your ship." Kila said helpfully.
"You are ridiculous." Zuko said, folding his arms and turning so his back faced Kila. Then he quickly closed his eyes and thought "I wish I'll wake back up on my ship."
"You know, you'll never know if this works or not if you don't try." Kila said helpfully, not knowing he had wished.
"It's not going to work." Zuko said, turning back around.
"Well, I'm going to wish all the same." Kila said. Then she closed her eyes and wished "I wish that Zuko and I will wake up back on his ship." She opened her eyes to see Zuko glaring at her.
"Are you done yet? Can I go back to sleep now?"
"Yea…I guess. Good night."
Zuko rolled his eyes and crawled back through her window, into the hallway and back underneath his covers that were still warm. He quickly fell back asleep.
Kila stayed outside, looking at the stars, wishing that she had been right in this guess. After about an hour, she went back into her room and crawled back into bed. Then she got out, put on her favorite bra, and spun a few hair bands around her wrist. She then placed a bottle of Tylenol through the bands. "I wonder if these will come back with me." She mused to herself. Then she crawled back under her covers, and fell into a fitful sleep.
Kila woke up the next morning with a stiff back, and a sore wrist. The hair bands had been cutting off the circulation to her wrist all night, and the bottle had been digging into her skin. She pulled the bands and the bottle off, and rolled her wrist around to get the blood flowing, a few cracks emitting from the bones.
Then she realized that this didn't feel like her mattress, or her usual mound of blankets. She leaped out of the bed and landed on a hard metal surface, only to turn around and find herself back in her bunk room on the ship. Letting out a whoop of joy, she wrenched open the door and ran down the hallway towards Zuko's room. There, she proceeded to throw open his door as well and jump onto his bed (Read: jump on top of him).
"ZUKO! WE'RE BACK!" Kila screamed into his ear.
"GAHH!" Zuko screeched from surprise, falling out of his bed, and bringing Kila down with him.
"I told you I told you I told you!" Kila taunted in a sing-song voice from underneath Zuko.
"Shut up. This doesn't prove anything about the moon." Zuko complained, standing up and surveying the room.
Just then Iroh came running from down the hallway towards the loud noise to investigate. When he found Kila trapped under a pile of blankets and Zuko scowling at her, Iroh let out a whoop of joy and ran over to his nephew, squeezing him tightly.
"Aw. It's cute in a weird way." Kila said, sitting up and watching the two relatives re-unite.
"Get. Him. Off. Me." Zuko commanded through gritted teeth.
"No. You need a hug every now and then." Kila said, smiling. She stood up and dusted herself off, only to then be overtaken by a large hug from Iroh, who had apparently detached himself from the irate prince.
When Iroh finally let go, he closed the door and turned to the two teens. "Where have you been?"
"My time period." Kila answered.
"Ok. How did you get there?"
"The moon."
"It was not the moon." Zuko said, rolling his eyes.
"Fine, whatever." Kila said.
"OK…well the only person who knows that you two have been missing is Lady Melia. The whole crew just thinks you're extremely sick. This was very hard to pull off, so you both own me big." Iroh said, looking very serious. Kila giggled.
"Now: Prince Zuko, I need you to get yourself down to the helm as soon as possible. We have a matter of utmost urgency to discuss." With that said, Iroh left the room skipping, singing quietly to himself "No more stewed pickle prunes for dinner. No more stewed pickle prunes for dinner."
"Prince Zuko, look at this letter." Iroh said, handing the piece of parchment to Zuko. He read it quickly.
"So, we have to meet Zhao then?"
"Yes, and thank goodness you came at the time you did. We are supposed to meet him tomorrow at this port."
"Well, are we on our way there?"
"Of coarse we are."
"Then what is the urgency about it?"
"Well, I thought the fact we would have all been arrested was quite urgent."
"Anything else?"
"And Miss Kila has a reward placed on her head by Zhao as well."
"For what? That girl isn't worth anything!"
"He apparently believes she is the avatar, and is out to prove it to the world."
"How does he know?"
"Either Miss Kila didn't tell us something when she had her last encounter, or he is out to get her period."
The next day came, and Kila was locked in her room for reasons she was not told. She sulked around a few hours and finally starred out her porthole, wondering what was going on.
There she saw they had docked at a port. And she could see Iroh speaking to someone whose back was facing her. Although she couldn't see his face, the hair was recognizable to a point.
Iroh was speaking to Admiral Zhao, who then started to board the ship.
Yea, kind of expected, but whatever.
I'll have another chapter posted up soon.
Once I finish my homework that is.
Toodle pip.
SeethingxShadows