Unknown Travelers; A Series of Drabbles
plasticphoenix
(III: Chivalry...or Something Like It)
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She stood perched awkwardly uncomfortable on top of the stone wall. She maintained a careful teeter-totter of tiptoes in satin slippers and a grateful gathering of teal and turquoise silk robes in hands, wrinkling the material but keeping it from becoming snagged on unfriendly branches of different sorts and allowing her to move. She was unhappy with her current situation and had let all those involved know as much. She had unfairly but democratically been selected to wear the ceremonial gown as she was the only girl and none of her male counterparts had been willing to dress in drag and impersonate a shrine maiden.
She had lost the elaborate headdress while fleeing for a group of guards and unpleased worshippers and she mentally apologized to the actual shrine girl they had borrowed it from. She did hope the girl wouldn't be punished and she had tried to explain this to the bewildered priest as she smashed a ceremonial vase into the back of his skull. It was nothing personal against the priest but they needed to use his private passageway between the temple and palace but he hadn't fount it in his heart to grant them permission and she had had the vase on hand...Really, she hoped he would be okay too.
She supposed in the bigger scheme of things that these were to be considered trivial things and what really matter was escaping and further things of that nature.
"Katara, unless you're purposely waiting for our cheery friends back there I suggested you hurry up!"
She glared at Sokka, who carried the unconscious Aang on his back; very much like a pack mule as her brother had so sarcastically pointed out when it was still daylight. She agreed with her brother completely; the similarity between him and an ass were very uncanny.
It was not that she was purposely holding them back, the layered gown was quiet heavy and she had no intentions of ruining it now. The gown when sold to a market merchant was sure to fetch a fine price. She had no need for her older kin's sarcasm and obvious observations and he would not be complaining later when food was bought from the money the gown earned.
The wall she was standing on was not high but it did cause some troubling problems when trying to climb down in fancy clothing while keeping your dignity and clothing in tact. She had a nasty retort for her brother but as for getting down...well...that might work.
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Zuko impatiently and forever annoyed by her, stood directly beneath Katara (having already scaled the insufficient wall with ease) with his arms extended towards her.
'Well, this is unusual and out of character,' she thought to herself. Surely he wasn't offering her assistance. That was not how their relationship (if it could be called that) work. He was the arrogant jerk who had become somewhat tolerable over the past two months (as Sokka put it: "he's not trying to kill us anymore") but she mostly ignored him and he only acknowledged her when he absolutely had too.
She said nothing of this and merely nodded. She could all to easily hear the malicious sounds of armed guards chaotically filling the night. Apparently rescuing sacrifices (even if they were close friends) in this village was considered offensive and roughing up their idiot king in Aang's defense was equally looked upon as a shameful act. If caught they would be tortured, maimed, and beheaded. They locals had pretty much told them so in their cries of punishment as they escaped. Help was help and she took his help
---
If anyone had asked and no one ever did, she would have explained that moment as an odd sort of arrangement. She placed her hands on his shoulders and her hands felt rather small in comparison. The teal sleeves of the borrowed gown dropped over her hands and brushed against his face and she felt a bizarre and unwelcome flutter in her chest when he wrapped his own hands around her waist. Her mind wondered freely like a misbehaved child and she fount herself idly thinking about his hands.
She thought they would be callused from intense training and perhaps one of his palms scarred from his younger and more mischief days. His nails would be short but unlike her brother, who chewed his short, his would be trimmed and well kept because a person's hands tell part of their story.
He gently but quickly pulled her down, like a mother bring her unskilled climber down out of tree before gravity did it for him. The moment her feet touched the harden soil everything became surreal. They're bodies were so close together she could feel his hasten breath against her face. Once again her heart flutter and she mentally willed it to be silent. Time seemed to move a little slower than it's proper pace because her hands remained on his shoulders and his hands, the same hand she had briefly fantasized (oh, she did not like that word) stayed in place around her waist. Their eyes meet and she thought him a handsome-sort- of-jerk (silly stupid brain, she mentally cursed it all) and as odd as it was he leaned down towards her and she lift her face forward in union...
Bam!
The sounds of the soldiers drew closer and time caught up with night. They quickly withdrew from each other and they ran to the near by lagoon were Appa and Iroh were lazily (but worried too) waiting. There was no time for thank you or anything else that might have been said or expressed and she was too concerned about the soldiers closing in to acknowledge the fact she and the jerk had kissed.
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Story Notes:
Maybe this is too long to be consider a drabble but there is no story there for it too support it as a single. As for the sacrifice thing I can't put too much thought in to it. This took four hours. Let's say some loony king got it in his head if he made a sacrifice out of the Avatar everything would be peachy keen. Perhaps he thinks it will make him a god or give him the power to single handily defeat the Fire Nation. Which would basically mean the same thing. Also Iroh became Aang's Fire Master and Zuko around because he's a sex kitten. --works for me--
Author Notes:
I haven't been slacking off. I ended up with half a drabble featuring Zula that was suppose to be the third chapter for this and I also wrote a future story featuring Zuko and his two adorable bickering children. Both, for the curious are posted in my live journal (homepage link in my profile). If you don't want to read my other post check out my memories they'll be there.
Disclaimer: Nick owns but no one here really cares.