Chapter 8 - festivity
Every fire nation troop on board the ship had to immediately report to the food court for an important announcement that the old retired general himself was giving that morning. Apparently he had something planned up his sleeves, and all men were invited to, except for the young fire prince himself. Iroh had instructed Prince Zuko to stay in his room and meditate as part of his new lesson for the week. Apparently meditating and drinking tea would make him stronger in fire bending, so he went with it.
"Tonight men." Iroh stood in front of the crowd. "We shall party like there is no tomorrow." He shouted with excitement. The men roared with happiness, approving of the idea and actually having fun for once.
"Yuki and I have thought up of the greatest idea to lighten up my nephews anger, and that is to bring the girls on board and have a night of fun!" His smile widened when he pointed in the middle of the crowd at Yukino. She sat there uneasy when some of the guys patted her on the back and thanking her for the idea.
"So, as we land on the port in a few minutes, you all have a task." Iroh grinned. "Half of the men on board will go out and take, not kidnap, two girls each." The men yelled and whistled when the old man said that. "Once you have gotten your two girls, take them to the practice room, and there I will hire maids to fancy them up for tonight!" Iroh began to make his way down the middle of the crowd, splitting them off into two groups and headed back up. "The right side will go out for the hunt, while the left side will stay and patrol so my nephew doesn't get suspicious." He winked and everyone quickly made their exit.
Of course our heroine of the story got stuck with the right side of the group and was not happy at all with the idea that she, a girl, had to go out and find two girls. "Why me…" She mumbled and looked at Hitomi, who was also not looking happy. The two walked down to their room when Yukino finally broke the silence. "Say… I've got an idea!" She shouted happily.
"What?" Hitomi looked at her with confusion. "Kill ourselves and avoid dancing with girls?"
"No… come on, I'll tell you." She quickly opened up the door to their room, and luckily, no Yusuke was anywhere around.
"Alright, spill it. Anything to not go to Iroh's little festivity." Hitomi moaned.
"Why don't we play sick, and go out tonight? Not as fire soldiers, but as ourselves." Yukino said happily.
"You know, that may actually work."
"Of course! Everyone will be to busy to notice that we're gone, so we'll just go out and have our own little fun." She said proud of her brilliant idea.
"Works for me." The two danced happily.
"Ok, since we're supposed to be out there hunting down girls, lets pack up our girly stuff, and then we can change down there." Yukino headed straight to her dresser and quickly packed away her clothes in a sack, as well did Hitomi. The two strapped their belongings on their back and they headed out of their room.
"Good luck catching those girls down there." Iroh stepped in front of the two before they could make their way up on deck. "I hear some of them are quite feisty." He chuckled.
"Don't worry, I think we can handle them. We are on Prince Zuko's elite team after all." Yukino indicated the medallion on her chest.
"Hmm, that is true. Well, have fun anyways!" He waved them off as he headed down to his nephews room to check up on him.
"Ok, when the old man said a port, I was thinking small. But this place, it's huge!" Yukino yelled out dumbfounded. It was true, the port was more like any big busy city.
"Where can we change? Its so… crowded." Hitomi examined their surroundings.
"One second, let me see if there is a forest nearby." Yukino said and darted off straight towards a small building. She quickly leaped up on a barrel, and jumped up on top of the building.
"Smart thinking Yuki! You can really see the girls from up there!" Yelled one of the men walking by, already having two girls trailing behind him giggling and laughing. She rolled her eyes and looked around the borders of the port, only to notice that the background was full of trees.
"Perfect." She grinned and hopped off the building onto the ground. She ran back to Hitomi and smiled happily.
"Well?"
"This place is surrounded with trees, so it's perfect." Yukino smirked. "Hurry lets go." She headed off as Hitomi followed behind.
"Ok, so you just push and pull the water, right Katara?" Aang asked a teenaged girl standing next to him as she poorly demonstrated her waterbending moves.
"Yeah, like that." She smiled cheerfully. "I wish we had a bigger source of water though." She sighed.
"Will you guys hurry up? I thought we came here so that Appa could get a drink of water. But how can he when you two are pushing the water up his nose every time he tries to take a drink?" Sokka pointed out, a little bit of irritation in his voice.
"We're almost done. I just want Aang to understand how to push and pull the water." Katara argued back, crossing her arms as she glared at her brother. "At least I'm trying to help Aang. What have you done?"
"I'm happily taking care of Appa while Aang is in water world." He turned around, giving her the 'hmph' sort of tone.
"Speaking of animals, where's Momo?" Aang asked, looking around to notice that there was no trace of him.
"He must be looking for food. He'll be fine." Katara reassured.
"So what do you want to do after we change?" Hitomi questioned as the two approached the forest.
"Not sure. I just want to get out of this uniform for once." Yukino sighed in relief. The two continued to walk into the forest but halted to a stop when a flying lemur stood in their path. It sat there holding a stick while it picked at a caterpillar with amazement.
"A flying lemur?" Hitomi looked down at the fury creature. "I thought they were extinct when the air nomads died out."
"Who cares! He's so cute!" Yukino smiled greatly as she inched her way closer to the small animal. "Hey there little guy." She bent down and held out her hand for him to sniff. The flying lemur, aka Momo looked at her with confusion as she stuck her hand out at him. He was about to run when he saw Hitomi's shiny dagger case hang off her side.
"I think he likes me." Yukino beamed when Momo crawled over by her feet. He quickly climbed up her legs and up to her shoulder's, but hopped off to Hitomi and climbed down to her belt. He snatched the dagger and jumped off into the air to spread out his wings.
"What the-!" Hitomi growled. "That lemur took my dagger!" She yelled out.
"Aw, he likes you." Yukino laughed.
"I'm going to get you, you none innocent animal!" She quickly sprinted off in the direction Momo took off while Yukino trailed behind.
"All right, lets pack it up." Sokka said as he gathered their supplied together. "We need to keep moving if we want to get to the northern water tribe."
"We can't leave without Momo." Aang said.
"Oh come on, he'll be fine out here in the wilderness, its his native habitat anyways." Sokka motioned them to get on the bison.
"Sokka, Momo is apart of our family." Katara glared at him with her hands on her hips.
"Its time for him to be a man!" He raised his arms in the air when he shouted that. Suddenly Momo rushed into the scenery and dropped the dagger into Aang's hands.
"Momo! Your ok!" The small boy cheered but looked down to see what the lemur had dropped. "Momo, where did you get this dagger?"
The bushes behind the gang began to rustle loudly. "Oh man… Momo, your not getting dinner tonight." Sokka cried when a fire nation soldier popped out.
"Give me back my dagger you two winged hair ball!" Hitomi shouted in anger as she raced toward the small boy with the lemur tied around his neck.
"Fire nation!" Sokka screamed, quickly pulling out his boomerang and readied his weapons.
"Get away from Momo." Aang guarded the small creature.
Yukino quickly rushed out of the bushes quickly catching her breathe as she looked around her settings to see two water tribe siblings and the avatar. "Man, she can run fast when shes angry…" She mumbled under her breathe.
"Give me back my dagger otherwise I'll unleash a whooping on your behind." Hitomi ignored the small boy and glared directly at the lemur.
"Hey, Hitomi! Calm down!" Yukino shouted and began to make her way over but water whipped out in front of her to block her path. "Whoa." She turned to see where the water had come from and saw Katara in a fighting stance.
"Not one step closer or I'll freeze you." Katara warned.
"Wait, you've got the wrong picture." Yukino took another step forward and Katara flung water flying at her. Yukino quickly stepped to the side as the water flew past her and flopped to the ground. "Oh come on. That was weak!" She examined the girl. 'She must be a beginner.' She thought to herself.
"Momo didn't do anything wrong so back away." Sokka warned as he ran up from behind Aang.
"That rat stole my dagger! It was given to me by my father!" Hitomi argued.
"Momo would never steal, right?" Aang turned to look at the lemur who's ears bent down like he did something wrong.
"Wrong. He snatched it from me and flew off." She snapped.
Katara flung more water at Yukino sloppily, unable to control her bending.
"Will you stop throwing water at me!" Yukino yelled out and quickly bended all of the water that was thrown everywhere into solid ice. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her as she turned the ice into water, causing it to dissolve into the dirt.
"You're a waterbender?" Katara asked stunned.
While Aang wasn't looking, Hitomi snatched the dagger out of his grasp and quickly hugged it.
Yukino sighed and pulled the rubber band out of her hair. Brown locks fell down her back as bangs covered her forehead. "Yes I am. I'm water nation as well as Hitomi."
Aang examined her and gasped when he remembered his encounter with her from Kyoshi Island. "Your that girl that helped me out!" He broke the silence and pointed at her.
"Hey look, your that bald avatar kid." She pointed back at him. "Let us change and we'll explain everything." She quickly grabbed Hitomi by the collar and ran into the bushes.
"Can we trust them?" Sokka asked. "Their both wearing fire nation armor. Suspicious…" He felt uneasy.
"That girl is a waterbender though." Katara pointed out.
"Well whatever the reason, she said that she'll explain." Aang spoke up with confidence. They all looked over at Yukino and Hitomi who were now fully dressed in their water tribe clothing that they had worn before on Kyoshi Island.
"All right!" Sokka blurted out. "Start explaining!" His face became emotionless when his eyes came across Yukino and a sudden blush took over his face.
"You better show some respect toward Yukino." Hitomi growled at the boy.
"Why?" Aang and Katara questioned.
"Who I am is not important. Well actually, it is, but that's besides the point." Yukino sat down on a nearby log. "You all must be wondering why we're dressed up as fire nation soldiers."
"Well yeah! You had us all fooled! I mean, I could have hurt you both." Sokka kept interrupting.
"Oh believe me, no you would have not." Hitomi smirked.
"Anyways, tell us whats going on." Aang said and looked at Yukino.
"Well, I traveled from the northern water tribe to a earth kingdom port. I attacked a fire soldier and took his uniform and thus it was somehow a perfect fit. I then boarded Prince Zuko's ship, and have been traveling with him under a false identity, as well as Hitomi." Yukino took in a breathe.
"But why? Why risk your life and work with the fire nation?" Katara asked.
"Why? Because I plan on messing up every plot Zuko has, and I plan on taking out Fire Lord Ozai once and for all. I'm tired of this war, tired of fighting for peace, and that man must go down." Her voice snarled when she said her last sentence.
"But what about Aang? He's here now and he'll end the war." Katara pointed at Aang.
"Hey now, he can't have all of the action. Lord Ozai has destroyed many of my people's lives and mine as well. I want revenge."
"Wait a minute…" Sokka disrupted the conversation again. "You came from the Northern water tribe, you said who you are is important, you can waterbend, your beautiful, and you said 'your people'," He paused for a minute and looked at Yukino. "You must be of royal blood!" He burst out.
"Are you?" Aang and Katara looked at her with confusion.
Yukino sighed again and looked at the three. "Genius boy over there got it. My name is Princess Yukino of the water nation, heiress to the throne to rule the water tribe."
"It is an honor to be in your presence." Aang stood and bowed to her as well did Katara. "I still don't understand why you would leave your people." The small boy pondered.
"As long as no one finds out, then I am fine."
"If you're a waterbender, why don't you stay with us and teach Aang how to waterbend, that way, we don't have to fly all the way out there, and it gives us more time for him to learn how to bend the other elements." Katara suggested.
"Unfortunately, I can not stay up on the offer. Your mission is to get Aang to the northern water tribe, there you'll be greeted by my Aunt Tsubaki who will lead you to Master Pakku. He is a waterbending teacher who will show you everything." Yukino said.
"Will he teach me too?" Katara looked at her anxiously, wanting to learn how to waterbend really bad.
"He's not so much into teaching girls how to waterbend. He believes woman should use their bending for healing, not for fighting. You'll have to convince him that your worthy enough to be taught."
"Are you sure you can't stay with us?" Aang asked.
"I'm sorry, but my mission is to stay with Prince Zuko and have him lead me to the fire lord so I can rid of him forever. If you ever have any encounters with Prince Zuko, Hitomi and I will be there to help you escape." Yukino grinned.
"Anyways, you guys should head off, Prince Zuko's crew is scavenging the entire port for girls for a party tonight." Said Hitomi.
"Stay low though… once someone sees you guys, he'll be right behind you." Yukino advised. "We're going to go now. Its our vacation time away from that ship. I wish you all the best of luck."
"Thank you Princess Yukino." Aang bowed once more. Yukino and Hitomi stood up and began to make there exit.
"Princess Yukino?" Sokka asked from behind.
"Yeah?" Yukino turned around to see a bouquet of flowers being held to her face by him.
"I picked pretty flowers…" He spoke like a child would as he gazed at her.
"I can see that." She backed away to look at him.
"I mean. I found these flowers and thought they looked pretty like you. There're for you." He looked away blushing. "From me."
"Thank you." Yukino smiled and took the bouquet. "Your cute, I'll give you that." She blew him a air kiss and walked off with Hitomi.
Sokka stood there in shock. His face turned bright red and he fell back with hearts forming in his eye. "What a woman…" He laid on the ground with a huge smile on his face.
"Sokka, your hopeless." Aang stood over him, shaking his head.
"Nice bouquet." Hitomi snickered as the two walked out of the forest into the port.
"Shut up Hitomi." Yukino turned to give her the evil eye. "I only took these because I felt bad for him."
"Sure, whatever you say."
"Bah! Your just jealous because you didn't get flowers."
"Oh yeah, I'm jealous all right." Hitomi rolled her eyes.
"Excuse me young ladies." A man said from behind the two.
"Yes?" Yukino turned around and gasped when she saw Yusuke standing behind them.
"Would you two be interested in coming with me to a special event taking place on the prince of the fire nations ship?" He asked uninterested in this hunt.
"Sorry, not interested." Yukino smiled and turned back around. "Right Hitomi?"
"Right, we've got things we girls got to do for our girlyness." She laughed.
"Thanks anyways!" Yukino had a firm grip on Hitomi's arm and quickly sped walked away. "That was close…" She sighed after the two had turned a corner out of Yusuke's view.
"Just a bit." Hitomi also sighed in relief.
"Oh no…" Yukino snatched a wanted poster that was posted on the wall next to her.
"What?"
"Look." She held the posted up to Hitomi and she gasped. The wanted poster was a picture of Yukino. Nothing important was posted on it about her being a princess, just a poster that said her name and a detail description of her appearance. "Not good." She looked up and saw a earth kingdom soldier posting them out.
"What are we going to do?" Hitomi asked. The man looked over at the girls and looked back at his posters.
"Hey you!" He shouted at Yukino.
"Shoot." She muttered under her breathe. She turned around and made her way back the way they came from. "Follow me!" Yukino ran off with Hitomi following close behind, as she made her way through the streets.
"Where are we going?" Hitomi asked. Yukino ignored her and found what she was looking for. She ran in front of Yusuke with her head down.
"Hey. I've reconsidered your offer. We'll go." She spoke softly. The earth kingdom soldier was making his way down towards the group when she looked up.
"Well now, I thought you two would come back." Yusuke grinned.
"Lets go." Yukino tried pushing him to go, but he took his time.
"Hey you two!" The soldier yelled again.
"Is that earth kingdom soldier after you girls?" Yusuke asked. Yukino panicked and looked up at him. He was looking at the man who was approaching them. She grabbed his face and turned it to he was facing her.
"You help me and I'll help you." She pulled his head down and she quickly locked her lips with his. Yusuke's eyes widened with the sudden love fest but he went with it, unsure what to do.
"Oh my Yukino." Hitomi blushed. "Who would have thought you were that type." The man approached the group with confusion.
"Is there a problem soldier?" Hitomi asked.
"No, I just thought she looked like someone." He kept a steady watch on the two kissing.
"No no, these two are a couple. How could she be a wanted someone that's been sitting in her house waiting for her lover. She's just so glad that her husband has come back to her." She lied. Yukino broke the kiss and looked down, quickly giving him a hug.
"Oh honey, I've missed you so much. Don't ever leave me again, now we can finally have children." Yukino horribly acted out.
"I guess you two have my blessings. Happy birth giving." The earth kingdom soldier turned around and walked away to continue his duty.
"We are not having children." Yusuke looked down at her. "And that kiss was uncalled for."
"I don't plan on having children at my age and you are not going to be the father of my children." Yukino crossed her arms and looked up at him. "I didn't even want to kiss you, but I had to make it convincing. Kissing fire nation is the last thing on my to do list of my life."
"Now now, we best be off now." Hitomi grabbed Yukino's arm and began to pull her away.
"Wait a minute, we had a deal. Your both coming with me." Yusuke grabbed their arms, yanking them towards him.
"He's right, we should go with him…" Yukino mumbled. "Hiya!" She shouted, quickly turning around to send her foot flying at his neck. Yusuke let go of Hitomi and used his hand to snatch her foot before she could do any damage on him.
"Your quite feisty aren't you? Now be a good girl and come with me." He pushed her foot down.
"Looks like I don't stand a chance against you." She pouted. Hitomi stood there while the two argued. She was debating whether or not she should run or just stay and not get him even madder. She came to the conclusion to just be a good girl and go with the flow.
"Your wasting my time now, lets go. I helped you now your helping me, whether you like it or not." Yusuke growled. His grip on her arm tightened, causing her to wince in pain.
"Fine. I'll go… just don't hurt me. I'm very fragile…" Yukino moaned.
"Just to make sure you don't try to run." He slid his fingers to her neck and quickly gave her a tight pinch into her skin.
"Hey! What are you doing to her?" Hitomi demanded when Yukino flopped to the ground.
"She's just unconscious, she'll be fine." Yusuke bent down, sliding his arm under her and lifted her over his shoulder. "Lets go."
"Now that was uncalled for." She glared at him.
"I don't want to chase after her, so this is for the better." He said, leading the way to the ship.
"Yusuke! I said not to kidnap them!" Iroh came running out of the ship when Yusuke had arrived.
"I didn't. She made a deal with me and then tried to escape out of it. I only did what I had to do." Yusuke sighed.
"Well since you put it that way, to the practice room!" The old man cheered, motioning him to go inside the ship. Yukino moaned when she heard Iroh. Her eyes slowly opened and then widened when she realized she was hanging over a shoulder.
"Where am I? Whats going on?" She demanded.
"Oh, your finally awake." Yusuke continued walking.
"You can put her down now." Hitomi nudged his arm.
"I'll pass, we're almost there anyways." He denied. Yukino pouted and didn't even bother to try to escape from his grasp. "We're here." He slid her off his shoulder and pushed the two into the room crowded with girls and quickly shut the door behind the two.
"Man he was rude!" Yukino finally spoke out and looked at Hitomi.
"I have to admit it, you did deserve that." She laughed. The two looked at the room and saw all of the girls laughing and having fun while they got dressed.
"Wait a minute. Why are these girls laughing? They should be cowering in fear that their on a fire nation ship." Yukino said in shock.
"Maybe this is exciting for them?" Hitomi suggested.
"Ah! Two more! Right this way ladies!" An older woman came up to the two and grabbed their wrists.
"Hey now, what are you doing?" Yukino asked while she was being dragged across the room.
"You must get dressed. We only have so little time for the two of you." The woman said and pushed the two behind a curtain. More maids awaited them with material, clothing, jewelry and make up.
"Well now, we have such a nice bunch of beauties." One of the maids complimented.
"Listen, we're not supposed to be here. This is all a huge misunderstanding." Yukino pleaded.
"Nonsense. Your in the right place." Another maid said as she reached for her clothing.
"Ladies, get to work." The old woman from before appeared with a grin on her face. The maids began to smile and jumped at the two, ripping off their clothes.
"No!" Hitomi gasped. She wasn't used to this at all. She was so used to being the one to rip the clothing off and doing their job.
"Be brave Hitomi!" Yukino cried out as the woman surrounded them completely, working at them from left to right.
After the woman had completely stripped Hitomi of her water tribe clothing, they bandaged up her chest with a red cloth. A green Yukata was placed over her body with the sleeves that cut off at her elbow. Yellow fabric was bordered around the Yukata which helped tie down the sleeves so they didn't hang loose. A red long piece of cloth was placed in front of her with golden flowers at the bottom of it. Everything was held together with a yellow sash that wrapped around her body and a green ribbon which was tied in the middle of the sash.
"We're almost done." One of the maids said. "Now your hair, make up and jewelry." She smiled.
"What should we do with her hair?"
"I know!" One of the woman yanked the tie out of Hitomi's hair causing her red hair to fall down past her shoulders. "Ooh, it has such a nice shade. Why not leave it down and place a flower pin in her hair?"
"That's perfect." A green and gold flower pin was placed on the side of her bangs, which matched her outfit. They finished her up with red eye shadow, tons of eye liner, blush and to top it all off, red lipstick.
"Oh, jewelry time to end it all." The maid said. She grabbed a gold bracelet that had small emeralds going around it and a small emerald ring. They put a green choker around her neck and placed a ruby on the front of it.
"She's perfect!" They all stood back to admire their work.
"Is it over yet…?" Hitomi cried when they all backed away.
"Ok, your done, out you go." They grabbed her and pushed her out of the curtain.
Yukino on the other hand wasn't giving up without a fight, and neither were the maids. The only thing they accomplished so far was her hair, which was decided to be pulled up with her bangs hanging down.
"Will you just participate for us!" Shouted a maid angrily.
"I shouldn't be here!" She argued back.
"We don't care! All we want is to get you done and over with."
"Bah! I don't care about you either!" Yukino glared. She accidentally left her guard down and the maids quickly jumped on her, pinning her down on the floor. "Why me!"
"So, how the are girls coming along? Its going to start soon." Iroh sat at his tea table, sipping his tea with the old woman from before, sitting on the other side also drinking tea.
"Everything is almost perfect." She sighed.
"Almost?"
"We've got this one girl… who is giving my girls quite a hassle." The woman sipped her tea and looked at the old general.
Iroh chuckled. "That sounds like my nephew. He will not give up without a fight."
"But don't worry, she is the last of your young ladies, so everything will be ok on time." She smiled.
"Ha ha! We're almost done with you." A younger maid declared. Yukino already had her make-up done and was half dressed.
"I hate all of you!" Yukino snarled. She already had a short strapless light blue under dress laying on her body. All they had to do next was to slip over a dark blue Kimono.
"No matter what… your going to get this on!" She was yelled at. The maids held Yukino tightly as one of the girls quickly slid the kimono over her. The kimono cut off at her knee's and was all held together by a light blue sash that tied up into a large bow in the back of her. Her sleeves hung off her hands over an inch longer. The sleeves were decorated with light blue water marks the went up the sleeve.
"Now here's your shoes." A maid through a pair of dark blue sandals at her.
"Hey! Watch where your throwing those." Yukino growled, slipping the shoes on her feet. She was given a blue fan to match her outfit.
"You put up a good fight, yet we are the winners. We made you even more beautiful!" They all shouted and pushed Yukino out of the curtains.
"Now, that wasn't that bad, was it?" Hitomi smiled, admiring her princess.
"Shut up." Yukino mumbled. The older lady called attention of all of the girls, and they became quiet.
"Now then, you are all wonderful looking. Tonight, you may find love of these fine men. Yes, they are of fire nation, but I have spoken with some of them, and oh! I must say, if they weren't so young, I would take them all for myself!" She growled playfully. "Anyways, your task is to have fun with them. Dance, talk, do whatever you please. Maybe one of you may win the heart of the prince himself." She winked. The girls giggled, now determined to be that one girl.
"Looks like you've got some competition Yukino." Hitomi whispered with a nudge.
"What!" She blurted out. Everyone turned to stare at her and she quickly apologized. "They can have him for all I care." She glared.
"Right, admit it. You've got some feeling for Prince Zuko." Hitomi laughed.
"I'm warning you." Yukino turned away to listen to what the older lady was saying.
"So, I'm going to leave you off through those doors and your on your own."
All of the young girls gathered around the double metal doors, awaiting them to open. Music could be heard from the other side, as well as voices of men. The girls were squealing with joy, getting impatient.
"Ready Yukino?" Hitomi nudged her once more.
"I guess I have no choice then. No turning back now." Yukino sighed. The doors began to creak and they slowly began to open. "How did I get myself into this…?"
End of Chapter 8
Yes! I finished chapter 8. Even though this isn't how I planned on it ending. I actually wanted to keep going, but I knew that it would take me much longer. And its been quite a while since I've posted up a chapter. Hope you enjoyed!