I Do Not Own Miraculous or Avatar.
Chapter Fifty-One: The Headband.
"Sokka, we aren't going to become cave people." Katara deadpanned.
"I don't know, it sounds fun. I've never been camping before." Adrien said, examining the cave.
"What you need is some new clothes." Marinette said, interrupting her boyfriend with an eye roll.
"Yeah," Aang agreed, "Blending in is better than hiding out. If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be just as safe as we would living in caves."
"Plus, they have real food out there. Anyone wanna sit in the dirt and eat cave hoppers." Toph asked, slamming her fist on the wall allowing several cave hoppers to fall down. Momo prominently began to eat them. Every looked horrified. Adrien stared at the cave hoppers with a look of consideration, which Marinette noticed.
"Oh no, Kitty. You aren't a real cat. Don't even think about it." She scolded. He pouted.
"Princess, I wouldn't consider eating cave hoppers, I was just messing with you." He said to her.
"Sure…" Marinette said with a laugh.
"Sorry, Adrien, Momo. It looks like we got outvoted." Sokka said, "Let's get some new clothes." They all left their cave and found a laundry cleaning place. They managed to get new clothes for all of them. Marinette didn't need to, considering she had the Fire Nation clothes Bumi had given her. Adrien wore a completely black Fire Nation tunic with a red and golden belt. Aang wore a black and red Fire Nation suit. Toph's outfit was mostly red, but she took great care to remove the soles from her shoes so she could see. Sokka wore a maroon tunic that went to his knees and buttoned down the middle. Once the work was complete they decided to go into town in search for food. Aang started to explain how he visited his friend from the Fire Nation named Kuzon a hundred years prior and claimed to know enough about Fire Nation culture to fit in. The problem was, apparently the Fire Nation had changed in the last a hundred years. Aang kept calling everyone hotman or flameo. Everyone was a bit concerned for Aang, who hyperly greeted everyone in the Fire Nation. Finally, they got to the restaurant. Instantly, Aang noticed a problem.
"Oh, we're going to a meat place?" He said, eyeing the restaurant hesitantly. Marinette recalled the monk was very much a vegetarian and knew the restaurant they'd selected wouldn't give him a non-meat option. Sokka crossed his arms.
"Come on, Aang. Everyone here eats meat, even the meat." Sokka argued.
"Sokka, you shouldn't pressure Aang to change the fact he's vegetarian." Marinette argued, "It's rude. Back home, I knew lots of vegetarians and they seemed perfectly happy with the food they did eat."
"Marinette! You were supposed to back me up!" Sokka whined.
"She wouldn't be Marinette if she did. She's all about defending other people. Sorry buddy." Adrien laughed, patting Sokka on the back. Sokka pouted. Aang shook his head.
"It's fine, Mari. I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage or something." He decided.
"No way! I insist on helping you find good food you will eat." Marinette decared, "You guys go on, I'll go with Aang, we'll meet up with you later.
"But My Lady!" Adrien immediately objected, "I was looking forwards to enjoying lunch with you."
"Later, Kitty. I promise, we'll catch dinner together later." She promised him. Adrien looked glossy eyed at the thought, smiling widely.
"Of course!" Toph faked a gag at the two lover's antics.
"Just get outta here. You two are so lovey dovey together, it's disgusting." Toph declared.
"Jeesh Toph! You are worse than Plagg." Adrien laughed.
"Hey!" Plagg objected from Adrien's satchel, "I resent being compared to a human girl."
"And I object to being compared to a flying cat spirit that I can't see unless he's on your head, in your bag, or lounging." Toph sassed back. Marinette shook her head. One Toph had been enough, but since Plagg showed up, Toph had decided she needed to compete with the lazy Kwami on who was sassier and more capable of getting out of work. It was Adrien's worse nightmare and amusement to Marinette.
"Come on Aang," Marinette declared, grabbing his arm, "Let's find you some vegetarian food." Aang yelped as Marinette began to drag him away from the restaurant. They started to make their way towards the market. As they went along, Aang began to insist on calling everyone 'Hotman.' That is when three Fire Nation shoulders approached them.
"It's over. We caught you!" One yelled. Marinette and Aang froze, each staring wide eyed at the guards approaching them.
"Who us?" Aang stammered.
"It couldn't be more obvious that you don't belong here." Aang winced, Marinette went to open her satchel were Tikki hid but froze as the guard continued, "Next time you play hooky, you might want to take off your school uniform."
"Heh, heh, uh…" Aang shrugged. Marinette quickly took over the situation.
"He wasn't playing hooky sir!" She said quickly, "He is new to town and I was walking him to school." The guard glanced over at her.
"Are you this boy's mother?"
"Uh…." Marinette wasn't sure what to thing of that. She was sixteen and certainly not old enough to be Aang's mother. While she was honored that they thought she looked and acted mature enough to be Aang's mother, she was also offended that they would she was old enough to be a twelve year old kids mom.
"Yes! Yes she is! This is my mother, Rin Fire!" Aang quickly inserted, waving his hands wildly at her, "We just finished unpacking from the move and she decided she'd take me over to the school today."
"And you are?"
"Kuzon Fire." Aang replied.
"Well then, Fire, I hope you don't mind if we escort you and your mother to the school. She likely has some paperwork to finish filling out and I know it is easy to get lost in a new town. It would be rude not to help you."
"Uh, sure!" Aang agreed. Marinette was now numb.
"P-paperwork?" she stammered, "Like writing?" Marinette couldn't fill out paperwork in that world! She didn't know Chinese. Sadly, the damage was already done. The guards began to escort the two to the school, which was a large, Fire Nation building with lots of rooms an a giant courtyard. One of the guards led Aang off to a classroom. Another one took Marinette to the headmaster's office. There, she was given Ink, and brush, and several important looking forms written entirely in Chinese.
"When you are done, turn this in to the headmaster." The guard instructed. Marinette gulped, but was thankful the guard left after giving her the papers.
"Uh… Tikki?" She said opening the satchel, "A little help? You know Chinese… right?" The Kwami flew out of the satchel, eyeing the papers.
"Yes, I can read this, but it will take a little time to show you how to make the correct markings in all the right places." Tikki said in concern, "This could take all day, considering you have no experience with the langue, pretty ironic, considering your heritage on your mom's side."
"No joke." Marinette nodded as she dabbed the brush into the ink. They worked at it for the entire evening. When the bell rang for school to be let out, Marinette managed to finally complete the paperwork. The Headmaster gave her an evil eye for taking so long to complete the pointless task, still, she was content she'd done enough to maintain their cover. She met up with Aang outside the school, who was bouncing up and down and explaining how wonderful his day had been and was begging her to take him back the next day. Meanwhile, Marinette was more worried about how she was going to explain the whole mess to the others. She knew Adrien was probably going to tease her for the rest of eternity about being mistaken for Aang's mother. Sokka was likely going to be really ticked for wasting the day's precious time with school and paperwork.
They got to the cave and Tea Avatar reacted pretty much exactly how she had imagined they would. After Marinette explained, Aang began to beg Sokka to let him attend school again. Sokka stubbornly refused.
"Aang, I'm trying to be mature and not shoot down your idea, but it sounds really terrible." Sokka grunted, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, we got our outfits, what do you need to go to school for?" Toph scoffed.
"I'm with blind girl. This is worse than with Adrien. School is boring, yet he insisted on going an dragging me with him all the time back home. Plus, this is a school for the children of our enemies."
"Look, every minute I'm in that classroom, I'm learning new things about the Fire Nation . I already have a picture of Fire Lord Ozai" Aang held up a print of Ozai before switching to the one he made out of noodles, "And here is one I made out of noodles!" Sokka studied the noodle art carefully.
"Impressive, I will admit, but I still think it's too dangerous." Sokka admitted. Aang smiling deviously, ready to lay down his final playing card.
"The I guess we will never find out about the secret river then. It goes right to the Fire Nation palace. We were supposed to learn about it in class tomorrow." Sokka stroked his chin, trying to figure out if Aang was lying or not.
"I am a fan of secret tunnels. Fine. We will stay for a few more days." Aang whooped and kept up excitedly.
"Flameo Hotman!" He cheered before running off to who knows where. The next day, Marinette dropped Aang off at the school, thankful she wouldn't be doing any more paperwork in a language she didn't understand. She spent most of her day with Adrien. They went around the market and hung out. They discussed their lives back in Paris mostly. They both missed Nino and Alya and the school. Aang's desire to go to school like a normal kid apparently reminded Adrien of his first days at school where he was practically begging his father to let him go.
They day had gone a lot better. That was until Aang returned from school with his head down.
"Hey, Marinette? I need you to go to the school as Rin Fire again." He said sheepishly.
"Uh, why?" Marinette asked, terrified there was more paperwork to be done.
"Uh, well, this guy, Hide, who was being really overprotective of his girlfriend On Ji. I was offering to show her a few old Fire Nation dances, since they don't really teach that in schools here anymore. Hide came up and punched at me, but I dodged, one thing led to another and I swear I didn't touch the guy but he told the Headmaster I tried to pick a fight with him and beat him up."
"I see, so the Headmaster wants to talk about the fight with your parents?"
"Yeah."
"That's fine. Adrien and I can-"
"Oh, no, Adrien can't do it. Head coverings aren't allowed inside. I barely convinced them to let me keep the headband. You'll need to ask Sokka." Aang objected quickly.
"...Oh…" Marinette voiced, "...Okay… but you are asking him that. Don't tell Adrien. He will not let me here the end of this. If he finds out I pretended Sokka was my husband for your sake, I feel like I'll never here the end of it."
"Probably not, knowing Adrien. I'll be back." Aang said before running off to find Sokka. Marinette shook her head, chuckling lowly.
"Hard to believe he's destined to save this world, huh Tikki?" She asked her Kwami, "He's still so young. I wasn't even that young when Master Fu chose me to be Ladybug."
"It is odd. It's a huge responsibility for a kid. But he and Raava have done it before. They've done it a thousand times." Tikki said.
"Raava?" Marinette asked her Kwami with her head tilted.
"She's the Avatar spirit. The spirit of peace and light that lives within every Avatar and gives him or her the wisdom and strength to bring peace to this world. I created her and her counterpart, Vaatu of darkness and chaos to bring balance to all worlds just as Plagg and I are to bring balance. Unfortunately, Vaati became corrupted. Now, it's just Raava, though he still exists and influences people in this world from his prison."
"How do you know so much about all the spirits from this world? Were you and the Kwamis from the the spirit world?" Marinette asked.
"No, Master Fu told you already, Kwami's are abstract and are formed when a new idea or emotion is formed. I came into existence when the universe was spoken into existence. From there, I flew across worlds to all sorts of new places. The humans and the creatures of what people consider the real world were unable to interact with me, but the spirits of the worlds could sense me and my presence. They called me the spirit of creation and Plagg and my brothers and sisters were my comrades. Then, we learned humans needed us. There was a lot of bad in the universe that needed to be fixed. So, with the help of ancient Chinese mage from your world, I made the Miraculous so that I could have a physical form and help people. My comrades and Plagg gladly decided to join me in my quest to help others. But before the Miraculouses… I could see everything. Every world and what happened on it. It is sad that this world has become so unbalance and full of war, but I believe Raava and her chosen will restore it to its former glory." Tikki explained.
"Wow! That is really cool." Marinette said in awe.
"I guess it is." Tikki said in thought. The intriguing conversation was interrupted when Sokka and Aang returned. Sokka had glued a fake beard to his face and strode towards her in the most ridiculous manner that made Marinette wonder if she should face palm or burst into laughter.
"Sokka! What the heck?" She asked.
"Not Sokka!" Sokka said in the most bizarre accent, "Wang. Wang Fire."
"Oh my gosh. Sokka, take the beard off and can we please get this over with?" Marinette asked with crossed arms.
"No, I will not remove my beard! I've spent many months growing this beauty, you know that my dear Rin. And who is this Sokka you keep referring to?" Marinette went with the face palm.
"Ugh, whatever. Come on." She grabbed Sokka and Aang by the arms and Tikki flew back into Marinette's satchel. She marched the two to the school while avoiding all eye contact with the people in the village. She brought them to the Headmaster's office and sat down. The Headmaster came in and their conference began.
"Thank you for coming, Mr. and Mrs. Fire. Your son ha been enrolled here for two days, and he's already causing problems. He's argued with his teacher, disrupted music class, and roughed up my star pupil." The Headmaster said. Sokka went to say something, but Marinette began.
"I will apologize for my son's behavior, but what you say is nothing like how Kuzon acts. He is always respectful to his elders and very kind. I find it unlikely he meant to do any of these things, but rather it was a cultural change from the life he is used to in the colonies. For example, at his old school, they didn't recite the Fire Nation Oath, so Kuzon had forgotten and was trying to keep up. As for history? He was confused by the lies Earth Kingdom children told him in the colonies and was trying to understand what his teacher had said better. In the colonies, we danced to celebrate or Nation, so he assumed it was the same here in the Motherland. As for this star pupil, according to Kuzon and several of the students I asked said Kuzon never laid a finger on this boy you speak of. Rather, the other boy punched first and Kuzon used his childhood training to evade the attacks the other student wanted to inflict on him." The Headmaster stared at Marinette, stunned.
"Uh, well… I assume you know you son best Ma'am but these disruptions-"
"Were the combined faults of you bias opinion and you incoment teacher's inability to factor in the fact that Kuzon is new and unaccustomed to the way things work in the homeland. If this is how your school works, then I will be forced to report it all to the town leader and return to homeschooling my Kuzon." Marinette said crossing her arms, "And am I to understand that there were no adults supervising the students when said fight went down?"
"Well, yes but…"
"And why is that? I find it incredibly irresponsible of the school for there to not have been an adult there to prevent the incident in the first place. If you truly believe in discipline, you would have taken measures to prevent fighting amongst your students." Marinette said with a raised eyebrow that dared him to argue with her. The Headmaster gulped.
"Yes, of course Mrs. Fire. I will take your complaints into consideration. I'm sorry these incidents occurred. We will do our best to correct them and prevent such problems in the future. You and your family may go." The Headmaster stammered out after clearing his throat.
"Thank you." She said with a bow before shoving the boys out of the office.
"How did you do that?" Aang said in wonder.
"My mama and papa are very amazing people who would defend me to the world if I let them. They are amazing teachers." Marinette explained with a smirk. She led the boys home. Despite Marinette's objections, Sokka immediately ran around the cave telling the team about how awesomely Plan Guy Number Two had dealt with Aang's Headmaster. Aang, however, pulled her aside and asked her for one final request.
"I want to throw the kids at my school a secret dance party." He said.
"What?! Why?"
"Those kids at that school are so afraid to do anything or think anything for themselves. What you said about the Fire Nation being full of good people with bad leaders? It's like that at the school. Those kids are good kids but they are scared to say anything against their teachers. I've heard of respecting your elders, but those teachers are feeding their students lies and propaganda and practically brainwashing their kids into being completely loyal to the Fire Lord. They don't know they have a choice. It's just like what Adrien said happened to Zuko. His father made him honestly believe the only choice was to serve the Firelord. We couldn't help Zuko see, but maybe we can help them." Marinette sighed.
"Fine, but you'll need to Okay it with Sokka and Adrien."
"Flameo! Thanks Mari! You're the best!" Aang raced off to ask Adrien and Sokka. He came back moments later with an okay. Immediately, they began preparing. Aang, the fastest in the group, ran around town inviting people to the dance party. Toph, Katara, and Marinette set everything up while the boys 'supervised.' Finally Aang returned just before dusk and explained how the party was going to work out. They apparently were going to get music from some of the school's band member's. Adrien briefly lamented dramatically about how there weren't any pianos in the Fire Nation for him to play at the party that led to a rabbit trail conversation explaining exactly what a piano was. First, the band kids arrived. Then the the actual party started, with Aang's encouragement, she lost interest and wound up attempting to flirt with Adrien. Sadly, she was failing horribly as he would usually make a pun or comment that made her a stammering speechless idiot. This always led to him teasing her about the Ladybug catching her tongue, which snapped her into her Ladybug persona where she would try and counterattack his sly remarks.
They only stopped their lovers bantering when Aang and Katara took the dance floor. They watched Katara and Aang dance in awe.
"You know, those two would make an excellent couple." She commented.
"She doesn't know he like her." Adrien said, "But she obviously has a thing for him, whether she knows it or not."
"Sounds like a certain clueless kitten I know." She teased.
"You weren't any better." He scoffed.
"Oh, no. I was. I knew you liked Ladybug, kitten. I just chose to keep the relationship professional. You had no idea I liked you."
"...fair." Adrien admitted, watching as Katara and Aang finished their dance. Everyone clapped for the two.
"This was a great idea." Adrien commented, "Aang was right, these kids needed this. Everyone in this place is loyal out of fear, madness, or ignorance. These kids deserve more than being the children of a nation that has destroyed and taken some much from this world." Marinette nodded, watching the kids dance happily without a care or fear in the world. Then, there was a gasp. Marinette's was brought to the cave entrance. There, the Headmaster and two female Fire Nation guards stood with a lone student.
"He's the one." The headmaster yelled, pointing at Aang, "The boy with the headband."
"One second, I have to handle this." She stood up and walked in front of the guards and Headmaster.
"Excuse me sir. Is there a problem?"
"Mrs. Fire!" The Headmaster yelped, "Uh, are you aware that your son is throwing a dance party in a cave?"
"I'm here, aren't I? I'm supervising the situation and it really isn't your place to say what my son can and cannot do outside of school. This is a celebration for our family's return to the beautiful Motherland. We are celebrating our people and its culture. I have my husband Wang and his brother Adin here with me making sure these children aren't acting out of hand and their parents granted them permission to come here. I don't see the problem. Did I not say it was comonin the colonies to dance to celebrate our nation?"
"Yes, you did."
"So, why are you here?"
"Uh… well, I am concerned what this kind of behavior would do to the way out students act in class and…"
"Honestly, weren't you a child once? They can have a little fun if they want to."
"Might I remind you we are at war. There is no room for a child to behave so foolishly."
"War?" Marinette scoffed, "Haven't you heard? Ba Sing Se has fallen. This war is practically over. Or is there something you aren't telling us?" The Headmaster shook his head.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Fire I didn't mean to bother you or your son's attempt to celebrate our nation. Me and my soldier will leave, but if I receive another complaint tonight, I will put an end to this celebration."
"Thank you, sir." She said with a bow. The Headmaster took on last glance at Marinette before leaving.
Later that evening, as the group flew away from that village, both Marinette and Aang smiled, knowing about the kids they'd helped with a school, a headband, and a dance party.
I'm sorry for not uploading for so long. I was celebrating Christmas with my family. Plus, his chapter took longer than I expected because I suddenly decided to make it in Mari's point of view and not Aang's. Again, sorry, and I'll try to update again tomorrow, but I get pretty distracted during the holiday season. Merry late Christmas!