Chapter 3: Girls' Day Out
For all of Rinzen's fretting and worrying the previous night, Zuko didn't seem to act any differently around her the next day aside from acknowledging her presence when she entered the tea shop. She decided not to bother bringing up the almost-kiss - if it even was an almost-kiss - in favor of avoiding the awkwardness of that situation entirely.
To Katara's credit, she hadn't told anyone else about the conversation Rinzen had had with her, and when Rinzen pulled her aside quietly to ask why, she merely shrugged.
"It's not my place to tell everyone else your business," she said simply. "When you're ready to tell us anything, we'll listen." Rinzen decided at that moment that Katara was the best - at least until a few days later when Katara abruptly decided that she, Rinzen, and Toph all needed a girls' day out and dragged them to a spa in the middle of the upper ring.
"I'm pretty sure this place featured in a nightmare I had once," Rinzen deadpanned as she stared up at the giant building with decorations of flowers and vines adorning the outside, a large sign reading "Fancy Lady Day Spa" tacked onto the front gate.
"You're overreacting, Rin," Katara dismissed, rolling her eyes. "It's a perfectly harmless spa."
"What's it called?" Toph demanded and Rinzen read off the sign for her, making her wrinkle her nose. "Sounds like my kinda place."
"Come on, it'll be fun," Katara insisted, grabbing Toph's hand to tug her inside. Rinzen shook her head wryly, but followed them more out of curiosity than anything else. All at once, the heady scents of different soaps, massage oils, incenses, and perfumes nearly overwhelmed her and she picked up her pace so that she was sticking close to Katara's side.
"They better not touch my feet," Toph warned as Katara spoke to the lady at the front desk, who ushered them into a back room to change into soft terrycloth robes. Three attendants then led them out to a large tiled room filled with steam from all the hot water in giant tubs, ushering them into seats so that they could get their feet scrubbed.
The moment Rinzen realized their plan, she cast a warning glance at Katara before looking pointedly at Toph, knowing she wouldn't react well to anyone touching her feet, since they were practically her eyes. Unfortunately, Katara caught on too late and before she could warn the attendant, she had grabbed Toph's foot to begin scraping away at the dirt underneath. With a yelp, Toph stomped on the ground hard, throwing the attendant straight through the wall, and Rinzen snorted with amusement as Katara winced in sympathy.
"To be fair, she did warn us," she pointed out as Katara leveled her with a disapproving look for her laughter.
"No more feet stuff," Toph insisted, rubbing at the sole of her foot to ease whatever sensitivity it was feeling.
"Maybe we should just move on to mud baths, then," Katara suggested, grimacing at the sight of the layer of dirt coating Toph's foot.
Rinzen wrinkled her nose. "Why would people bathe in mud? That sounds gross."
"Better than foot scrubs," Toph decided as she hopped to her feet.
"It's supposed to be good for the skin," Katara explained as they were led to the next room, where instead of tubs full of hot water, there were tubs full of dark brown mud. Katara and Toph wrapped their hair in towels and climbed into the tubs without hesitation, so Rinzen reluctantly followed their lead and climbed in once she tied her hair up with a towel, shuddering at the slimy sensation of mud clinging to her skin. "Relax, you'll get to shower later," Katara reassured her, glancing over and noticing her discomfort. "Just lean back and relax a little for once."
With a sigh, Rinzen leaned her head back against the lip of the tub, closing her eyes and doing her best to relax as an attendant smeared some mud over her cheeks, nose, chin, and forehead before laying some cucumber slices over her eyes. The cucumber slices were surprisingly cool and pleasant against her eyelids and she couldn't help but feel some of the tension leak out of her shoulders as she tried to relax. Several minutes passed and she found herself on the verge of dozing off, but then an attendant screamed and she bolted upright, yanking the cucumber slices off her eyes to see what had happened.
"Toph!" Katara scolded, but Rinzen couldn't stop herself from laughing as Toph turned to face them, her mud mask bulging out from her face to make her look like a squirrel-frog. After a few moments of feigning annoyance, Katara began to giggle, too, and Toph bent the mud surrounding her mouth to form a wide, goofy smile as she grinned proudly.
"In her defense, that's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time," Rinzen chuckled.
After a few more minutes of letting the mud soak against their skin, they climbed out of the tubs and were ushered to shower stalls to rinse off the mud. Rinzen had never seen so much running water indoors before and found herself wishing she could stay under the gentle warm spray forever even after the last of the mud had washed away and she had scrubbed herself thoroughly clean with the citrus-scented liquid soap.
"Rin, I know you're clean, you've been in there for half an hour!" Katara called from outside the showers and reluctantly, Rinzen stepped out to tie her robe back on and put a fresh towel around her wet hair, following Katara and Toph to a small sauna room. The air was heavy with steam as they sat on the wooden benches around the pile of hot rocks in the center.
"Couldn't we just have stayed in the shower?" she complained half-heartedly as Toph kicked a fresh rock onto the pile.
Katara shook her head. "This is supposed to be good for your skin, too," she insisted as she pulled a stream of water from a bucket and splashed it onto the pile of hot rocks, releasing a fresh wave of steam. "It opens up your pores and cleans your skin."
"Being girly involves a lot more skin care than I thought," Rinzen joked as she relaxed a little, leaning back against the bench and waving her hand absently to move the steam in lazy wisps over her head. She could already tell that her skin felt softer than it had in a long time, and attributed it to all the steam and heat it had been exposed to in the past hour they had spent at the spa.
"Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with having nice skin," Toph conceded.
"Look at you enjoying yourself," Katara teased, elbowing Toph gently, and Toph promptly punched her in the shoulder, making her wince and rub her shoulder ruefully.
"I didn't say I was enjoying myself," Toph muttered grumpily and Rinzen shrugged.
"Well, I'm definitely enjoying myself more than I thought I would, so we can count it as a majority win for girls' day out." She high-fived Katara over Toph's head as Toph crossed her arms and slouched in her seat grumpily, even though a tiny smile was tugging at her lips, too.
They finally left the sauna and headed to the last room, where attendants waited at various vanities to do their makeup and hair. Rinzen was surprised at how soft and wavy her hair was once it was brushed out and dried, choosing to leave it loose rather than tie it back like Katara and Toph opted for their hair. Katara chose Toph's makeup colors for her and left Rinzen to choose for herself, leaving her overwhelmed as she stared at the colored palettes in front of her. The attendant took pity on her and nudged forward a shimmery silver palette of eyeshadow and a compact of soft pink blush.
"It'll bring out those lovely eyes," she offered and Rinzen couldn't help a tiny smile.
"I'll take your word for it, thanks." She closed her eyes to let the attendant set to work applying the makeup to her face, choosing a light peach-colored gloss to apply to her lips. She met Katara at the front of the spa once her makeup was done and Katara's eyes widened at the sight of her.
"Rin, you look...wow."
Rinzen felt her cheeks warm as she ducked her head shyly. "So I guess the makeup looks okay?"
"If you wash all that off before you go see Lee tonight, I'll make you regret it," Katara threatened, but she was grinning broadly. "You look beautiful. Really."
"So do you," Rinzen answered truthfully. With blue eyeshadow and deep red lipstick, Katara looked even prettier than she normally did.
"Can we go now?" Toph demanded from behind them and Rinzen felt her jaw drop instinctively when she turned around. Toph's hair, normally hanging over her forehead, was neatly combed behind her ears and the rest was tied up in her usual bun. Her eyeshadow was a pale green to match her clouded green eyes and her cheeks were brushed with light pink powder and matching pink lipstick on her frowning mouth.
"Wow, you look great," Katara said honestly and Toph glowered back at her.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go already, taller Twinkletoes." She grabbed Rinzen's sleeve as she headed for the door, leaving Rinzen to be helplessly tugged along by the earthbender's vice-like grip. Chuckling, Katara followed them out to the street. "I have to admit, it wasn't so bad," Toph conceded as she let go of Rinzen's sleeve once they were on their way to their house. "I'm not usually into that stuff, but I actually feel...girly for once, you know?"
"I'm with you there," Rinzen agreed, instinctively slipping her arm around Toph's shoulders and surprised to find the younger girl leaning into the embrace. "This was pretty nice," she admitted to Katara, who was smiling warmly.
"I'm glad. It's about time the three of us did something together," she said with a shrug as they stepped onto the stone bridge leading to their house. Three girls carrying parasols and dressed in fine green kimonos were crossing on the other side of the bridge and Rinzen noticed their eyes immediately land on Toph as they approached.
"Nice makeup," the tallest of the girls said to Toph innocently.
"Thanks," Toph answered absently as they passed.
"For a clown," the girl added snidely and Toph stopped in her tracks as all three girls began to laugh coldly. Rinzen felt the younger girl's shoulders stiffen under her arm and tightened her hold on them instinctively.
"Don't listen to them," Katara insisted quietly to Toph, but Rinzen was already wheeling around.
"You want to repeat that?" she snapped and Katara grabbed at her wrist.
"Rin, don't," she cautioned, but Rinzen yanked her wrist free again.
"No, I want to hear what their problem is with our friend," she insisted, narrowing her eyes at the girls, who had stopped in the center of the bridge to smirk back at them.
"Oh, we don't have a problem," one of the other girls said cheerfully. "In fact, I think she looks cute. Like that time we put a sweater on your pet poodle-monkey," she added with a snicker to her friends and they all erupted into laughter again.
"Good one, Star," the third girl giggled.
"Let's go," Katara said, although there was a sharp edge to her voice now.
"No, no, that was a good one," Toph interrupted, forcing a harsh laugh as well. "You know what else is a good one?" Abruptly, the bridge collapsed where the girls stood and they shrieked as they splashed into the creek below. Rinzen snorted with amusement at the sight of their drenched kimonos and running makeup as she peered down through the hole in the bridge.
"I take it back about the mud mask, that was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time," she told Toph, who just turned sharply and began to walk again.
Katara scowled down at the girls struggling to their feet before promptly washing them away down the creek with a large wave. "Rude!" she shouted after the screaming girls before returning to Rinzen's side as they both hurried to catch up to Toph. "Those girls don't know what they're talking about," Katara insisted softly, placing her hand against Toph's shoulder to slow her down.
"It's okay," Toph muttered, but Rinzen heard her voice crack slightly. "One of the good things about being blind is that I don't have to worry about appearances. I don't care what I look like. I'm not looking for anyone's approval. I know who I am." Even as she spoke, a tear rolled down her cheek and Rinzen felt her heart twist in her chest as she instinctively moved in front of Toph to stop her from walking.
"And that's why you're one of the bravest, toughest people we know," she said quietly and Toph bit her lip hard as she lifted her head to fix her unseeing eyes on Rinzen's face, one hand coming up to swipe half-heartedly at the tear on her cheek.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. You know I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it." Rinzen managed a small reassuring smile, even though she knew Toph wouldn't be able to tell she was smiling.
"And I know it doesn't matter to you, but we really do think you're pretty," Katara added, squeezing Toph's shoulder gently, and Toph glanced up in her direction.
"I am?" Her voice was small and tentative.
"Of course you are," Katara said firmly and a tiny, shy smile unlike her usual self-assured grin tugged at Toph's lips.
"I'd return the compliment," she began as they began to walk again, a teasing lilt in her tone, "But I have no idea what you two look like." Taken aback, both Rinzen and Katara began to laugh and Toph joined in as they turned onto the street to their house.
Sokka gaped at them as they entered the house. "Who are you three and what have you done to the girls of Team Avatar?" he demanded.
Katara rolled her eyes and whacked Sokka on the back of his head. "Very funny."
"Where's Aang?" Rinzen asked as she glanced around, frowning when she didn't catch any sight of her brother.
"Oh, I think he said he was going to check out some zoo in the lower ring." Sokka shrugged dismissively. "I told him that if Appa was in a zoo somewhere in Ba Sing Se, we'd've heard about it, but he insisted."
"Well, it's worth a try," she reasoned as she glanced out the window at the sun. It had been late morning when they had left for the spa, but the sun was already beginning to lower in the sky as it edged towards evening. "I should probably get going, I said I'd meet Lee for dinner." Zuko had said Iroh would be busy with errands all day and he had no idea how to cook for himself, so Rinzen had suggested they both get dinner somewhere in town that night and to her surprise, he had agreed.
"Ooh, Lee," Sokka and Toph crooned in unison, as they were prone to doing whenever Rinzen mentioned Lee around them, and Katara only shook her head fondly, but make a sharp "tsk" sound as Rinzen made her way to the wash basin.
"Do not wash off that makeup! Hands where I can see them!" Rinzen jumped back from the basin, lifting her hands in surrender. "You look pretty. Lee will want to see it." Katara pointed at her warningly. "If you wash it off, you're...I don't know, grounded or something."
Rinzen raised an eyebrow at her. "Grounded? What are you, my mother?" Belatedly, she added, "I'm older than you!"
Katara flushed a little, sputtering, "W-Well, I, that is, um...oh, you know what I mean, just go. No washing your face." Shaking her head with a chuckle, Rinzen said her goodbyes to a snickering Sokka and Toph before leaving for the train station, deciding to leave her glider at the house.
Zuko opened the door to the apartment almost the instant Rinzen knocked, his mouth falling open as he stared at her wordlessly.
"I know, I look stupid, but Katara wouldn't let me wash my face before I left," she grumbled as she shuffled self-consciously, belatedly wishing she had thought of just wiping off the makeup the moment she was out of Katara's sight.
"Uh." He blinked at her, seemingly bemused as his cheeks turned a faint pink. "Stupid's not the word I'd use."
She raised an eyebrow back at him. "Well, what word would you use?" He opened his mouth, clearly ready to say it, before closing it just as quickly and shrugging uncomfortably instead as he pressed his lips firmly together. Shaking her head wryly, she stepped back to beckon him out of the apartment. "Come on, before I change my mind and make you cook your own dinner." He huffed before stepping into the hallway, locking the door behind himself.
"As if you'd do that," he answered as he followed her down the stairs and out of the building. "You and I both know I'd burn the place down if I tried to cook, with or without bending."
"I mean, fair enough, spirits forbid I'm the reason you get more burn scars." He leveled her with a sour look and she grinned. "Too soon?" He rolled his eyes, elbowing her gently in response. "I can't cook, either, if it helps you feel better," she reassured him.
"You can't?" He raised an eyebrow at her curiously.
"What, is it surprising because I'm a girl or something?" she demanded and his eyes widened as he opened his mouth to defend himself quickly before noticing her biting her lip to stifle a smile.
"You're teasing me," he accused, scowling.
"I am," she confessed with a laugh, catching his elbow before he could dig it into her side again and shoving it back as she pointed out, "I can't help it if you're easy to rile up."
"Why are you wearing makeup, anyway?" he asked instead, changing the subject, and she shrugged.
"Katara decided we needed a girls' day out, so she dragged me and Toph to a day spa." Zuko snorted suddenly and she raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"
"Sorry, just - that tough-looking earthbender who looks like she hasn't taken a bath in months? At a spa? How'd she handle that?" he asked and she couldn't help but chuckle at the genuine curiosity in his voice.
"Surprisingly well once she scared all the spa attendants out of their minds," she admitted, surprised when he laughed in response. She was starting to see him smiling and laughing more and more around her and it was both unnerving and pleasant.
"What about you?" The question took her off-guard.
"What?"
"I mean, it was a new experience for you, right? I'm pretty sure they didn't have spas like those a hundred years ago," he pointed out dryly and she shook her head.
"If they did, I definitely didn't know about them. Not like I was particularly well-traveled back then, I left that to Aang." She shrugged a little. "It was nice, though, I guess. They went a little overboard at the end, obviously." She gestured vaguely to her face and he shook his head immediately, to her surprise.
"No, it's nice. You look nice." He ducked his head away from her, flushing again, and she couldn't help but smile as she slipped her hand into his. His palm was warm and rough against hers.
"Thanks." He glanced back up at her, giving her a small smile in return as his fingers closed around hers to squeeze them lightly.
"We're here," he said as they came to a stop outside a small noodle restaurant.
"Is this the place you went to with Jin the other night?" she asked curiously and he shrugged a little.
"What? The food's good." He tugged her hand gently until she followed him inside and to a table. "Something vegetarian, right?" Surprised that he remembered, she nodded and watched him head to the counter to place orders for both of them and wait for their food to arrive.
As she waited, she glanced around the table, noticing a small inkwell, a feather quill, and a stack of cards with the words "Give us your feedback!" printed in neat calligraphy over the top. Absently, she grabbed one of the cards and turned it over, picking up the quill after dipping it in the ink to doodle little patterns against the card.
"I didn't know you could draw," Zuko noted as he returned to the table, two bowls of noodles in hand as he set one down in front of her before taking a seat opposite her.
"I can't, they're just doodles," she dismissed, setting aside the quill and card, and he reached over to take the card and examine it.
"No, these are really good," he insisted, sounding surprised. "Is this supposed to be your bison?" He pointed to the little drawing of Appa she had done in the corner and she nodded.
"Yeah. That's how he looked when he was a baby, when Aang and I first met him at the Eastern Air Temple."
"Not at the Southern Temple?" Zuko passed the card back to her before starting to eat and she shook her head as she followed his lead and took a bite of her noodles. The broth was rich and flavorful, and full of pieces of tofu and vegetables.
"No, we always went to the other temples at least once a year, and the Eastern Temple was mainly where they raised sky bison herds. We had them in the South, too, but not as many."
"So what did the other temples do?" She was surprised to find him watching her with genuine interest when she looked up from her bowl.
"Well, the Southern Temple was usually in charge of charity work. We used to make fruit pies and crafts and things, sell them to neighboring villages and give the profits to charities in the area. The North was where we learned most of our airbending. The monks there were really into the traditional severing of earthly attachments."
Zuko wrinkled his nose. "Sounds like fun."
Rinzen couldn't help a laugh as she nodded. "Yeah, I wasn't a fan of that place. And the Western Air Temple was mainly where we received our mastery tattoos." She tapped the arrow on her forehead. "Normally, I'd've been sent to the Eastern or Western Temple when I was five, but then they found out Aang was the Avatar and I had to stay behind to look out for him instead." Noticing Zuko's frown of confusion, she explained, "Boys were raised in the North and South, girls in the East and West."
"I went to the Western Air Temple once," he admitted, "In my first week of banishment, when I started searching for the Avatar."
Rinzen shrugged. "Even if airbenders were still around then, you wouldn't've found Aang there."
"Well, I know that now," he huffed, rolling his eyes as he dropped his gaze back to his bowl of noodles to focus on eating. Between bites of her own food, Rinzen studied him curiously, wondering how he might have looked in his first week of banishment, standing in the ruins of the Western Air Temple. He would have just received his scar, then, perhaps still bandaged and fresh. Before she knew it, she was grabbing a fresh card and the quill to begin sketching again, her mostly-empty bowl forgotten. "What're you drawing now?" Zuko asked when he noticed, trying to peer around the bowl at the card.
"Just give me a second." She paused when she reached the left side of the incomplete face, hesitating before forgoing her original plan and mirroring the right side of his face instead. She drew his hair tied back in a long ponytail the way it had been when she had first met him, coloring in the top of his head with a few drops of dark ink. She nudged the card over once it was done. "That seem accurate?" He took the card, staring at it silently for several long moments. For a split second, she felt a twinge of worry that she'd upset him, but then he nodded, looking back up at her.
"Yeah. That's how I looked before." To her relief, he gave her a small smile. "See? I told you you could draw. You actually made me look good."
"Wasn't that hard to do," she blurted out before her brain caught up to her mouth and her cheeks reddened as she fixed her gaze on the edge of the table, trying not to meet his eyes.
A palpable silence hung between them for a moment before Zuko cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um. Thanks." He hesitated before holding up the card. "You mind if I keep this?"
"No, of course not, it's yours." She watched him pocket the card, still a little surprised he had liked it. A sudden wave of cheering and talking outside distracted her and she peered out the window to the street to see a large crowd of people, all carrying lit lanterns and heading down towards a lake. "What's going on?" she asked, glancing back at Zuko as he shrugged in response.
"Oh, the lantern festival must be starting," a waiter passing by their table informed them. "Happens once a year, people usually light some paper lanterns and send them floating off over Lake Laogai." He collected their bowls and headed back behind the counter of the restaurant.
"We could check it out," Zuko offered and Rinzen blinked back at him, surprised.
"You want to?" He just shrugged again, looking suddenly less confident in his offer. "Okay, sure," she decided, getting to her feet as he did the same. "We'd need lanterns, though."
He pointed to a stall just down the street as they left the restaurant. "They're selling some. Give me a minute." She waited as he headed to the stall, speaking to the man on the other side before passing him a copper coin and accepting two unlit paper lanterns in return. Once his back was turned to the man, he pinched the wicks inside the lanterns, lighting them quickly.
As he returned to Rinzen and passed one of the lit lanterns over to her, she pointed out wryly, "Last I checked, you're not supposed to be conjuring fire out of thin air."
"It's fine, no one noticed," he dismissed, cradling his lantern carefully to keep the fire going inside as he nodded to the crowd heading for the lake. "Come on." She followed him to the lake, clutching her lantern carefully.
By the time they reached the edge of the lake, people were already pushing their lanterns into the air, the soft orange flickering of the little flames through the thin paper of the lanterns creating a warm glow over the glassy surface of the lake and the surrounding bank. Even the little kids running between the crowd stopped to admire the lanterns bobbing over the lake surface.
"We should set ours off," Zuko pointed out and Rinzen nodded, carefully pushing her lantern into the air as he did the same for his. Instinctively, she slipped her hand into his as they watched the lanterns float lazily up and over the lake, spinning around each other as if they were dancing in circles as they joined the myriad of other lanterns in the sky.
"Wow," she found herself breathing as the lanterns drifted into the dark sky, their reflections mirroring them in the lake below.
"Yeah." To her surprise, Zuko sounded just as quietly stunned as she did, and she snuck a peek at him only to find him looking back at her instead. She felt her cheeks warm when she realized he was leaning down just like he had that night, biting her lip hard as she turned to face him properly. If he was going to kiss her this time, at least she was ready for it.
"I was wondering if you two would be here!" Iroh's jovial voice suddenly cut in and Zuko jerked back as if he'd been burned, dropping Rinzen's hand and turning to face Iroh as the older man joined them in the crowd. "It's quite a lovely sight, isn't it, nephew?" He clapped Zuko's shoulder as he nodded to the lake.
"Yeah. It's nice," Zuko muttered, sounding irritated. He glanced over at Rinzen briefly, but the moment had already disappeared.
"I should probably get home," she said and Zuko opened his mouth to protest, but she turned her back on him quickly and disappeared into the crowd easily to make her way back into town.
As she slipped into the house, Katara perked up. "Well? Did he kiss you this time?"
Rinzen shook her head wryly as she moved to wash her face free of makeup, finally feeling more like herself once all of the eyeshadow and lip gloss was washed away. "I think he was going to, but then his uncle interrupted us." Katara made a disappointed sound. "Where is everyone?" Rinzen asked as she toweled her face dry, looking around and noticing how empty the house was.
"Oh, they went to check out the lantern festival by the lake," Katara answered with a shrug. "I watched a little of it before I came back here. Did you see it?"
Rinzen felt a stab of panic as she wondered if they had seen her at the lake, or worse, recognized Zuko beside her. Then again, there had been a large crowd, and they could easily have been somewhere far away. "Uh, no. I mean, I saw it from a distance with Lee, but we weren't down at the lake," she lied.
"Oh, that's a shame," Katara said mildly. "It was really pretty, seeing all those lanterns."
"Yeah, I'll bet." Rinzen didn't let herself relax until Aang, Sokka, and Toph came home nearly an hour later, laughing and talking about all the lanterns they had seen - or in Toph's case, felt as she held one and sent it flying. Aang hurried over to Rinzen immediately, describing how beautiful it had been to see the lanterns glowing over the mirror-like surface of the lake and how many people had been there, but made no mention of seeing her or Zuko, which was relieving.
"Oh, and I kind of made a zoo outside the inner wall today, so I want you to see that tomorrow," he added sheepishly, drawing her out of her thoughts.
"You made a what?"
It occurred to me just as I was finishing this chapter that this suddenly had a very Tangled-esque vibe. I swear I was thinking about an actual lantern festival that happens in Thailand, not the scene from Tangled, lol. Whoops ^^'
Hopefully you enjoyed this quick update while I finish up the semester and I'll try to get another one up soon!