By popular request (yes, it counts as popular request when I ask) this is now a series of drabbles. Many will include minor or unnamed characters, so don't get used to the Zuko-angst that we saw in the last chapter. That gets boring to write after a while, and I'm sure it gets boring to read. I probably won't include OCs as my main characters. I may have to name someone, but if you look closely enough, every one of them is in the show at some point.

Also, because I feel like it, each chapter will include a dedication. None of the dedications will tell you who it's dedicated to, just why. That's the interesting part, after all. I know who I'm talking about, and nobody else really cares.

This one is about one of the Yu-Yan archers who shoots at Aang in one episode. For those who have read my other stories, yes, I used the name Shiven in Mary-Sues of All Kinds2. I like it.

Anyway, this is a plot line that I've had in my head for a while. I personally think the Yu-Yans are all very young. Look at a screenshot of one of them sometime. They all look like kids. And that's why the oldest Yu-Yan mentioned is eighteen. Hope you like it!

Dedication: Because you always changed every fairy story, every nursery rhyme, so that the damsel in distress got tired of being in distress and saved herself. Prince Charming would just have to live with his bride being tougher than he was.

It was never fun to be the bad guy. It was never nice to be the one that everyone was scared of. Nobody liked it.

Or did they?

There were four Yu-Yan archers to each room, one to each of the small bunk beds that pressed up against the walls.

Shiven, at fifteen, was the youngest of the roommates. Tai was eighteen, and Adit was sixteen. He wasn't quite sure how old Vadin was, he'd never asked.

None of them seemed to mind being part of the evil nation that was so feared by everyone else.

His mother used to say that anyone who didn't mind was either ignorant or sadistic. Shiven was supposed to be proud that he was one of the few who was neither, who did mine.

Somehow, being the good guy wasn't that fun, either.

And everyone else seemed so... happy. Tai was smart, probably one of the smartest girls he'd ever met. She was nice enough, definitely not the kind of person his mother had described. But she never seemed to mind.

Adit was a slightly crazy boy with a giant grin eternally on his face. He wasn't an idiot, though, he knew what was going on all the time. And he was most certainly not evil or cruel. Only a year older than Shiven, the joker was forever looking after all of them. Adit said that the four of them were the closest thing to family that anyone among the Yu-Yans could remember. He was probably right.

But, whether he was right or not, Adit never seemed to mind, either.

Vadin was tall and thin, and very quiet. He rarely spoke without being asked a question first, and his answers were always simple, but he was definitely very wise for his age. Whatever that was.

As solitary as the boy might be, he was always good to the other three. But he never seemed to mind, either.

Nobody really did, after all. Maybe it was a Fire Nation trait. But Shiven was Fire Nation, too, and he minded.

Maybe he wasn't Fire Nation. But as much as he would love to deny it, it was clear that he was. Under the Yu-Yan cap that he and his friends always wore, despite the tan they had all acquired from years of practicing in the sun, he was clearly as Fire Nation as anyone else.

It was these morbid thoughts that he was thinking when Adit found him sitting silently on his bunk.

"Uh-Oh! Tai, I think Shiven's going to start acting like Vad on us!"

"Adit, knock it off," Tai protested. "I swear, sooner or later you're going to shorten some noble's name, and get yourself in an Agni Kai! Then where will you be?"

"Defeating the highest-ranked Benders in the Nation and making a name for myself?" suggested Adit.

"Or getting yourself killed because you're not a Bender."

"Why are you always so pessimistic?"

"Why are you always so stupid?"

"Guys, leave me alone," Shiven interrupted. Both of his friends looked at him in surprise.

"Maybe you're right, Adit," Tai whispered in mock fear. "What do you think, Vadin?"

The boy only raised his eyebrow. Even though he did speak occasionally, he didn't answer stupid questions.

Shiven glared at the three of them and flopped down to go to sleep.

He only got a few moments of rest before Adit dumped a bucket of water on him when Tai's back was turned. To no one's surprise, the youngest boy sat bolt upright, spluttering angrily.

"Adit! What was that for!" he screeched.

The archer shrugged. "I felt like it?" he suggested.

Before Tai had a chance to attempt to make peace between them, Shiven had suddenly launched himself off the bed and tackled Adit. Giving up any notion that the boys might stop fighting any time soon, Tai sat down next to Vadin on the bed across from Shiven.

"Why are boys so stupid?" she asked.

"Being a boy, I can't really answer that, now can I?" he retorted.

"Point taken."

It was a while before they really did settle down long enough to go to bed. And it wasn't until he was curled up against the wall listening quietly to Tai's soft snores from the farthest bed and Adit rolling around above him that Shiven realized that, for a moment, he hadn't cared, either.

In the morning, Shiven woke up no different than he normally did. The first sound he heard was that of his own body slapping onto the floor. The first thing he saw was Adit's grinning face above him. Before he had a chance to yell at the other boy for shoving him out of bed yet again, they heard Tai's feet hitting the ground softly and a small gasp.

"Shiven, Adit," she hissed. "Vadin's gone."

Although the trio spent the rest of the day searching for their wayward friend, even missing practice to find him, he never appeared. And although the other Yu-Yans organized suitable search parties, it was quite clear that they never really cared.

Because no matter whether or not they admitted it, everyone knew that Vadin wasn't coming back. And everyone knew why he had run away.

And no matter how much they told themselves they were different, and they really did care, they didn't.

But somewhere, far away, a young boy with no voice and a nickname of Longshot really, truly did.

Meh. That turned out horrible. I had a way in my mind that I wanted it to be, but it just didn't work. I liked the story, but I hated the style, if you know what I mean. I could do better, but it's been long enough anyway since I posted last, so I'm just gonna put it up and fix it later if I ever have time. Tell me what you think!