Avatar: The Warring Earth
Book Three—Water
By Twins of the Pen
Disclaimer: Avatar in itself belongs to Nickelodeon and Bryan Konietzko/Michael DiMartino. The only things that belong to Twins of the Pen are the original characters.
Shun finally surrendered, his fork clattering to his plate as he turned to look at Ai.
"Ai: quit staring at me. You're making me uncomfortable."
"I can't help it!" Ai protested, ignoring Shun's request, her head in her hands as she leaned forward in her seat to stare at Shun. "It's weird to know that you have abs now! And a girlfriend! I suspected something was going on between you and Lieutenant Tsong, and at first I thought she was out of your league, but after seeing you shirtless, I suppose it's a pretty good match."
Shun resisted the urge to slap his forehead. This was Ai's own twisted way to illustrate that she approved of his choice of a partner. He did not need her approval, but it was still nice to have it. He just wished she would quit making such a big deal out of it. At least his siblings had little to say on the subject this time around, both enjoying the evening meal quietly...although Jin was smirking at him, and Nyla was scowling harder than usual.
Tiki was giggling too, though Shun gave her credit because she was attempting to stop herself by shoveling food into her mouth. He just hoped she did not choke in the process.
"Look, can we drop the subject already?" he requested.
"No!" Ai denied, "I want to know everything now! When did this happen? How did it happen?" Ai's deep blue gaze shifted to ZanYi as she asked, "he didn't cry and beg you to be with him, did he? It just seems like something he would do."
Shun did slap himself in the forehead this time. Now he was wishing he hadn't said anything at all.
So was ZanYi. Turning an irritable eye on Shun, she shot him an accusatory look. "Let's just add this to my list of why I want things to stay quiet," she mumbled to him. Shaking her head, the lieutenant went back to her dinner. Being on the go with the team where they ate every meal was getting her back on track, finally. Even if they were smaller portions, it was easier to stomach three meals a day.
"I don't do story time, Ai," ZanYi answered the insistent princess between bites. "But no, he did not cry and beg."
Was Shun really that much of a baby when he was younger? Everyone around him seemed to treat him like that. At least Ai had stopped thinking the lieutenant was some sort of temptress going around the Jiang brothers.
Syaoran had a hard time himself not smirking. ZanYi kept giving him angry glances, which would shut him up for a couple minutes. The problem was that Ai wasn't letting go of this, so he was threatening to snicker every couple minutes.
"Shun doesn't cry and beg," he told Ai, coming to the waterbender's rescue. Initially. "But come to think of it, I don't even know how it happened. And it was a while before you guys even told me and Tiki."
ZanYi gave Syaoran a strict look, and he could have sworn he saw fire in her eyes, an agitated fire that was telling him to back off. The last thing the lieutenant wanted to do was encourage Ai. Already, ZanYi was irked since she'd been so persistent ever since Shun clarified things with her. It did not help that Ai kept referring to ZanYi as Shun's girlfriend. The juvenile word left a bad taste in her mouth.
Shun sighed heavily. This was beginning to stress him out.
"Is it really so important?" he asked, turning a weary gaze on Ai. She studied his expression for a moment before she sat back, her wild grin fading into a more subdued smirk.
"Nah. I just like watching you squirm."
"I can't decide if this is normal, or if you're being extra sadistic tonight."
"Okay, okay, I'll stop picking on you," she allowed, sitting back and waving an unconcerned hand at him. "I just want to say that I think it's great you've found someone you want to be with. Not everyone is that lucky, you know?" Shun looked up from his plate to see a brief sadness in Ai's eyes. It passed quickly, however—so quickly that Shun began to wonder if it was even there at all. Soon, she was grinning at him in a way he did not like again.
"So: does the good lieutenant here know about that birthmark you have that I found out about because I accidentally walked in on you in the bathroom when we were kids and I saw—"
"Syaoran, it's time to go train," Shun said firmly, cutting Ai off before she could finish her sentence. He seemed to know exactly what she was referring to, however, and his face was bright red as he stood up and left the table.
"Aw come on, Shun, it was just a question!" Ai called after him, grinning mischievously even after he left. Tiki was finished with her meal, and she glanced up at the table at Ai.
"You know, you really shouldn't tease him like that. He is still pretty sensitive," Tiki said, beginning to feel very bad for Shun. Ai turned to her with a wink.
"I know. But the more I pick on him, the more I care." A new gleam was alight in Ai's eyes, reminding Tiki irresistibly of the days when the tiny airbender herself would cause nothing but trouble. "Hey, while Big Boy is busy with his pupil, you wanna see what Shun looked like as a kid? I have pictures."
"You do?" Chorused Tiki, Jin and Nyla, all of them showing varying degrees of interest. Ai's grin grew.
"Sure do! If you meet me in the sitting room in about five minutes, I can show you!" With that, the princess got up and bounded out of the dining room.
"...She's kind of hard to handle," Tiki noted, unsure of whether to laugh or sigh. It was no wonder Shun had named his bike after her—someone so untamed was fit to have their name slapped on the side of a motorcycle.
Shun seemed to have that kind of luck with the women in his life, ZanYi would concede that much. Last time she'd heard that phrase Tiki uttered was with the waterbender stuttering about Hua, though it seemed to apply to Ai, Nyla, and probably herself sometimes. It was actually starting to grate on her a bit.
Syaoran was finishing wolfing down his dinner when he looked up to see ZanYi getting up too, and he was confused. "You coming to training, ZanYi?" he queried, "Or are you staying around for the pictures?"
The lieutenant shook her head. "Neither. I'm spending the evening in my room," she answered him, pushing her chair in behind her.
"You're not interested in Shun's childhood pictures?"
Sure, ZanYi seemed to be indifferent and uninterested to many things, but considering this was relating to Shun, Syaoran thought she would at least be mildly intrigued. But guessing from the look on her face, the Avatar was wrong.
"If there's something about Shun's past he wants me to know about, he can tell me."
Not Ai. ZanYi wasn't about to go snooping when it was clear Shun would probably be thoroughly embarrassed if he knew his childhood friend was up to this. After the lieutenant left the room, Syaoran finished scarfing down his food and stood as well. "Well, you guys have fun, I guess," he told the Jiang siblings and Tiki.
The latter of the three, Syaoran ruffled her hair as he knocked her head away, grabbing his coat with his other hand. "See you in the morning," he told her simply before walking away to training, pulling on the warm coat as he did so.
Soon he made it outside to find Shun clearly ready to get started. It was even colder than earlier, now that the mild sun had fallen on the icy land. Syaoran decided this wasn't going to be fun, but he was going to have to deal with it. "Ai's about to flash your childhood pictures to everyone," the Avatar felt he could warn Shun at least. Then he amended, "Don't worry. ZanYi left before Ai could get back with them."
Shun groaned, a hand over his face. "Seriously? Great spirits, help me keep my patience," he muttered. He didn't even realize Ai had childhood pictures of him...although, considering the fact that Ai's life was documented heavily by her doting parents, he supposed he should not be that surprised.
The giant waterbender made his way over to the bank of the lake. "You remember the basic forms of waterbending, correct?" Shun demonstrated them quickly in case the Avatar forgot, the water from the lake weaving through the cold air at his beck and call. When he was finished, he turned to the Avatar. "We'll run through them again a couple times, and then we'll move on to the intermediate forms. And, if you're not too frozen by then, maybe I'll teach you how to freeze water. Sound good to you?"
Syaoran nodded, completely fine with that. Maybe if he kept moving he wouldn't feel so cold. It was just a thought. Worst case scenario, he'd sneak in some firebending to warm himself. So, falling into step with Shun, the Avatar lifted some water from the lake to follow in the basic forms.
The first thing he noticed was that manipulating water when he wasn't standing a huge pool of it was harder. However, to Syaoran, climbing into that lake was not even an option. One: he wasn't stupid; it was way too cold. Two: he'd seen how cold Shun was earlier after getting out. That was proof enough to back him up.
It required more of his concentration to keep the water steady in his movements, but it was coming a bit easier than waterbending had at first. However, by the time he ended his forms, Syaoran had a lot less water than he'd started with. He wanted to be thankful he still had any water left under his control, but as the Avatar, even he knew that wasn't really a worthwhile consolation.
"For once, Shun, I think your brother hit the nail on the head," Syaoran grimaced, looking over to the fellow male on the team. "Water is just like women: you can't win."
Shun initially laughed, but once he considered his personal struggles with the female species as of late, his laughter quickly subsided.
"Try again," he encouraged. "I think your problem might be that you're not focusing as much as you could be. I know it's cold, but try and think through it. If you need to, you can warm yourself up with your firebending." Shun was jealous of ZanYi and Syaoran right about now—if they stayed out in the cold very long, he was going to take another long, hot bath. At least he wasn't dripping wet and freezing at the same time this time.
Permission? Syaoran would take it. "Thanks," he told the waterbender, cupping his hands and producing a small flame to warm his hands a bit. It felt like it had been so long since the last time he'd firebended—maybe ZanYi was right about brushing up on it soon so he didn't forget. But right about then, he was happy he could produce the flame, the rush of fire and warmth coursing through him.
"ZanYi always went after me if I ever earthbended during firbending training," he recalled, again being thankful to have Shun as his teacher now. The man was already more patient with him and more lenient than both ZanYi and Tiki.
However—and Syaoran already guessed this much—it was difficult to transition back to waterbending once feeling the rush of fire in him. But he had to push past it; the faster he got this stuff down, the sooner he could go inside and get warmed up.
Taking a deep breath to clear his head like he'd learned from Tiki in airbending, the Avatar tried again, this time maintaining most of the water he'd started off with. Sometimes the water would jerk about, but overall it was transitioning more smoothly, fluidly.
"That's good," Shun approved. He chuckled a little at the Avatar's comment on ZanYi's training style; the woman was relentless. Personally, Shun saw no reason to be too hard on Syaoran. It was going to be difficult enough for the Avatar to learn yet another form of bending alien to his own…why make things more difficult with unnecessary force? "Just so you know, you're seizing up. I realize it's because you're cold, but you have to be careful about that when waterbending, because the flow of the water comes from the flow of your movements."
Shun demonstrated yet again, moving slowly and deliberately, guiding the water from the lake to arc and flow around him gracefully. When he reached the end of the set, Shun suddenly balled his hands into fists: the water surrounding him crystallized, turning to ice and falling to the ground. "You know, you might have a better time freezing things," the giant waterbender considered, peering down at Syaoran. "To freeze water takes a bit more effort, but you have to be more firm in your movements than with simple waterbending. Do you want to try now?"
Syaoran piqued a curious look at Shun. Considering his love-hate relationship with forms, he wasn't sure how to feel about stopping those when clearly he still had a lot of waterbending to learn. But this was why they were originally going to one of the poles: to make sure Syaoran learned different aspects of waterbending.
So if Shun thought working with ice might work better for the Avatar, he wasn't about to stop him.
"Okay, I'm down," Syaoran told him, shoving his hands in his pockets to keep them warm as he prepared to observe Shun. "What do I do?"
"This may be easier for you, since you're already cold," Shun teased with a smile. Beckoning water to him from the lake again, Shun let it hover in a spherical shape above his cupped hands. "All you need to do is channel that cold chi you're feeling into your hands. Water is ever flowing, so the key is to get it to slow down and stop. Once you get it to stop moving..."
Shun frowned slightly, concentrating on the sphere-like shape he was bending. The shimmering of the water became slower and slower, the water beginning to freeze from the edges inward until, once the water completely stopped moving, the sphere had become a ball of ice. Now solid, it fell into Shun's hands. He tossed it up in the air once or twice. "Your job is kind of done for you out here, since it's so cold—when you slow down the flow of water, it freezes automatically." Shun focused again, unfreezing the ball to make it a flowing spherical shape of water once more. Shun beckoned the Avatar with a nod of his head.
"Here, you try: I'll keep it here, and you try to slow down its flow until it freezes. Depending on how well you do with that, I might try to get you to unfreeze it again—without your firebending."
Syaoran nodded and took his hands back out of his pockets. He was about to rub them together to warm them a bit, but taking in Shun's advice, he didn't. Being cold apparently would help him out with this.
Thankful Shun was taking on the hard part of maintaining the shape of the water, Syaoran fully focused on the task at hand. Holding out his freezing hands spread-eagle, he furrowed his brow at the ball of water, trying to focus on the cold. It was freezing. Frigid. Numb. He tried to make the water stop shifting, something he'd wanted to do ever since he realized how frustrating that flow was.
And then he was doing it. The water started to slowly stop shifting, growing stiller and stiller as it started to harden, the sound of crackling ice echoing through the inner garden. It was enough to make Syaoran feel a little victorious over the difficult element. "Okay, maybe there is a way to win."
Shun laughed. "Working with ice is different from working with water for everyone—some find it easy, and some find it difficult. You seem to fall into the previous category, but it's probably because you're used to the rigid forms of earthbending." Shun remembered that it took him a long while to master the ice aspect of waterbending, so he could not help but feel a little envious at Syaoran immediately picking it up. Still, this was good—Syaoran was beginning to make progress he was happy with.
"Okay, then here's the hard part..." Shun dropped the ball of ice into Syaoran's hands, indicating that he would not be helping this time. "Unfreeze the ice." This would probably give Syaoran some trouble, since the Avatar had yet to fully grasp the concept of waterbending. But since they were working with ice anyway, Shun was willing to let the younger man have a shot at it.
Syaoran frowned. His success was probably going to be short-lived, if his previous track record with water balls indicated anything.
Resisting the urge to give Shun an exasperated look, the Avatar instead focused his aggressions on the ball of ice in his grasp. He just had to unfreeze. He managed to make it solid without too much effort. Now he had to figure out how to undo it... without firebending.
Yes, this was going to be a bundle of fun.
This time, he tried to focus on the aspects of waterbending they'd been working on before, how water was free-flowing. The water was trapped, unable to move, contained rigidly. Syaoran channeled everything he could think of into the water, willing it to move. Nothing happened. He took a deep breath... and nothing happened.
Getting frustrated, he could feel something stirring up in him—it was akin to the firebending he'd learned but it wasn't as much of a rush as it was a steady build-up. And then the ice started to melt a little. The outside of it started to drip and eventually began to loosen up.
But once Syaoran had to focus on unfreezing it and maintaining its shape, everything fell apart. Just short of unfreezing the entire ice block, the water splashed down to the ground, soaking his pants. Syaoran groaned.
"One step forward, two steps back," he grumbled, shaking the water off of his hands.
"Don't be discouraged," Shun insisted, clapping Syaoran's shoulder. "You did really well. Not a lot of waterbenders can freeze and unfreeze water like that on their first try. It takes a lot of practice to will a liquid into a solid, and vice-versa. But you did so on your first try, so be proud of your achievements instead of focusing on your failures."
Syaoran's biggest enemy was himself when it came to bending. He always felt like he had to get it perfect the first time, and that just wasn't the case. If it were that easy to master other forms of bending, heck, then anyone could be the Avatar. Syaoran had to learn to relax.
"Okay, since you did so well with that, I'll go ahead and teach you the intermediate set," Shun decided. He paced a distance away from the Avatar so he had room to move. Getting into his starter position, Shun encouraged Syaoran, "Watch, and repeat."
The water flowed differently this time around—instead of weaving lazily through the air around Shun, it now had purpose, branching off in different directions to come back together at certain places—movements of a water whip were even present. While the intermediate set could be considered aesthetically pleasing, it was also a set that could be effective when fighting. Perhaps Syaoran would take more to this set for these reasons.
Syaoran was, however, skeptic at first. "Intermediate set?" he repeated distrustfully before grumbling, "More like intimidating set." It was like a huge step up from the bending he'd been struggling with as of late. The Avatar struggled to even maintain water in the shape of a ball; now he was supposed to be able to move it like that?
Disgruntled, but willing to try, Syaoran took a deep breath and conjured up some water from the lake to start again. He only managed to get through a few series of movements before forgetting the rest. However, the few that he did manage to do were stronger than his basic forms, the movements a bit more to his liking.
It was less... flowy. It had more control, more structure. The water was less its own entity and more a bit under his demand, his will.
Syaoran tried again and managed to get a bit farther before he was unable to perform the movements as dictated. "You know, Shun..." he started, a little bit confused by his new revelation, "waterbending may look more like airbending but... it's actually kind of firebending." Syaoran looked up at Shun, perplexed. "These motions required more self-control, precision, but not like earthbending. It was like the forms I learned from ZanYi."
Shun quirked a brow. "You think so?" He pondered this for a moment, thinking back to what seemed like a lifetime ago, when he was on "Drench Duty" for the Avatar as he was learning firebending. True, the forms ZanYi was teaching him required all the things he mentioned, as did the forms Shun had just taught Syaoran, but Shun would have never compared waterbending to firebending. It was difficult to see them as similar, when the elements being bended were like night and day.
"...I don't see it, but if it helps you learn better, you're free to think of it that way," Shun encouraged. He invited the Avatar to watch him again as he performed the intermediate set, filling in the holes in Syaoran's performance. "Try again, please."
Syaoran did keep that in mind this time. For the basic forms, the happy medium for the movements was between firebending and airbending, though leaning more on the latter. The water was free form then. But in this form, there was purpose and initiative, like firebending.
Trying to go with what he'd learned from ZanYi, instead of trying to think about the movements, he tried to feel the movements. Firebending was from the heart, fueled by his emotions. He'd seen Shun start moving water in accordance to his temperaments. So if he applied the same principles here... would it work?
Syaoran started the forms over again, and this time, it did work. Instead of looking for the flow of the water, he tried to feel for the strength, the steady build-up he'd touched on when trying to unfreeze the ice. The Avatar's movements started to come out a bit more continuous, more fluid. When he finished, Syaoran could hardly believe it. "I think I just did it..." he marveled. His hypothesis... was actually right?
Shun was impressed. The Avatar had improved significantly, once he had applied his understanding to his bending. Perhaps there was something to his claims after all.
"You did do it. And your bending was excellent," Shun complimented, smiling proudly. "Keep this up, and you may be a master by the end of the month!" That was an exaggeration, of course—Shun hoped Syaoran wouldn't actually think that his bending would improve that exponentially by the month's end.
The giant waterbender began to shiver. It was getting really cold if it was starting to bother him. Huffing on his hands, he told Syaoran, "Okay, now put the basic set and the intermediate set together. If you can run through both without any mistakes, we'll end practice for tonight."
There was no reason for Shun to keep Syaoran out in the cold for long periods of time—the Avatar would be no good to the world if he turned into a popsicle while learning waterbending.
Syaoran gulped, but not because Shun had asked him to put the forms together. Even if Shun was joking about the end of the month, it was no joke to him. Tiki and the Avatar had a deal: if he improved enough over the course of the month, she would kiss him. And at the moment, he still didn't know what to do about that. She'd started it as a joke, he'd kept it up to embarrass her, and now they were actually going through with it maybe?
He shook his head. What a mess he had gotten himself into. Syaoran and the airbender may have found they have a mutual care for each other, but now it made things occasionally awkward. Like with this stuff.
Thankfully, Syaoran had a great reason to stop thinking about that: training. Yes, he was desperate, but right now, what he wanted most was to go inside and get out of the freezing cold night on the tundra.
Clearing his head, the Avatar started off with the beginner forms, trying to lean his movements with an airbender slant, light and directive. Then when it came time to perform the intermediate, he switched it up, putting more strength into it, controlling like firebending. Between the two styles, Syaoran actually managed to get through the two without a hiccup.
The progress pleased him enough to almost smile over at Shun. "Good enough to go inside?" he verified, hoping that he'd done as well as he thought he did.
The barely contained eagerness on the Avatar's face was enough to make Shun smile; he nodded and gave Syaoran a thumbs-up.
"Good enough," he agreed, "we'll pick this up again tomorrow night."
Shun himself began to head inside, but a flurry of white caught his attention, and he looked up. Snow was beginning to fall, the flakes soft and delicate as they dancingly descended from the sky. Shun held out a hand, catching one or two flakes and keeping his palm cold so that they would not immediately melt. No two snowflakes were exactly alike, they said, but Shun never knew any better because they would melt before he could get a good look at them. It happened again, as soon as he got his face close enough to inspect the snowflakes—his breath melted them. Shun shook out his hand absentmindedly, looking up at the sky once again. The last time he had played in snow...was with his siblings, Kohaku, Jin, two-year-old Nyla, and Ai. That night was just as peaceful as this one promised to be.
With a content sigh, Shun entered the palace, deciding to avoid the sitting room altogether. He would just put up with the taunting another time.
"Awww, he's so cute!" Tiki cooed, fawning over a picture of a six-year-old Shun being tugged by the arm somewhere by the four-year-old Ai. Their relationship seemed not to have changed much, despite the years. "It's hard to believe Shun was actually ever that small!"
"It's hard to believe he's so huge now," Ai contradicted the tiny airbender, leaning over to Nyla to show her another photo. "Kohaku and Jin used to call him the runt of the litter."
"Well, not even Kohaku and I were that small at that age," Jin defended himself, grinning at the photo he held. "Our dad is tall, so it's natural for us all to be tall as well."
"But your mom is short, isn't she? That would have made it a fifty-fifty chance, don't you think?"
"Nah. Mom's genes never stood a chance. The Jiang blood is strong in our family."
"How did you get these pictures taken, Ai?" Tiki wanted to know, but it was again Jin who answered.
"Once Ai's parents realized they couldn't stop her from sneaking out of the palace to come play with us, they sent an attendant with her and asked him to take pictures. We thought he was a creepy old man at first and threw rocks at him...until Ai "remembered" to mention that he worked for her."
Tiki clucked her tongue, but soon went back to smiling fondly at Shun's childhood form. "This was before he had his long hair, but it's still pretty shaggy." She giggled again. "I don't think I've ever seen a boy this cute."
That was when a heavy weight pressed down on her head. Syaoran had come inside and up behind her just as she said that, crossing his arms to rest on her head. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked her. She'd fawned over several boys since they'd met: Zaron, Kei, himself—now Shun too?
"I'd like to remind you the man's taken," Syaoran added, taking one fist to noogie into the side of her head. And Tiki kind of was too, though he wasn't about to say that. He didn't like other guys with her... but calling her his was just weird still.
Coming around the couch to sit next to Tiki, the Avatar plopped down heavily, already soaking in the warmth of the palace in comparison to the cold outside. "You guys are still going through photos? We managed to have training and come back, and you're still at it."
Seriously, how many photos could there be of Shun? But, looking around with jade eyes, he could find his answer. Apparently a lot.
Tiki had rolled her eyes at Syaoran, lightly rubbing her head where his knuckles had ground in.
"Don't be so insecure," she chided him, moving closer to his side, even though he was freezing. "It doesn't count if I'm talking about the little boy version of Shun. Look, see?" Tiki held the photograph up for Syaoran to look at. "Isn't he adorable?"
"It's okay to say that he is, Avatar," Jin assured Shun from across the room with a grin, "no one here will question your manhood if you do. The Jiangs are a good-looking family."
"I swear the only reason you open your mouth is because you love to hear yourself talk," Nyla quipped, not even bothering to look up as she flipped through more photos. Jin sighed, placing a hand over his heart.
"That hurts, Ny."
"Good."
"Oh, look!" Ai cried, waving another photo around, "here's a photo of Shun crying when my wave ended up bigger than his! I told you it happened!" Ai lowered the photo, her smile turning bittersweet. "Man...I thought those days would never end. It's making me nostalgic."
"You're not gonna start crying, are you, Princess?"
"No...but if you keep calling me Princess, you'll be the one who's crying, Jin."
"If you're trying to turn me on by threatening me, it's working."
As one, the women in the room rolled their eyes. Jin was incorrigible. Just then, a clock over the mantle of the fireplace chimed, signaling the new hour. Ai glanced at it, giving a sigh. "It's that time already, huh…"
"What, are you late for your soap operas?" Jin asked, sitting up straight as Ai began to gather all the pictures on the coffee table together. She rolled her eyes at him again as she packed all the photo albums back into the bag she had brought them down in.
"No. I was just thinking about something I used to do around this time…but it's not important." Ai hoisted the bag up onto her shoulder, giving them a smile that wasn't exactly completely genuine. "Anyway, I'm tired. I'm gonna head to bed, so…good night." As Ai made her way out of the room, her shoulders slumped, Tiki could only stare after her.
"What was that about...?"
"Who knows," Jin replied, getting to his feet. "But since Ai's gone and there are no single women here I can flirt with…" Jin sent Tiki a disparaging look, as if it were her fault that Syaoran had claimed her, "I'm gonna go see what all the pretty maids are up to!"
"Their jobs, what do you think?" Nyla grumbled, standing up as well. She and Jin bickered all the way out the door, leaving Tiki very much alone with Syaoran...not that she minded. She scooted closer to the Avatar, snuggling into his side and resting her head on his shoulder. When her hand brushed his, Tiki noticed how cold it was, and she took Syaoran's hand and held it in between her two tiny palms.
"How was waterbending practice?" she asked, rubbing Syaoran's hand in an attempt to warm it. "You were only gone for about an hour. Did it go well?"
Syaoran nodded, a bit distracted by Tiki's soft touch as she tried to warm his hand. As soon as everyone had left, she got so... cuddly. Take that into account as well as how little she was, Tiki fit just right next to him—and looked cute doing it.
Okay, time to focus on conversation.
Since they'd had such a short time training compared to usual, Syaoran supposed it could have gone one of two extremes: absolutely horrible or significantly well. Deciding to dispel the notion of the first one, he answered aloud, "It went pretty well...I think. I'm picking up the new stuff faster and Shun said I was doing a good job, that I might be a master at it by the end of the month."
Which made him think back on his deal with Tiki again. He felt a bit uncomfortable again and looked away from Tiki, trying to force down the blush on his face. He had to get a grip; Syaoran did not want to have to feel awkward around the airbender all the time. So the Avatar pushed onward.
"So..." he drew out, thinking of a safer topic that would keep the conversation flowing, "I figured out the elements aren't quite as different as we all think?"
It had certainly helped him along in getting some of this waterbending down. Shun had been right in thinking that it would be easier for him to pick up on ice. And because of his frustration with melting it and the new intermediate forms, it kind of helped him realize that. It helped to be able to draw comparisons.
Tiki was still silently contemplating Syaoran's declaration that he would be a master of waterbending by the end of the month because Shun said so, lacing her tiny fingers with the Avatar's. Honestly, Tiki believed the giant waterbender might have said those words with his tongue in his cheek, but she kept silent so she would not burst Syaoran's bubble. He seemed a little excited about it, too...did that mean he was anticipating their promised kiss even more? That brought a blush to Tiki's face, and she snuggled into his shoulder to hide it. She really needed to stop being so embarrassed at the prospect of kissing him...Syaoran was something like her boyfriend now, wasn't he? It was natural to want to kiss him, right?
Okay, these thoughts were not helping with her embarrassment. Tiki gave herself an inner shake to get a grip before she returned to the conversation they were having...which was turning out to be even stranger than the one they were having previously, if Syaoran's realization was any indication. "How do you work that out?" she asked, peering curiously up at him. It was common consensus that everyone but the Avatar should stick to their own elements because they were so irreconcilably different. Tiki was even surer of that fact, because she was able to distinguish between different bender chis. So why was Syaoran so certain that they were actually very similar?
Syaoran was thankful she'd taken her face out of his shoulder; that certainly was not helping in the matter of pushing past their embarrassment. At least it was mutual? The Avatar wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, though he was just going to roll with it for now and so was Tiki apparently. He breathed a sigh of mild relief that she at least seemed distracted by the change of topic.
"So, I finally figured out how to do those beginner forms he taught me. The movements have been a medium between flowing and firm, but instead of controlling the water, it's more like I'm directing it, like airbending." Once he'd finally started airbending, Syaoran had finally gotten that. Airbending was more going with the wind and relaxing into it, since there was nothing really there to force.
He mused over this as he looked down at the interlocked fingers he had with Tiki, wiggling his fingers as if they were confused and stuck. It made Tiki's hand look even smaller, tiny compared to his digits.
"Tonight Shun taught me how to freeze and unfreeze water, plus the intermediate forms. A lot of the movements and purposefulness of it was like firebending, especially because the power kind of came from like an inner strength feeling-ish. It was different, but it was still similar."
Tiki blinked up at him. She didn't get it. What was he talking about? Waterbending and firebending were the elements that were the furthest from each other: how could they be similar? Was she hearing him correctly? In any case, it seemed like this revelation was assisting Syaoran with his learning waterbending. That was good, at least.
"I don't really understand," the tiny airbender admitted, "but I'm glad you seem to be grasping things a little better now. Maybe you will be a master by the end of the month." The thought caused her to flush again, and she ducked her head, but she was genuinely pleased that Syaoran was making some progress he seemed to be happy with.
And who knows—maybe this strange perception of the four elements he had realized had something to do with him being the Avatar. If so, his senses must be awakening further.
"Have you had any Avatar dreams lately, Syaoran?" Tiki asked curiously. She was sure he would have mentioned if he had, but she just wanted to make sure—maybe there were some dreams the Avatar had that he did not realize were significant to his Avatar state of being.
The answer to that question was easy: "Nope," he replied to Tiki, shaking his head a little bit. It felt a little odd not to have his hair falling into his face, but it was a good thing. "Nothing. I fall asleep exhausted and wake up in the morning."
Only two things remotely related to the spirituality of the Avatar had happened to him: the Avatar state that resulted in blowing up a volcano and slipping into it during meditation and seeing himself as Avatar Aang. Otherwise, nothing. No Avatar voices in his head, no dreams, and not even any more Avatar state.
"Do you think that means I'm, like, a broken Avatar or something?" he asked Tiki, now frowning a bit at this. Syaoran figured he would feel more... Avatar-like by now. At the end of the day, he still felt like a guy who apparently can bend four elements now.
"You're not broken," Tiki dismissed patiently, resting her head on his shoulder once more. "You just need some spiritual training, it looks like. I thought this Avatar stuff would come naturally to you...but it doesn't seem like that's the case."
Syaoran just needed a little prompting, that's all. And since this was pretty much Tiki's forte, she could help him with that, when the time was right. All Syaoran needed to do was focus his attention his waterbending training, and after he was done with that, Tiki would take care of the rest.
Syaoran snorted. "Naturally?" he repeated as if Tiki was crazy. She really should have known better by then. "Tiki, since when has any of this Avatar stuff come naturally to me?"
He supposed eventually firebending did, but it had taken him nineteen years to get that out of him. If anything, that fact alone made it quite clear that he was not going to be a natural at any of this Avatar business. But as much he dragged his feet sometimes, he worked hard to make up for that.
After all, he never wanted to disappoint Tiki again.
Without thinking, Syaoran rested his head on top of Tiki's then. "Why do I feel like spiritual training would be about as annoying as airbending was?" he thought aloud, knowing Tiki remembered all too well how painful a process that had been. "At least I would have a patient teacher. Doesn't hurt that she's also my..." What was he trying to fill that gap with? "...person?"
Yes. Syaoran was suddenly aware how incredibly lame he sounded. Tiki was his person. A bit of red splashing his cheeks, he was then disgruntled with his choice of words.
"Pfft!" Tiki covered her mouth with a hand, desperate to keep her giggling under control. But it wasn't like Syaoran made it easy—"person"? He was so awkwardly adorable.
"The word is 'girlfriend', Syaoran," Tiki filled in for him, pulling her head out from under his to give him an amused look. "It's okay to call me that, you know. Repeat after me: girl...friend."
Not waiting for his response—she was mostly making fun of him—the tiny airbender continued, "And it may be difficult, but hopefully it won't be annoying. Think about it: there's a whole other side of you that you've only made contact with twice. And there's a past life you could consult when you're feeling lost. Don't you think that's interesting? Aren't you the least bit excited about something like that?" Tiki certainly was—her sparkling gray irises said so. To think that all that raw power was sleeping inside of Syaoran was awe-inspiring.
Syaoran gave her a cross look when she began to mock him. Did she really have to make things worse? Last he'd checked, she got just as easily flustered, only more obviously about it.
"And for that, I'm sticking with 'person'. You are my person," the Avatar reiterated, unappreciative of her teasing. Besides, 'girlfriend' still sounded so weird and foreign to him. It helped to realize over dinner apparently it was the same for ZanYi—the subtle tension in her jaw every time Ai said it proved that point. At least Syaoran wasn't the only one who felt weird about it.
Pausing to ponder on Tiki's questions, Syaoran leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. Was it interesting that he had past lives he could call on? He guessed so. Excited? Not really.
"I don't know," he shrugged eventually. "I mean, sure they may be in me... but they're not me. I'm Syaoran. And I'm fine with being Syaoran."
"That sounds weird, like you own me or something," Tiki pointed out; the mere thought of Syaoran claiming to own here caused her nose to wrinkle. No one owned her—she was a free woman, just not romantically speaking.
To distract herself from all the strange implications the word "person" had in this context, Tiki continued, "That's true: you are Syaoran. But you're also the Avatar, which means you're all of those pasts lives as well, simultaneously." She paused when she heard just how strange that sounded. "It's an Avatar thing," she concluded simply to describe the phenomenon, as if she herself had experience being the Avatar. But there was no other way she could find to describe such a thing. The tiny airbender could only hope that, once Syaoran reached his full potential, he would realize what she meant.
Syaoran just groaned eventually. This was all making his head hurt. And he was tired from training. And from flying on the back of a sky bison. "All right," he surrendered to make things easier, "you win. All of these word technicalities are giving me a headache."
The Avatar yawned then, starting to feel more and more exhausted. And he still wanted to take a hot bath—that tub looked fairly large and if the water wasn't hot enough, then he could try to use firebending to heat it up. It may be cheating, but he was certain he was not the only one in their group who was probably doing it.
Giving Tiki an eye, Syaoran quirked a brow at the airbender. "Aren't you getting tired? We took naps, but we were still up the whole time with Bumi last night."
Tiki actually had to think about it. Yeah, she was kind of tired, she supposed. But her desire to be with Syaoran was stronger, pushing her exhaustion away. Once the tiny airbender realized that, her face turned rosy.
"I guess I'm kind of sleepy," she admitted, resting her head on Syaoran's shoulder again so he wasn't looking directly at her face. "But it's been a while since we've been alone. I guess I just wanted to spend some time with you."
Why was this so embarrassing to admit? Tiki could feel her cheeks burning, and she shut her eyes to mentally calm herself down. It was no big deal, her wanting to spend time with her "person", as Syaoran would say. So what was she getting all red for? Sometimes Tiki's emotions were so confusing that she herself could not understand them.
Syaoran was pleased to find she was flustered; about time the roles were reversed. He was always picked on by everyone else—though thankfully Shun seemed to be replacing him at last. Still, it made the corner of the Avatar's mouth quirk up, not quite a smile but not quite a smirk.
"Well then, aren't you getting forward?" he kidded her, moving one arm to wrap around her and ruffle her head. But then he left his hand there. Normally Syaoran wouldn't think twice about this—then again, normally she was crying and they weren't acknowledging romantic interests towards each other. Sucking up his awkwardness, the Avatar went with it and kept his hand on her head.
"Yeah, and it looks like things will be busy during the day with Ai," he agreed. It wasn't going to be like normal Team Avatar time. Ai was going to be dragging everyone around on adventures and misadventures, no doubt. There wouldn't be quite so many of those moments that the two were left alone together to their own devices while Shun and ZanYi were together.
In light of recent developments, Syaoran actually found this problematic.
"How about this..." the Avatar started, almost cringing, "I'll wake up a bit earlier and we can do meditations together in the mornings." Waking up early again... That did not sound appealing. But Tiki wanted to spend more time together, and he kind of did too. "Okay, maybe I won't meditate, but I'll drop by in the mornings. That way we'll get some time in before breakfast and everything goes downhill. Deal?"
This offer surprised Tiki: if there was anything Syaoran loved more than food, it was sleep. So his unexpected and selfless offer to get up early just to spend time with her made her feel kind of happy. No, not kind of happy—it made her feel really happy.
"Really?" she asked, tilting her head to peer up at him, not wanting to actually move her head from his shoulder or dislodge his hand from her hair. He didn't sound like he was joking—it was a really lame joke otherwise—but she just wanted to make sure. "I mean, is that okay? You're going to be up during the nights training with Shun, and I know you like your sleep...will you be okay getting up early?"
Syaoran scoffed. "Hey, I didn't say I was getting up as early as you do," he pointed out. There was no way that was going to happen. But he looked down to see the airbender peering up at him; she could hardly contain the glee on her face. That was a good sign to Syaoran; he liked to see Tiki happy. It was better than when she was crying or quiet.
"But yeah, I'll get up a little earlier to come by before breakfast. I'll probably be largely incoherent, but that's okay. You can meditate, I'll half sleep, and if you're done meditating, you can talk my ear off while I half-listen as I try to wake up."
He didn't mind giving up a bit of his sleep if it meant Tiki could see a bit more of him, and vice versa. And if training was kept short because of progress or the cold, it wouldn't be a bad trade off. It was doable.
Raising his eyebrows, the Avatar returned Tiki's expression with a milder version. "Would that be good enough for you?"
Tiki responded by sliding her arms around Syaoran's neck and hugging him as tightly as her little body could manage. She loved it when Syaoran was sweet to her—it was a simple reminder of why she cared about him so much in the first place.
"Thank you, Syaoran," she murmured, kissing his cheek. She gave him another light squeeze before she sat back, smiling at him. "I suppose it's bed time then, if I'm going to be seeing you tomorrow," she pointed out. Tiki wanted Syaoran to get as much sleep as possible, because while the Avatar was usually grumpy for no reason, he was extra grumpy when he was lacking sleep. If he was going to be getting up early for her, than the least she could do was make sure he got to bed at a decent time.
The Avatar was now bearing a grumpy look on his face that contrasted with the blush creeping up his face. "Yeah, it's time for bed," he eagerly agreed, pushing Tiki over on the couch as he stood up. He was tired. He was going to be getting up early for this girl. And then she kept being cuddly. It was time to go.
Syaoran stretched a couple of his joints out, which had stiffened as he sat there talking to her. He was definitely going to take a hot bath before bed now. The only drawback was trying not to fall asleep in the tub.
Walking over to the doorway of the sitting room, he looked over his shoulder with an expectant expression. "You coming or what?" the Avatar called back to her. If Tiki was going to bed too, no point in leaving her behind.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," she placated him, hopping over the back of the couch to follow him. She had been disgruntled when he just pushed her away, but she caught the sight of the blush before he stood up and understood that that was just how Syaoran reacted when he was embarrassed. And Tiki wasn't hurt, so she decided to continue to find him adorable.
Beating him to the doorway, Tiki moved past him, taking his hand as she went. She wasn't even that embarrassed about it—just a slight pink tinge to her cheeks because of it. This whole 'relationship' thing seemed to be getting easier, slowly but surely.
And as Syaoran found himself tugged along, he didn't even resist. This seemed to make Tiki happy, even if it felt weird for him. And the more time he spent with Tiki, the more the former seemed to take precedence. The worst part of it all? The Avatar was finding himself more and more content with that.
A small quirk tugged at his mouth. This was all new, but Syaoran getting increasingly okay with this. He just hoped he never ended up like Shun: that waterbender was whipped, and with a woman like the lieutenant, that was a dangerous combination.
Nope. Syaoran wasn't envying him one bit. The Avatar definitely thought he got the better end of this deal.
A/N from Eva: Yo! Sorry for the wait again, RL likes to rear its ugly head at us far more than we like. ._.; In any case, we hoped you guys enjoyed this really sweet chapter! Syaoran's finally making progress with his waterbending, but his Avatar-ness could use a little work. We'll see him work on that after he becomes a waterbending master! And now, a word from our sponsors!
Guest: Thank you, we shall! Sometimes we can't help our updates being delayed, but we always return! We're like cockroaches: hard to kill. XD Thanks for the support!
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Black and White Knight: Thanks for your review and adding Water to your Story Alert list! We hope this latest update made you smile! And as for your question about Syaoran's spirit animal...we'll get to that later, ha ha. Just hang on: it'll be addressed! Promise!
ozai37: It always feels like we're coming or going, but we're never really gone. XD Glad you're all caught up! We hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D
ANewbutOldGuest: Thanks for the review! Ahahaha, yeah, Shun is actually really powerful, but people forget because he's such a teddy bear most of the time. But he turns into a grizzly really fast if you're not careful, as Ai unfortunately discovered. XP Let's hope she remembers to toe the line from now on, or the Northern Water Tribe might find themselves a princess short. XD And yes, ZanYi is the jealous type. She doesn't like other people looking at/touching things that belong to her. XD The ShunYi is glorious, to be sure. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!
Avatar Nation: Yeaaah, Ai's kind of outrageous, and she likes it that way. XD We're glad you seem to enjoy her!
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Thanks as always to everyone who continues to support our story! We're almost halfway through Water now, so we're really excited, and hope you'll continue to show us love and support as we continue with Syaoran's waterbending training! Thanks a lot, and we hope to see you next week! Ciao!