Title: Midsummer Madness
.
Author: BurningIce
.
Rating: PG-13
.
Summary: Katara learns that there are both advantages and drawbacks to being a female water bending master, and pays back a favor to an old friend..
..
…
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. If I did it would have been considerably less awesome, but Katara and Zuko would have totally gotten together, so I guess it's a toss up.
..
..
..
..
Chapter 16: The Throw Down
…
…
Katara banged her things around, moving them this way and that, with no real plan for rearranging them. She did however make sure she made a lot of noise so the fire bender knew that she was spitting mad at him. Finally she tired herself out and her nose had started to bleed from the venom, and she flopped herself down on her trunk miserably. She could SENSE him in the next room, being all quiet and mature. She sighed, deciding she was finished being passive aggressive.
She pulled moisture out of the air and froze a wall of her room and regarded herself in the slightly distorted reflection. She touched her hair, her chest, her thighs, her lips, her self esteem taking a nose dive. Her mind conjured up Mai, and began ticking off the differences between them, unbidden. She could feel the moisture in the air freezing as she thought about the other girl, and she was not surprised when she saw her breath in the air, and frost on the walls. It made her shiver, and she wrapped her blanket over her bare skin, sniffing away the blood in her nose, and concentrated harder on her reflection.
Mai was a classic Fire Nation beauty, straight black hair, slanted eyes, small frame, small chest, pale skin, and tall, so very very tall. Katara stood on her tiptoes and straightened her back. It was no use, she had a good few inches on Aang, Ty Lee, and Toph(for now), but she was still painfully average.
Did Zuko like tall girls? A girl who could look him in the eye instead of gaze up at him? She turned to the side, she was built like a water tribe woman, there was no mistake, her body was programmed to survive in the cold climates. She had hips, she had thighs, she had a chest, and she was sure once she settled down and had a family, she would develop the short 'n stocky look of most Water Tribe women.
She ticked off her attributes as she thought Zuko would see them, hair too wavy, eyes too large and too blue, frame too large, chest too large, skin too dark, lips too big, jaw too square- she cut herself off and bent the ice mirror away, deciding that she would just make herself madder if she kept comparing herself to Zuko's ex.
At least I have EMOTIONS!! She thought, but it did little for her jealousy. The last time she had felt this jealous of someone was when Aang had gotten better at water bending than her without even having to try.
Zuko had been awake the whole time, he stared miserably up at his ceiling, the token for his ex girlfriend still clutched between his fingers. He covered his eyes with his forearm and cringed every time he heard something bang around in the other room. He wanted to apologize and try to explain, but he didn't dare go in with the water bender mid fit. He was scared she would attack him, and he knew he would take the beating no questions asked out of guilt.
At least he would feel better emotionally then, if a bit worse for wear physically. Katara didn't pull her punches for anyone but Aang. He pressed his lips together, it wasn't right, she and Aang hadn't broken up, not exactly, and he had already far overstepped the bounds of friendship with her. Aang had asked him to help her sort out her issues and bring her back fixed, that's what he should be doing.
Not taking advantage of her.
He SHOULD be trying to patch things up with Mai, but truth be told, he just didn't want to.
Its just both of us wanting a rebound. He told himself, It's only been two weeks, it's the heat of the swamp, and the women . . . the women here are a bad influence on Katara. They take things too lightly, they run around half naked, they share beds with whoever they please, they call her a virgin like it's a bad thing.
Something else banged and he flinched again, but then relaxed as he heard the sound of her sliding onto her mattress. Things were silent for a few instants then he heard her sniff. Was she crying? He couldn't tell.
He hauled his pillow over his ears, feeling worse, he hated making girls cry. One of the things he liked about Mai was that she never cried. His reasoning for leaving Katara's room was suddenly a ghost of a memory, and all he could think of was how cruel he had been. Zuko hated how he always made the wrong call.
He tentatively listened again.
Silence.
He replaced the pillow over his ears. The room was suddenly very cold, and he bent his skin hotter to compensate. He stared aghast as the walls began to frost, and the air became drier and drier. He could see his breath, and his body started to steam as he maintained his heightened body heat. What was Katara doing?!
He bent the room back, melting the frost from his walls. He hoped that it wouldn't become a bending battle, he didn't feel like trying to raise the temperature while she froze the water all night. He scrunched his eyes shut, telling himself it was for the greater good.
…
…
…
Ty Lee touched her toes, her legs spread wide doing the splits, she wasn't really paying attention to it though. She was watching Sokka and Suki exiting the hold out of the corner of her eyes. They were whispering to each other, glancing at her every so often. Ty Lee chewed on her lip, wondering what on earth was so interesting. She never got attention as a child, and it made her immensely uncomfortable the way that they kept giving it to her.
She studied their auras, but they disclosed nothing, so the acrobat somersaulted to her feet then launched herself across the deck with ease and landed in front of them.
"Hey!!" She bubbled, "Good morning, Suki, Sokka, you guys are finally up! You missed the most beautiful sunrise, and then a cloud that was shaped like a giant koi, and then a giant koi that was shaped like a cloud, and THEN-"
Suki cut her off, they had relaxed the formalities, "Ty Lee, Did the Ship Captain tell you when we were scheduled to reach the swamp?"
"Oh . . . No, he didn't, I bet the first mate knows, shall I ask him?"
"Yea, I guess, if you feel like it." Sokka sounded guilty, and Ty Lee frowned, she knew they had been talking about her behind her back. How oblivious did they think she was?
She trotted off, passing some of the men doing their work. She was such an extrovert that she had made friends with most of the crew in only a few hours. They had teased her because although she didn't reach any of their shoulders, she was still just as strong. Plus they liked that she flirted.
"So, Ty Lee," One of them asked, "You look like a sturdy little girl, If I took you sailing, could you paddle my longboat?"
"I'm sure I could paddle any boat in your armada!"
"That's amazing!" one of his buddies teased, "Usually it takes three grown men to paddle his longboat! Could you hoist my sail?"
"Hey! Any of you seamen know when we're estimated to dock?" Ty lee really did need to know.
"Oh aye, Captain said that we should hit the swamp shore tomorrow, mid morning."
"Wow! So soon!" Ty Lee grinned, "That's great news!"
"If we don't make it, you can give me a taste of the Captain's daughter!"
That was one she hadn't heard, so she didn't know the innuendo, but she grinned, "You, me and the captain's daughter? Sounds hot!" she answered vaguely, waving over her shoulder at them.
She found Suki and Sokka at the stern, "Hey guys! Ok, word round the salty dogs is that we should dock tomorrow morning. Soooo . . ." Ty Lee grabbed Suki's hands, "We can have a girl's day!!"
"A girl's day?" Suki looked skeptical.
"Yea! Like, we can sit in the shade, enjoy the sea air, and tell each other embarrassing stories, and do each others hair, and and you know, bond!" She turned to Sokka, "You can join us, but you have to wear a skirt."
Suki laughed, "It wouldn't be the first time!"
"Oh! Sokka in a dress!?" Ty Lee imagined it, "I bet that was sexy."
"He wore the make up too."
"It's called war paint when a man wears it!!" Sokka defended homophobically.
"OooOOooh! Do tell!" Ty Lee grabbed Suki's arm, and dragged her off to gossip, Suki gave him a thumbs up as they departed, not bothering to scold the smaller girl about addressing her so informally.
Ty Lee dragged her all the way up to the crows nest, and they settled down, their backs to the circular railing wall and after a few 'embarrassing Sokka' stories were swapped, they both seemed to relax. Once you got past the ear to ear grin, the acrobat was not half bad company.
" . . . So there I was, trying to teach Azula how to flirt! I mean, she seemed so genuinely interested!"
"But she is the Princess of the Fire Nation! She could get anything she wanted!"
"I think that's exactly why . . . I think she was curious whether or not she could get whatever she wanted without being the Fire Princess. Turns out she wasn't half bad at flirting, she just didn't enjoy it on principal." Ty Lee fingered her chin, "Plus, the guy was a total flake."
"Are you worried about running into her again?"
"Yes," Ty Lee hugged her knees, her face turning serious, but she didn't offer any more of an explanation.
Suki tried to tactfully steer the conversation, "Don't worry, Aang will be there, and everyone understands that you, Mai, and Azula are no longer a tag team, that you're on team Avatar now."
"Hahaha! Oh come on, I met the Avatar face to face without fighting once! At the grand opening of the Jasmine Dragon, and he was hanging all over Katara for a lot of it."
"Well, this might be a good time to get to know him better." Suki prodded, "You both like flipping through the air and stuff a lot, maybe you could teach each other a few things."
"You think? Maybe he can only do . . . you know, air bender stuff." Ty Lee's grin had returned at the thought of learning some acrobatics from an actual air bender.
"We'll ask him when we get there." Suki promised.
"Maybe he can show my sisters too! We are all just as flexible!" Ty Lee put her chin in her hands.
"Really? Any of them fire benders?"
"No, nobody in my family is a bender, even if a fire bender marries and has kids in my family, their children wont be benders." Ty Lee looked sad, she had so wanted to be a bender as a kid, to be able to throw fire like Azula and Zuko, "We're all really really flexible though." That seemed to cheer her up.
"That's too bad," Suki patted the girl's arm and let the other girl change the subject to the elephant seagulls on the rigging, and her theory on why they looked sad.
…
…
…
June rode through the woods, heading west. Ursa rode beside her on an ostrich horse, and was examining her nails thoughtlessly.
The bounty hunter was busily trying to remember everything she could about the middle aged woman. The Ladyslipper. She had the same history as most noble women from the Fire Nation. She had been recruited at the Fire Nation Academy for Girls by one of the professors. She had excelled in history, psychology, and politics disciplines, but always did horribly in the mandatory weapons and combat disciplines. June never heard of her having a weapon of choice. The Professor that worked there, (she knew the woman's code name, but not which professor it actually was) had lobbied for her to the council, who were reluctant. Usually women were selected for their combative skills, Ursa was chosen because of her mouth. She had a golden tongue. Word around the order was that the woman could persuade anyone to do anything, that she had talked the old Fire Lord out of many (but not all) genocides.
All women in the order were dangerous. Most because of their individual, subtle talents, June had been approached because of her talent with Shirshu training. Shirshus were notoriously hostile creatures, difficult to domesticate and impossible to train, and very rare. One had been given to her father as payment for a bounty, and her father had given it to her with little pleading necessary, rather disgusted by the thing's tentacled nose and whip like tongue. June had named her Nyla.
Ironically, the Shirshu pup had actually taken to June, which the bounty hunter had credited largely to her swamp blood, along with anything else strange and unusual that she couldn't explain. As a pup, Nyla's venom couldn't paralyze a whole person, only the part of the body it struck, and June remembered long hours of riding with her father, Nyla cradled in her paralyzed arms. Perhaps it was the large amount of venom she internalized over the years, perhaps it was the time they spent together, perhaps it was because Nyla was the closest thing to a friend June ever had the luxury of, or perhaps it was simply a shirshu thing (nobody really knew what they did in the wild), she had developed a very strong bond with the creature, and vice versa.
Nyla had not stayed cuddleable for long, and after a few years, she was as big as an ostrich horse, and June had started training her, or maybe Nyla had trained her, to ride together. Her father had been killed in a bar fight around that time, and June went to find her mother, deep in the marsh of the earth kingdom, and had lived with the women there for almost five years. She apprenticed, learned their combat and their ways, learned about her gifts, and even bore the marks of the apprentices, though she could never become a full priestess because she had no bending. She had thought about staying, but truly she was more her father's daughter than her mother's, and she couldn't resist the thrill of the road, the call of coins, or the rush of the hunt.
She had left soon after her seventeenth birthday.
The Sirens had approached her the same year, full of questions and offers of power and peace and money. Naive girl that she had been, she took them up on their offer. Perhaps because of their support, their whispers, she soon rose to be the best bounty hunter in the Earth Kingdom, or at least the most sought after.
"You're a legend, you know." June told her, "You assassinated the Fifty First Earth King when you were eighteen, that was your very first assignment." She said to the older woman.
Ursa said nothing.
Coin did not buy June's respect, few ever earned it, but Ursa had had it the instant she sat down at the table. It was something in the way she carried herself, it was in the curve of her cheek, the creases around her eyes, the muscles that rippled below the skin of her arm as she tugged on her reigns. It was easy to see how one might do almost anything for her. The woman was a queen, whether she had a country or not, and June was disappointed that such a powerful woman bore such a ridiculous son.
"You know what my first assignment was? To bring Nyla to the Herbalist to give her a sample of her saliva. We spent two weeks paralyzed most of the time before we had gotten a cupful. Nyla does not like things shoved into her mouth. The bloody woman kept whining about her cat! She kept feeding the damn thing these mashed up herbs! Cats are carnivores!" June complained, trying to get a rise out of the older woman.
Ursa looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
June grinned a lazy half smile, "I did a job for your son."
Ursa's eyes widened, and she inhaled sharply, her knuckles turning white around the reigns.
"I would tell you about it, if you make it worth my while."
"I can't." The older woman's voice was strained.
"And about his damn lecherous uncle." June was enjoying this.
Ursa's lips pressed together, "Iroh is a good man."
"I would have liked him a lot more had he not taken advantage of me." June rocked back into her saddle, watching with delight as the older woman's face went from surprise to curiosity, "Had me looking for his little water bending girlfriend who isn't."
"Zuko's girlfriend isn't a water bender, she is an aristocrat." Ursa was unsure
June shrugged.
Ursa chewed her bottom lip.
"One question, Bounty Hunter, and you tell me about my son. Everything you know about my son."
"That's fair." June adjusted her whip, "Zuko, he was a bit of an arrogant ass, didn't like him the minute I saw him. Always scowling, he had a necklace with him, wanted me to find some girl. I figured he was looking for his girlfriend who had run off, an easy, open and shut sort of commission. No such luck, turned out he was looking for the Avatar, and I got sucked into the crossfire. He yelled a lot, threw fire, ransomed the girl and her brother, and then got us all paralyzed. It pissed me off, worst job I've ever taken! He woulda had the Avatar though, if the kid hadn't knocked over a bunch of perfumes and made Nyla panic. He was a pretty determined fighter."
"Oh . . ."
"Then I saw him again, right around the comet, wanted me to find the Avatar, AGAIN." June rolled her eyes, "He was different though, softer, not such a boor. I don't know why I took the job, my sixth sense told me to, I didn't even charge him for it, had to travel halfway across the earth kingdom to find his damn uncle. He had the man's shoe, you believe it? Grossed me out, but whatever, Nyla didn't mind. She doesn't discriminate between good and bad smells. So, I left them near the man, I didn't want to see him again, lest the pervert try to feel me up again. That's what he did the first time, Nyla hit me and Zuko with her tongue on accident, and I landed on top of the man, Iroh, and he put his arm around me and shit, and I was stuck like that for two hours! Claimed he was paralyzed, but he wasn't. I could tell by the way he was breathing that he had full use of his ribcage. Pissed me off. Pissed Zuko off too."
"Was he happy?"
"Zuko? No," June tapped her chin, "Not particularly. Seemed miserable. All burnt up and miserable both times."
Ursa bent her head, and it took June several seconds to realize that the woman was crying.
"You should visit the Palace, see him if you miss him."
Ursa looked down at her hands, "I shall be punished with both his and my death should I so much as look at him," She replied softly, "It is my cross to bear for the choice I made."
"What choice was that?"
"Is that your question?"
"No."
"Then I am not at liberty to discuss that. What is your question?"
"I'll ask it when I am ready!"
June growled, the woman was an enigma. For someone who's talent of persuading people to do her will had rocketed her to the top ranks of the order, she sure didn't talk much.
Plus, her tongue was a disappointingly normal color.
…
…
…
Mai stared up at the ceiling of her room, she had piled most of her cloths onto the bed and she still lay shivering under all the layers. She was regretting listening to Azula, they could be warm and comfortable in an inn somewhere in the Earth Kingdom by then, using false names and making contacts with the leaders of the resistance.
Instead she was shivering in the cold in the dark in the night. The Fire Nation was hot by day, but usually dropped sharply at night, and it didn't help that they were up on a mountain where the wind was whipping though the rocks. On top of that, part of Mai's wall was missing.
Enough was enough, she had broken her friend out, she was the one who should be calling the shots. Azula should be following her lead, gratefully!! Mai sat up, Azula should also be gratefully using her fire bending to keep her liberator warm.
The aristocrat slipped down the hallway and stopped at Azula's room, frowning, Azula would have warmed it up more, wouldn't she have? Mai pressed her hands to the door but no heat radiated outward, and she frowned, knocking. As long as Azula was keeping it warm under the covers, she didn't care.
There was no answer, so the goth knocked louder, calling her friend's name.
"Azula, open up, it's freezing."
Still no answer.
Mai pushed the door open. The room was empty. She ran to the bed and placed her hand in the sheets. They were still warm, Azula hadn't left long ago. Mai shrugged, the girl had probably gone to the bathroom or something. She slipped into her friend's bed, sighing happily at the lingering warmth.
Azula had left about a half an hour earlier, she had been staring up at the ceiling tossing and turning in her bed for hours. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't stop thinking about the Avatar. His soft skin, his terrified eyes, his screams. She licked her lips.
Getting up she had pulled on her leggings and the best fitting top that she could find and her boots. She swung her leg over the windowsill and slipped off into the night. She had seriously only meant to go for a walk to cool her nerves, but somehow she found herself at the outskirts of the capitol. She shook her head, the last thing that she remembered clearly was laying in bed and lusting after the boy.
Brushing it off, she slunk into the shadows, making her way through the sleeping city. Both her and Zuko were well trained in the arts of stealth, and she made it through all the guards posts without being seen. The Avatar had not even posted new ones or insisted they change their patrols. He was so delightfully inexperienced.
A few leaps, a scramble and a shimmy up a column and she swung herself up onto her old balcony. The doors were closed and locked, but Azula had snuck in and out of her room so much it only took a small wiggle from one of Mai's stilettos and the lock clicked.
She swung the door open and dropped to a crouch, falling into the shadow, and listened. The Avatar was breathing softly, curled up under the covers. He seemed so peaceful, and it made Azula frown. There was no aura of fear, no shivering, no tense muscles. He was not scared. It would be no fun if he wasn't scared. If he went straight from sleep to anger, the game would be wasted.
She wanted him to scream.
She leaned over the bed, her gold eyes glinting in the moonlight, and considered her options.
…
…
…
…
"No no, You're not maintaining your tuck."
Yeo and her friends were showing Katara the swamp bending dance that they did, and the water tribe girl was surprised how much work you had to do for such little movement.
"Now isolate your ribcage . . . no, you're hunching your shoulders forward, don't hunch, if you hunch, then you are wrong."
"What's the matter Water Tribe? Cant you concentrate?"
Katara shook her head, "Sorry guys, me and Zuko had a fight last night. I guess it's bothering me a lot." She sat down in the shallow water and rubbed her temples.
"What did y'all fight bout?" Yeo flopped down next to her.
"I don't know." Katara answered truthfully, "That I'm not his ex girlfriend maybe? That we're moving to fast maybe? That he is emotionally unstable? I don't know . . ."
"Psh!" One said, "Zuko can go suck dick, y'all can do better than him if y'all want to!"
"Shh!" scolded the one next to her, "Don' talk bout the Fire Lord like that!!"
Katara decided she really should learn these girl's names.
"'Tara?" They all spun, Zuko stood there, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Er, we's gotta go . . . help Due 'n Tho unload their raft." The girls quickly scrambled off, each of them giving Zuko a dirty look as they passed.
"Katara, I'm sorry." Zuko started as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Yea, I thought you might be." The old hostility in her voice was back, she hadn't talked to him with such venom since they had searched for her father's killer together.
"You and Aang . . ."
"Me and Aang have nothing to do with you and me." She shot back.
"But you, you guys are just taking a break, and, well, I shouldn't step into the middle." Zuko pinched his nose.
"You assume
Zuko looked down, "Is there something I can do to make it up to you?"
"Make it up to me?!" Katara raised her voice, was he high on swamp fumes?! "You want to make it up to me!!"
"Umm . . ." He shifted back and forth, wishing she wouldn't yell, everyone was starting to stare.
"Well, Why don't we go back and NOT go through the cave of two lovers . . . or, or why don't YOU explain to Aang what was wrong in my and his relationship, or . . . or . . ."
"Katara that doesn't make sense!" Zuko cut her off, raising his voice, "Why can't you be angry and logical at the same time?!"
"How I am when I'm angry is NONE of your business!! You don't even fight back half the time!! Are you that whipped?"
Zuko exhaled a lungful of smoke through his nose, "I'm not whipped!! YOU'RE scary when you get mad!!"
"Oh right!" Katara's hands went to her hips, and she glared up at him, "Like you're actually scared of me!! Big, bad Fire Lord scared of a 'water peasant'? You're just making excuses!!"
"Tell that to the Southern Raiders captain whose arms and legs you broke with your body bending that night!!" Zuko shot back, "I thought for a minute I had taken Azula on a mission, and not you!!"
"Don't compare me to your sister!!" Katara's face flushed, and the water of the lake began to ripple and splash with her arm movements.
"Well I WOULDN'T if you-"
"Shoot, Lee, what did y'all do for a tongue lashin' like that!!" Tho was wading towards them, apparently taking it upon himself to break up the fight before it went to blows. Or floods and fires.
"Yea, LEE, what did you do?!" Katara spat.
Zuko crossed his arms and glared, but didn't respond. Whatever he said would be wrong, he knew that much.
"Y'all know how we can settle this?" Tho cracked his knuckles, "A Swamp Skiin' throwdown."
"A what?" Katara was not impressed, "That's stupid, like, a race? How is that supposed to-"
"THROW DOWN!!" Tho insisted.
"FINE!" Katara threw up her hands in exasperation, "What do we do?!"
"Hey! I didn't agree to this!" Zuko complained as Tho grabbed his arm.
"DUE!! We Got ourselves a throw down!! What's the wager?!"
Katara stepped into the water, freezing it around her ankles and bending herself forward, surfing across the marshy water, "No wager, this is for payback."
"Ooh, them's fightin words!" Due looked delighted, and he shoved Slim out of his canoe, handing Tho two sticks of wood.
"Put these on yer feet!" Tho ordered.
Zuko looked down at the things, they were filled with mud and bugs, "No thanks, let's just say Katara wins."
"Y'all're backin out without even tryin?! That ain't manly!!"
"Oh, and I suppose providing her the opportunity to give me a pounding is manly?"
Tho raised an eyebrow, "What y'all do after ain't my concern."
"What! No! That's not what I meant!"
"Well Lee, Y'all should at least give her the satisfaction of finishing first." Tho's voice was dripping with suggestiveness. He put his arms around Zuko's chest and leaned back, hauling him up and ramming his feet into the disgusting sticky swamp skis.
Zuko felt a little nauseous as his toes squished in between something wriggling and something slimy.
"What's the hold up?" Katara surfed over on her ice board, her arms out as she balanced, floating on the water.
"Nothin! Just gettin' Lee all ready . . ." Tho shoved a rope into his hands.
Zuko glanced around, they were attracting quite a crowd. He wiggled his feet trying to yank them out of the skis. Tho clamored into the boat, and hollered something, the boat started to move. Quickly. Suddenly he found himself skimming out over the water, the skis keeping him on the surface. Zuko did what any fire bender would do in the same situation. He panicked.
"Bend your knees!!" he heard Due yell, and he struggled to comply.
Katara surfed up next to him, bending the ice board across the water, pacing him. She shot him a glare, daring him to fall. She made a hard turn in the water, splashing him with her board, then she had to jump to avoid a catgaitor.
" . . . Y'all want to keep your knees bent and your weight level, 'n when y'all fall, y'all wanna let go of the rope so ye don't get dragged. We'll come round an get ya, don worry." Due was explaining, as he hauled on the rudder.
"Wait, 'when' I fall?" Zuko shouted, "shouldn't it have been 'if' I fall?" He thought he was not half bad, if it wasn't the expression of pure psychological pain on his face, they would have assumed he had done this sort of thing before.
The Fire Nation was not too big on water sports though, and it took water benders to get a boat going fast enough to swamp ski.
"Keep yer knees toget'er!" Due yelled, "We're comin ta the first turn up ahead!"
Zuko panicked and lost his balance, and suddenly plunged into the swampy water. He let go of the rope and managed to kick back up to the surface, coughing, the wood strapped to his feet weighing him down greatly.
"Y'all can do better than that!" Tho was bending the boat in close, "Y'all're Fire Nation."
Katara chewed her lip, trying to look innocent as he glared at her. She melted the ice she stood on and stepped into the canoe, then reached out her hand to help him climb in. It was sort of a half hearted peace offering.
Zuko grabbed it and his expression changed to an impish smile.
"Oh don't you dare-" Was all that Katara managed to get out before he hauled on her arm, pulling her off the boat and into the water with a satisfying splash.
Her head broke the surface and she spluttered for a second before bending her neck forward and flipping her plastered hair back off her face, splashing him and Tho. She glared at him, then bent a splash over him.
He bent a blast of fire, and all the water around them tuned to steam.
Due and Tho were in hysterics, apparently the simple things in life were the funniest to them.
"I can't believe y'all fell for that there trick, Katara!"
"t's the oldest one in the book! Y'all shoulda seen yer face there!"
"Yea well," Katara grabbed the side of the canoe and with a huge frog kick, pulled herself up, "He can get in by himself then." She propped her leg back up on one of the seats and raised an eyebrow at the Fire Lord expectantly.
Apparently, getting into a canoe in water that was over your head with skis on your feet was a lot more difficult than it looked. Due, Tho and Katara were soon laughing again, their boat rocking back and forth in the water as the fire bender tried to pull himself in. Finally after seven or eight tries, Due took pity on him and grabbed the Fire Lord's forearm and helped haul him in.
"Don' feel bad, Lee, thers a technique ta it." he informed him, "Ya gots ta kick an' haul at the right times, else the boat floats off wi'out ya."
"Y'all ready for round two?!" Tho asked excitedly as he and Due bent the boat towards the shore.
"Round two?" Zuko shook his head, there was no way in hell he was doing that again.
"Yea! Ya gotta be able ta stay on yer feet if ya wanna throw down."
Katara left him and the two swamp men squabbling over whether or not there was going to be a round two, and by the way they were shoving the unbeknownst to them Fire Lord's feet back into his skis, it looked like there would be. She found a place on the moss to sit down and watch the show, grateful that the fire bender at least was putting up enough fuss for nobody to have noticed that she had snuck away.
"'Scuse me." A voice said behind her, ""r ya Katara o the Water Tribe? Fire Lord Zuko's Companion?"
"Yes," Katara turned, looking at the speaker. It was a swamp priestess her hair long wavy hair was tied up in a knot, with pale skin and blue green eyes. She was also clearly pregnant.
"So, y'all know General Iroh?"
"Well, he isn't a general anymore." Katara said, dismissingly, "But yes, I do."
"Oh! Tha's great news!" The woman lowered herself to the moss, "M name 's Naj,"
"Nice to meet you Naj, how far along are you?" Katara asked, touching her own stomach for clarification.
"Oh! nearly five months." The woman winked, "Gon be a lil' girl, I can tell."
"Congratulations!" Katara grinned and clasped her hands together, other people's babies were definitely on her top ten favorite things ever list, "That's so exciting! Are you a new mom?"
The woman shook her head, "Naw, she 'as a lil brother too, 'ees five now, gon start trainin fer his bendin soon." The woman preened proudly, "I'll have ta introduce him to ya in a year or two fer schoolin, if the waterways lead us together again. But, I wana know, where ever did he end up settin up that teashop. Said somthin bout Ba Sing Se, something bout Omashu, an something bout the Fire Nation."
"Wait, you've met Iroh?"
"Yea, he came to visit tha swamp."
"Huh! He didn't say anything about it, though he didn't really know we were coming. Why did he come?" Katara watched Zuko wipe out again on the lake.
"We helped him find some indigenous herbs for making tea."
"When was that?"
"Oh, err . . . nearly five months ago."
Katara's jaw dropped.
"Don' look at me like that!!" Naj said, amused, "I's a grown woman! I can do as I please!"
Zuko was storming out of the water by then, seaweed tangled in his braids. He stormed over to Katara.
"The next time YOU want to go SWAMP SKIING, please PLEASE REFRAIN from ROPING ME INTO IT."
"Shhush!!" Katara hissed, shaking her hand, "So . . . so you're little girl is . . ."
"Mhm."
"KATARA!" Zuko grabbed her shoulder, turning her to face him, "Are you listening?!"
"Zuko! You have a new nephew!" Katara gushed, throwing her arms around him.
"Cousin." Raj corrected.
"Cousin." Katara repeated, delighted.
"Cousin?" Zuko asked, "What is she talking about? Is she stoned again?"
"No. I'm NOT." Katara hissed, "Zuko, Iroh came here for a visit several months ago, and . . . . and . . ." She clasped her hands together, "He is going to have a daughter!!"
Zuko stared at her stunned, stunned that he had a new relation, stunned that his uncle had a daughter, and stunned most of all by the fact that Katara was no longer angry.
Figures. He thought, rolling his eyes, but decided to quit while he was only a little bit behind.
…
…
…
…
"I luuuuve you guuuys." Ty Lee hiccupped, an arm around both Sokka and Suki. She leaned over and kissed Suki sloppily in the cheek. She giggled, then leaned the other way and kissed Sokka on his cheek.
"As your captain, I order you never to get into a drinking contest with a sailor who outweighs you by a hundred and fifty pounds!" Suki ordered.
"At least!" Sokka agreed, "And about a foot taller than you! You're barely five feet!"
"Aww, yoooure so f'unny! I'm five feet eeeveeen . . . leavin . . . heavin." Ty Lee squeezed both their heads into her chest, then lost her balance, knocking everyone to the ground.
"Oww . . ." Suki pushed the collapsed, intoxicated girl off of her, then scooped the smaller girl up bridal style, "Sokka, get the door."
Her boyfriend scrambled to comply, hauling Ty Lee's door open. Suki put the smaller girl down on her bed and started unlacing her shoes.
"Pillow f'ight!!" Ty Lee grabbed her pillow and hit Suki, her momentum taking her off the bed.
Suki held up her hands defensively, "Sokka! Will you grab her?"
"No! You should hit her back!" Sokka handed her another pillow.
"What?! I'm not going to- ooof!!" She got hit in the back of the head again, "Alright, it's on!!" She hit Ty Lee back, and the pillow exploded, showering them both with feathers.
Ty Lee squeaked and hit back, her pillow ripping as well. The air was suddenly full of feathers. Suki covered her face. Ty Lee sneezed hard.
And slammed into the wall.
The one six feet behind her.
"Oww . . . oo put a w'aaall there?" She mumbled before curling up on the floor and passing out.
"Suki, you're a genius!! A homoerotic genius!!" Sokka did a victory dance, and then kissed her happily. It always turned him on when she did something smart.
She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around him, smiling into his mouth as he groped clumsily along her waist. Sokka had never been the most tactful or graceful, but he was definitely improving.
Teasingly she bit his lip, her hands gripping the fabric of the back of his shirt. Sokka was eager to deepen the kiss, but she put a hand on his chest.
"Come on," She mumbled sullenly as their lips parted, "We aught to at least put her in her bed."
…
…
…
"Why are we stopping here?" June asked, "Ba Sing Se is great, but I thought you were in a hurry."
"Do you want to apprentice with Master Piandao or not?" Ursa slid off her mount.
"Yes." June replied sullenly, "But he lives in the Fire Nation, so I don't see why we need to stop here."
"I have an old friend I need to talk to about it." Ursa pulled up her hood, "Just wait here for me."
June sighed loudly, but slid off Nyla, patting the beast fondly, "Alright whatever."
"And don't get drunk."
"What?! No! You can't tell me what to do in my down time." June glared at the back of the woman's cloak.
"Surely the best bounty hunter in the earth kingdom could go an hour without a swig of alcohol."
June grumbled, securing the mounts to a pole and then watched the older woman steal off towards the rock trains that spiderwebed the city.
"I can go as long as I want without a drink." June informed Nyla, who buzzed back, bumping the young woman's hand with her nose.
"That's what I thought." June said, sitting down with her back to the wall to wait, annoyed. They could put at least two more hours between them and Ba Sing Se. It didn't make sense, there was no reason to stop and figure out her payment before hand.
June glanced down the street again, then stood and walked over to her employers ostrich horse. She flipped open the saddlebags and rummaged around inside. A comb, a picture of her children, a change of cloths, nothing interesting. She stepped around to the opposite side and looked, a dagger, a flower, and a letter. Score.
She opened the letter, her eyes skimming over it's contents. Nothing she didnt know already, except for the last bit.
Since you were the one who protected her from execution, you will be the one to take care of her now. Clean up your mess, Ladyslipper.
Do not contact the Fire Lord.
Do not contact The Puppetmaster.
Do not interfere with any Order business. We understand you love your son, but if you do, you will be executed.
You have been warned.
The Sirens
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
All right, Chapter 16, you were fun.
…
…
Ok, so today somebody asked me if I was a free mason. Is that random or what? I thought it was all ironic because I was looking up stuff on them to loosely inspire the Sirens.
Which brings me to my next point, Ursa and the Order, I have gotten some questions on that. The Ursa that talks to Azula is a hallucination; she exists only in Azula's head. She is not Ursa's ghost.
The Sirens are not like the White Lotus, the higher up members each have a token name they use instead of a real name. Due to the nature of the things they have their fingers sunk into, a certain degree of secrecy, even from other members in necessary. Ursa's is an orchid, particularly a ladyslipper, and that is how she is referred to. June is not high enough in rank to have a codename. Yet.
More will be unfolded as the story goes along, if there is any burning questions, feel free to ask.
…
…
…
Ok, I got another great fanart, this time from Tempest-in-Blue
http : / / tempest-in-blue dot deviantart dot com / art / 48-Dance-Midsummer-Zutara-98534354
The clickable links on my profile. You all should check it out!! Zuko has BRAIDS!
How awesome is that?
See you all on the flipside!