A/N: I realized that I forgot to include a disclaimer last time, so: I do not own Avatar or FMA. As much as I wish I did, I don't. And for those of you who are curious, Ayonn speaks Japanese due to Avatar's Asian culture and the fact that Japanese is the only Asian language I know. In FMA, things are written in English, so I thought it made more sense to have them speak English all the time.
Lieutenant Hawkeye fell into step beside her superior officer. Colonel Mustang didn't break stride as he asked, "Well?"
He was genuinely curious about the girl, he realized with surprise. She interested him in a way few others did – as a new puzzle to be solved, another challenge to overcome. He'd never even met her.
"She doesn't speak our language," his lieutenant said. "It isn't Ishvalan, either. Her name is Ayonn." Hawkeye hesitated before delivering the last piece of news. "She's blind."
Mustang stopped. Blind – he hadn't even considered that she might be handicapped. He had simply been focused on finding her. She was more of a puzzle than a person.
He spun on his heel.
"I want to go see her."
She looked so frail, lying in the pristine bed. The girl was just a waif. Her hair was clean and brushed, if near-invisible against the white sheets. But she sat up as he approached – almost as if she could see him coming. He stood at the end of her bed and tucked his hands behind his back.
"Suwatte kudasai," she said, gesturing to the chair. Lieutenant Hawkeye was right – the words coming out of her mouth belonged to no language he knew. He shook his head, and she shrugged.
"Are you sure she's blind?" he hissed. Riza nodded.
Now that he looked more closely, he saw that her eyes didn't flit around the room. She didn't react to expressions. He tapped his foot on the ground. She cocked her head.
Either she was blind or extremely adept at faking it.
She stared up at the ceiling. "Hoshiimono wo itte," she murmured. "Matawa watashi wa naru mama ni." Turning over, she expressed her disinterest in the clearest way possible.
Snubbed by a blind girl.
Mustang left.
Edward was thrilled, for some strange reason, to hear that the mysterious girl was being released from the hospital. He was even happier to hear that he would be in charge of her while she was at headquarters. He told Al everything he knew about her, down to the recently-learned fact that she was blind.
When she came up the stairs that first day, he ran down them to take her hand. She brushed him off but smiled anyway. He knew she wasn't offended.
The first interesting thing was when she stopped and rapped the wall with her knuckles. She tilted her head, eyes going wide, then pivoted to face Al. She pointed at him. "Karappo," she whispered.
Ed laid her hand in Al's. "Al," he said slowly.
"Konnichiwa, Al." She placed her hand on her chest. "Ayonn."
The second was when she tried to explain what had so startled her. "Karappo," she insisted, pointing toward Al. When Ed shrugged, trying to say that he didn't understand, she huffed and stormed off. He followed her. She moved through the compound like she had been born there, like she knew exactly what she was looking for and where to find it. She walked into the mess hall and picked up a cup, holding it out to show Edward. "Karappo."
He looked at it, then laid his hand on top of hers, indicating the cup. "Cup."
She shook her head. "Un, kappu." She closed her eyes for a moment, then walked over to the sink. She made a strange motion with her hands and water poured out – just a little stream, enough to fill the cup. The girl pushed the full cup toward him. "Furu."
"Yes, it's full," Ed said impatiently. Was she hurt in the head?
"Full, un," the girl said. "Ima–" She poured the water out. "Karappo."
Ed nodded, thrilled at the breakthrough, forgetting she couldn't see him. "You mean empty!"
She cocked her head.
He slowed his words down. "Empty."
She nodded. "Karappo."
How had she known that Al was empty? he wondered. Most people couldn't tell unless his helmet was knocked off. The girl was strange, but insightful.
Ed wondered suddenly if he should be afraid of her.
Ayonn had known instantly that something was off when she felt the metal suit. At first, she pegged it as a decoration…and then it had moved. Moreover, the boy she had run into had introduced her. "Al," he had called it. She had introduced herself in return, then tried to point out to the short boy that the Al suit was empty. Ayonn wasn't familiar with the rules of this place, but she was fairly sure that bending the metal away was bad manners anywhere.
She had explored the complex with the boy and the Al suit – well, once she'd stormed off to find a cup. Empty was a simple concept. The boy shouldn't have had so much trouble with it. She'd been forced to demonstrate empty and full. In his defense, he'd understood once she'd used the cup.
This was such a strange place. Metal suits walked and talked and no one seemed to think it odd; no one spoke the same language she did. No one was a bender.
No one seemed to realize she was the Avatar.
When the Lieutenant woman arrived to take her back into custody, Ayonn bowed her head and went. She liked Lieutenant, after all, and the woman had been nothing but kind to her. In addition, her heart beat and her pulse was even – Lieutenant was substantial. Not like the Al suit, which had deeply unnerved her.
Lieutenant didn't drop Ayonn in a cell. Instead, she guided her to a Satomobile and placed her in the backseat. Ayonn hated Satomobiles (everything moved too quickly, and if you focused on the vibrations you got sick), but she didn't think this was the right time to mention that. Instead, she focused on bending a small flame in her palm, trying to make ripples she could feel in the air.
The Satomobile jolted to a stop. Lieutenant got out, and Ayonn extinguished her flame. She rapped the wall next to her and listened to the vibrations, then found the door handle and climbed out. She nearly missed hitting Lieutenant in the face.
Lieutenant took a firm hold on her arm and walked her up to a flight of stairs. Ayonn stuck close. She could feel the hearts pumping behind the walls, could hear the foreign words carried on slight currents of wind and feel the vibrations through the floor. It was a matter of ignoring things, she knew. She'd never had her sight; in exchange, she'd gained three more senses. Sometimes it was overwhelming.
She let her mind slip into meditation, building up walls to keep out the messages air held for her. People and vibrations – well, she would rather know what was happening than blind herself completely. Lieutenant led her into a small room made of wood, letting her arm go. Ayonn took a step, rapped the wall, and scowled. Wood, she remembered, carried none of the properties of earth – she really was blind here.
Ayonn fumbled her way back to Lieutenant's heartbeat, barking her legs on a shin-high table in the middle of the room. She sharpened her awareness of Lieutenant, focusing on the outline the blood made as it traced through her body. Where Lieutenant stepped, Ayonn stepped. When the older woman whirled around, so did she – until she realized that there was no other heartbeat in the room.
The barked command was for her. And while she didn't understand it, Ayonn was sure enough of what it meant that she scuffed her way back to the little table. There, she sat down and started to meditate. Maybe, if she could just get in touch with her past lives – if she could get to the Spirit World – she would understand how she got here; maybe she would understand how to go home.
Riza felt bad for shouting at the girl earlier. She was sitting by the table now, eyes closed and hands pressed together. Carrying a bowl of rice over to her, Riza touched the girl's arm. She wasn't as aware as she had been earlier – Edward had mentioned that she'd successfully navigated her way to the mess hall and found a cup without any apparent difficulty. Now she only seemed to register Riza, not the surroundings.
Her hand found the bowl easily, and the chopsticks were apparently a welcome surprise. "Ohashi," Ayonn informed Riza. Riza found herself smiling.
"Chopsticks," she replied.
Ayonn patted the table. "Teeburu."
"Table."
She stood up. "Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, anata wa ishi wo motte imasu ka?"
Riza frowned. It was a question, clearly, but the words were unfamiliar. Ayonn waved her arms, frustrated, and the tea in Riza's cup swirled around. A stiff wind started to blow, swirling around the small apartment. Riza jumped, putting down her tea and backing away from the table.
Realizing the effect she was having, Ayonn stilled herself. "Ishi," she murmured. "Ishi…" The blind girl stood up and shuffled across the room, sliding her feet carefully in front of her. She walked into Riza's kitchen.
"Hey!" Riza said. "Get out of there!"
Ayonn ignored her, opening cupboards and digging through them by touch. She found the cupboard containing Riza's cutting boards. The girl pulled out the only stone object in the entire kitchen, shuffling back into the living room and sitting down at the table, muttering triumphantly, "Ishi dess."
Spinning the tablet toward Riza, Ayonn pressed her palm into it. Riza felt her eyes widen as the girl pulled her hand away, leaving a handprint in a solid piece of stone. "Chikyuu mage," Ayonn said in an explanatory tone. She passed her hand over the surface and it returned to normal.
"Okay, then," Riza said dazedly. "Whatever chikyuu mage is, I'm impressed."
Ayonn smiled and held out her hand, lighting a small flame. This time Riza scrambled away as the girl named what she was doing: "Kasai mage."
She demonstrated control over air and water (well, it was tea, but Riza suspected it was meant to show water), naming them ea mage and mizu mage, respectively.
Riza scribbled the names down, meaning to show them to Mustang later.