Yeah, this chapter is called Day Tripper, as you can see, like the Beatles song. I did that on purpose (I've had "Beatlemania" for the past two weeks so excuse me if there are references).

Gyatso and Kara: Prodigies of an Avatar

Chapter 35- Day Tripper

Meanwhile, Topaz made her way to the ballroom acting incognito-looking at the ground, walking in the corners-but Gyatso could see her from a mile away in complete darkness if he had to. The boy detached himself from Rika subtly and walked up to her silently.

"Topaz, what are you doing here?" He asked walking besides her as she started for the door out of the ballroom.

"What a warm welcome from my long lost friend! And how are you this evening, Gyatso?" Topaz screamed in a whisper sarcastically.

"I am-"

"Great? Good for you, Gyatso. I'm gonna go outside." Topaz interrupted attempting to push the doors open with a grunt. Gyatso stopped in his tracks, staring at her. He had forgotten how strong she was for such a delicate looking girl (he often thought of her as a porcelain doll). Her muscles bulged as she took a great breath and pushed violently, but without a sound.

"Topaz."

"Not now, Gyatso."

The boy stood back, rolling his eyes at her stupidity. The door was locked from the outside so that nobody could interrupt late night training sessions, and impossible to open, but Topaz wouldn't hear him out, so he didn't utter another word.

She pushed once more, realizing that the door was locked, and collapsed against the door with sweat dripping down her nose. Gyatso knelt down next to Topaz with an "I warned you" sort of sigh, which earned his a soft hit on the chest. Nevertheless, she was disappointed with herself, but not in the way that one would think. Her face was paler than usual and her cheeks weren't their usual rosy pink, but dark red-she looked as if she were about to cry.

"Topaz, c'mon, you can just go around." Gyatso said gently, trying to cheer her up.

"No, I'm not angry that I can't get the door open-it's the principle, not the action."

"I'm not following-what do you mean by that?"

"I am an Earth-bender, I should be able to break through walls and move mountains-literally. I can't, though, I just can't. I've lost my touch." Topaz sighed, leaning back in shame.

Gyatso switched his kneeling position to a sitting one and put his arm around her, which he rarely did. Seeing her like that crushed him.

"You haven't lost your touch, Topaz; you're just out of practice. Nothing to worry about . . . as soon as we get to Ba Sing Sei, I promise you that I'll practice with you when we get the time."

"That's okay Gyatso, I just need something to trigger the Earth-Bender in myself . . . okay, this is getting weird-you can get off now, I'm done being depressing." Topaz chuckled moving away from Gyatso and standing up.

He got up with her, and decided to walk with her outside to make sure that she wouldn't have any trouble, not that she wouldn't be able to handle herself. Slowly, as they walked, he started to realize that she had changed, but for the better. She smiled more than she used to, probably because she had so many witty jokes that wanted to come out, and her facial features were softer than they used to be.

"What are you staring at?" Topaz interrupted Gyatso's thoughts pointedly. She placed her hands on her hips awaiting some smart answer from him.

"Don't get angry, I was just looking at your face." Gyatso sighed casually turning the corner in the hallway to get to the courtyard.

"My face?" Topaz asked with an odd sense of fear and embarrassment. Why the heck would he stare at her face-and not even think that she would take offense to it?

"Yes, your face. You look different; I was just mentally taking a picture of you so that I won't forget your face like I did before." Gyatso said looking down, his cheeks a little red. That was not something that he liked sharing to anybody-even Iroh.

"Do you take mental pictures of Kara and Kyoshi?" Topaz asked with a slightly innocent undertone. It was the kind of innocent tone that one used when they were nervous about the answer.

"Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It depends on how they look that day. When I found out that Kara was Kara, I took a picture, and when Kyoshi came out tonight, looking really pretty, I took a picture."

"Why did you take a picture of me just now?"

"Um. . . you were having a rare moment. It's not common to see you in an 'after sadness' expression, I wanted to remember."

"Hmm. . . Scratch going outside," Topaz said, stopping Gyatso by pulling on his arm. "I want to show you something."

The girl led him in the opposite direction, towards the sleeping quarters quickly, not even explaining what she wanted to show. When they finally got to the quarters on the women's side of the base, Gyatso stopped in his tracks. He was not supposed to be anywhere close to there.

"Topaz, I can't really be here."

"Don't worry, rules were made to be broken-especially here, now come in my room with me."

He still was not convinced.

"Topaz, I'm still not sure about this. What if my mom or brother wakes up?"

"Trust me, she won't-plus, it's not like we'll be doing anything that we have no business doing. Come on, Gyatso," Topaz said, opening the door to let him in. "Live a little." She winked.

"You winking is not going to make me feel any better." Gyatso whispered wearily as he walked into the large room nervously. Topaz followed him, soon after, running to the drawer next to her bed. When she looked behind her, she was surprised not to see Gyatso sitting in a chair or relaxed somewhere, but still standing stiffly at the door.

"Gyatso . . . sit down." She said with an airy laugh, patting her bed softly.

"There?" He asked taking a step forward.

"Yeah, Gyatso, sit there. I promise I won't bite you . . . yet."

"That's not funny." Gyatso whined, slowly walking to the bed before taking a seat on it. The bed was soft for such an old thing and it was clean, too.

"Alright, I have something to show you." Topaz said with a smile as she jumped, cross-legged onto the bed with a neatly stacked set of papers in her hands. She gave them to Gyatso gingerly with a small, but prideful smirk on her face.

"What are these?"

"My drawings."

Gyatso placed the pictures on Topaz's pillow and lay down on the bed to look at them better. The first drawing was one of Kuzon and Katara sleeping next to one another. It was impeccably drawn, looking real, almost. Topaz even drew the small line of drool coming from Kuzon's mouth. The next picture was, surprisingly, of TWS standing upright, with his teeth shown looking like he was about to bite someone. Topaz and TWS didn't get along at all, he had tried to bite her many times and she had dumped jugs of water on him in revenge, so she usually stayed her distance away from him. The white and grey fur on his back stood up, as if he were frightened and ready to defend himself, and his green eyes which were shaded black and grey looked as fierce as his position. The last drawing that Gyatso looked at before putting the stack down was one of himself. It was a casual picture; he was sitting on Appa looking as if he had just released a deep breath. His eyes were focused on the sky, but only half opened like he was in the middle of closing them because of the sun.

"When did you draw that picture of me?" He asked sitting up to see Topaz.

"We had just met up again and you weren't paying attention to me staring at you. . . I take pictures in my head, too."

"You're good," Gyatso laughed, thinking about the picture. "Really good."

"Thanks, man. I don't really show people my work, so I appreciate." Topaz sighed with a small smile.

She was about to say more when the doors to the room opened with Kara, Kyoshi, and Rika behind them, coming into the room. They were talking to each other, but as soon as they saw Gyatso sitting with Topaz, they stopped cold.

"Gyatso, you are not supposed to be here." Kyoshi said in the way that Katara would if she were awake. She placed her hands on her hips and leaned over, making herself look motherly.

"Yeah, Gyatso, what are you doing here?" Rika asked with a growl. She already didn't like Topaz, but seeing her with Gyatso made her hate her.

"I was, uh," He looked at the drawings and slyly placed them under Topaz' pillow. ". . . Topaz was showing me something."

"Showing you what?" Rika pressed on, becoming green with jealousy.

"None of your business!" Topaz yelled, having enough. She stood up, jerking Gyatso up with her.

Kara, seeing a potential fight brewing, decided to intervene.

"Okay, why don't you guys just agree to disagree . . . please?"

"Yeah, let's go with that." Gyatso sputtered out, attempting to run out of the room. Topaz stopped him, though, for she really wanted to get Rika pissed off.

She took Gyatso's hand, pulled him close to her, and gave him a huge hug that did exactly what it was supposed to do-make Rika even more uncomfortable. To top the extra long hug off, Topaz went on her toes and gave Gyatso a long kiss on the cheek that not only made Rika angry, but Gyatso red as well. When Topaz finally let go of the boy that she used to make her enemy jealous, she did something even worse.

"Thanks, Gyatso." Topaz said with a flirtatious wave in the girliest tone that she could as Gyatso ran out of the room.

"Wow." Was all that Kara could say when Topaz jumped on her bed once more and began to draw Rika's facial expression when she kissed Gyatso.

I quite liked that, actually (as George Harrison would say). You need to hear the song Day Tripper after reading this and it will make a lot of sense. I finally added some drama, so that's awesome and all, but how do you guys feel about the way that the fic is going. I have not forgotton about plot arcs and stuff (like the whole Aang is dead thing-you just watch, it'll all make sense) and I know that I said that there will be some action. Here's what I say now. . . EXPECT IT! Review and all.

God Bless,

Leelee488512