Brothers Avatar

The Legend of Two Avatars

Book 1 – Family

Chapter 13 – The Belligerence of Romance

Taresc rolled in his sheets; it had been weeks since the last time he slept in a genuine bed with sheets and pillows. It was just about the best sleep he had ever had, finally getting through the hardest three days he had ever been through. Last night they reached Mudide, a large city with a giant coliseum in the middle. He never wanted to leave his bed; it was the first time that he could just sleep in and relax. He casually opened his eyes and saw that he was back in the fray, "Good morning, sleepyhead!" Lozulia yelled.

Taresc jumped to sit up and cover himself, "What are you guys doing in here?" Lozulia and Ibera stood in his room, excitably waiting.

"We're here to watch you sleep, duh." Ibera said, "It's absolutely riveting; you went from fetal position to soldier position and back to fetal position in a matter of hours, I nearly fainted from the action."

Taresc looked highly concerned, "We were waiting for you to wake up because we need your help." Lozulia said.

"What are you trying to do?"

Lozulia and Ibera looked to each other and said simultaneously, "We're setting up Pio and Xulo."

Taresc rubbed his eyes, "You're setting up Pio and Xulo?" Taresc looked confusedly at Ibera, "I thought you and Xulo had something going?"

"Where'd you get that notion?"

Taresc lurched back, "A vibe, I guess?"

"Not at all." Ibera touched his finger to his lip, "Xulo doesn't have that thing I'm quite looking for."

Lozulia jumped on his bed, "So! Are you going to do it?"

"Why do you think they'd be good together and more importantly why do you care?"

"Did you not see them yesterday?" Ibera pointed out, "Pio was getting all supportive and stuff with him and Xulo smiled at him. Smiled!"

"Xulo smiles at me all the time." Taresc remarked.

"Cus you guys got some weird eternal-bond shit going for you." Ibera said, "And as for why we're doing this…"

"We are bored beyond comparison!" Lozulia projected onto the world. "So are you going to help us or not?"

Taresc twiddled his thumbs, "Yeah, I guess." Ibera and Lozulia gave each other a high five, "I'm confused as to why you need me?"

"Well you're the closest to him and Minege already turned us down; said she had other matters to attend to." Taresc's face said a sarcastic thanks for him, "What? You were sleeping, we didn't wanna wake you up!" Lozulia pleaded, "And if this operation is going to be pulled off correctly, we'll need an inside operative on Xulo's side."

Taresc had no clue where this was going but he decided he might as well go along for the ride, "Pio and Xulo… let's do this."

Taresc led Xulo through the busy streets of Mudide, "Where are we going, Taresc?"

"Well, you've been training all day and I thought that we should get some dinner." Taresc dodged and swerved through oncoming residents, "I got us reservations for tonight at this great place, in fact, I think we're about here."

They stood outside an outdoor restaurant with two levels and candle lit tables. "This looks awfully fancy, Tare."

Taresc went up to the hostess and gave his reservation, "Well we are talking about Avatar issues, might as well go for the best." The hostess led them through the tables until they reached a table already occupied by Pio and Ibera. "Ibera!"

"Taresc, what a surprise." He got up and gave him a hug, "What are you doing here?"

"Well…" Taresc folded his hands, "I was going to take Xulo out for dinner but now that I've found you… there's this spirituality problem that I've been wrestling with all day."

Ibera feigned shock and surprise, "You don't say, Taresc. Well I did grow up in the Western Air Temple, so I'm sure I could help you." He interlocked arms, "Let's go somewhere quieter."

Pio stood up, "Wait, we were just in the middle of talking about fighting strategies…"

Taresc turned around, "And I was going to take Xulo out for dinner…" he scratched his head, "Wait, why don't you and Xulo have dinner, talk it up, while me and Ibera handle my spirituality problem."

Before either of them could object, Taresc and Ibera were on their way, "Have a wonderful meal! The bill's taken care of." Ibera yelled. As soon as they were out of sight they run up to the second level to join Lozulia in spying on the potential lovebirds.

"Good work, boys." Lozulia said leaning over the railing. The second level was right above the ground level, with a large hole in the middle so Taresc, Lozulia and Ibera could spy on the couple.

They sat at the table, "How's it looking down there?" Taresc said.

She gestured for them to join in peering over the siding, "Come look for yourselves." They did so and saw that they just finished giving their order to the waiter.

"You picked the halibut, good choice." Pio said.

Xulo shrugged, "It's simple, I like simple. All the other choices on the menu looked like they were describing a piece of art or something."

"Speaking of artistry," Pio sipped some of his drink, "I'm assuming you exhausted your day in polishing your bending?"

Xulo chuckled, "You got me, I'm trying to perfect this move I can up with where I jump into the air with airbending and then glide by with firebending, raising hell on whoever is below me."

"That sounds enthralling, have you mastered it?"

"Not yet, I get into the air but when I use my firebending, I just end up propelling myself into the dirt." He laughed and Pio laughed right behind him.

Pio leaned in, "By the way, what do you think Taresc and Ibera are actually doing?"

Xulo laughed from his core, "Frankly, I think they're doing it back at the inn." Pio erupted in laughter.

Taresc and Ibera looked at each other in alarm, Lozulia wasn't as shocked, "Honestly 'helping with a spiritual problem' sounds like a really holy way of saying 'doing each other nasty.'"

"That's swell, I'm going to greatly enjoy our awkward tension tomorrow, Taresc." Ibera's face drooped down, "At least things are going really well down there."

"I know, they are hitting it off like moth to a flame, but less burning up and dying." Lozulia said.

"It's going much better than I expected, I'll admit." Taresc leaned back in his chair, "I guess they're going to make it through—" Taresc looked over the railing, "Oh no."

"Oh no what?" Lozulia said.

Ibera said, "Yeah what?"

"My big fear is happening," They all looked over the railing, "The flirting portion of the night."

"So, uh, I- I like your shawl." Xulo looked down into his drink.

Pio saw an opportunity for a joke, "What's a shawl, we don't have those in the swamp!" The joke fell flat and Xulo felt ashamed in teasing Pio, "…Thank you… I- I know what a shawl is now."

The team above cringed at the silence that followed, "So, I think that you" Xulo cleared his throat, "are a very good waterbender and teacher."

"That's very laudatory." Xulo felt more shame as he didn't understand the meaning, "Flattering, it means… uh, flattering." Pio rubbed his neck, "So when that halibut coming?"

Xulo began running his finger around the rim of his glass, "Yup."

"What is happening?" Lozulia freaked.

"I knew this wasn't going to work…" Taresc said

Ibera hit his arm, "Well you could've told me that before I laid down 5 gold pieces down on two separate meals." Ibera scooped up a dumpling off the table, "By the way, great choice in appetizers, Zules."

Lozulia slumped down face-first onto the table, "It was going so great before; why now is it falling apart?"

"They had things to talk about before. But once they realized that this was romantic and they wanted to hit on each other, it was over. Xulo has just about zero experience with romance; his closest encounter with another man was old Mr. Siqiy in Dayue trying to hit on him."

"Ahhhh, classic Siqiy move." Ibera remembered fond memories, "That explains it, though. Swampy down there grew up in a swamp for goodness sake." Ibera stared down at the awkward trainwreck that was happening down below, "His only job in the swamp was to keep people away and he is doing a superb job of displaying it right now."

Lozulia held her hand on her head, "Why do they have to be so awkward…" Lozulia looked over as well, "They're probably in their heads right now thinking how they've both ruined it and how the other one probably hates them now."

Taresc grabbed for a dumpling, "The dating scene is a foreign world for them, there's no way of saving this." He took a bite out of the food.

"Is it over?" Lozulia asked, "Are they destined to tiptoe around each other and never date because they're both romantic klutzes?"

Taresc thought as he bit into the dumpling again, "Maybe not…" Lozulia was curious, "I think we just need to get them in a more comfortable situation than a restaurant, that's all."

"Well, do you have any amazing ideas, genius boy?" Ibera said reaching for his drink.

Taresc took a flyer out of his shirt, "This."

Xulo read the flyer, "You want Pio and I to do this?" He read the print on the flyer.

Pio grabbed the piece of paper, "2 vs. 2 Tag Team Tournament, winner gets a grand prize of twenty gold coins. One gold piece to enter and one gold and a silver to enter late." Pio looked up from his paper, "Are we that in-need for coins? We don't want to keep Hintrichi waiting."

"Yes." Ibera looked stone-faced at Pio, "We do need the coins."

"Well, why us?" Xulo said.

Ibera unwillingly said, "Because you two are our best benders, that's why!" Ibera plastered his face with a delighted smile.

Lozulia began pushing the two contenders, "Just head to the coliseum!" Pio began sputtering, "It's the big stone thing in the middle of town, Pio."

Taresc yelled, "Maybe stick with earthbending Xulo, we don't need any disqualifications based on your… 'condition.'" Xulo held his thumbs up as he walked away.

"We'll be watching, kids, put on a show or don't come back alive!" Ibera yelled and threw a gold coin for Xulo to catch. "Let's get to the stands, I want to see this."

Taresc, Lozulia and Ibera walked down the main street towards the giant stone coliseum in the middle of Mudide. Xulo and Pio waited silently in line as the others went through the spectator entrance. As they got into their seats, the whole arena was displayed in front of them; it wasn't anything truly special, just a barren field with two fountains of water to accommodate the waterbenders. The fights began after a bit of waiting, no Xulo and Pio however.

"This is a good idea, Taresc." Lozulia said.

"I realized that with them fighting together, they'd be speaking fluently in the same language and in some way they'd be able to communicate better than they possibly could with words." Taresc said.

"Flirting with their fists…" Ibera said, "That'd make a good novel, I feel." Ibera pondered on that thought.

Lozulia quieted them, "Wait, guys look!" Their attention switched to the battlefield where Xulo and Pio were walking out, "It's Pio and Xulo."

"Still recovering from last night it seems." Ibera noticed their awkward demeanor, they walked out and you could barely tell that they knew each other. "Let's hope they don't start fighting each other in the middle of the match."

The boys were faced with a boy and a girl, the look in their eyes said that they were willing to do anything for that gold. They all got into their fighting stances, waiting for the gong to tell them to start. Pio stared deeply into the girl's eyes and Xulo looked into the man's.

The gong rung and the fight was on. Xulo and Pio ran at their individual opponents. The girl revealed that she was an earthbender and Pio took charge. The girl tried to chuck boulders at him but shot ice spikes through each one. Pio shot his ice faster than she could send her rocks, soon while she was in the middle of kick up some earth, Pio blasted her with a torrent of water. At she laid on the ground, Pio froze her ankles and arms to the ground.

Xulo was equally devastating his earthbending opponent. The man tried skating over to Xulo. Xulo was unimpressed by his strategy and easily used his bending to trip up the man. The man came flying in Xulo's direction, Xulo only held out his knee for his foe to bash his chin onto it and the crowd winced once it happened. As the man rolled around in pain, Xulo bent a pillar to throw him in the air and land right on his stomach, "You tapping out?" Xulo went over to the man, he nodded his face in the dirt.

The crowd screamed for Pio and Xulo as the gong crowned them the victors. "Yeah Xulo and Pio!" Lozulia screamed. Xulo turned around and waved to the rest of Team Avatar. "Did you see that, Tare?"

"Mhm." Taresc stared off unconfidently.

Lozulia was flailing her arms around, "They destroyed those amateurs, absolutely murdered them!"

"Mhm."

"I think Taresc's listening skills are a little dull right now, Zuli." Ibera said watching the next match commence. The fights continued for a long time, many people seemed to flock to Mudide for the grand prize. Fight after fight occur until Pio and Xulo got to fight again, and just like the first time they swept their competition. They quickly became a crowd favorite with their aptitude being extremely present. However Taresc's unending worry never diminished with their popularity or wins.

They reached Team Avatar's fourth match and Taresc couldn't hold it in, "This is horrible."

"HE TALKS?" Ibera said in surprise. "Good morning, sunshine."

Lozulia leaned over and stared at him in confusion, "Tare, do you need a quick eye rub? Because I think we aren't watching the same match."

"Take another look at the match," Taresc gestured for them to gaze at the battle. Xulo and Pio were fighting a waterbender and airbender, with relative ease they taking on their individual opponents.

"I don't see it," Ibera said, "I see Xulo showing a waterbender what's what and Pio is making that airbender regret coming into this competition. Even with those chumps working together, they probably couldn't take Team Avatar on." Taresc looked at Ibera, "Wait…" Ibera looked at the fight once again, "I see what you're saying now."

"I don't!" Lozulia stood. "Explain to me how tearing it up is such a bad thing."

"See how they're taking on their opponents individually." Lozulia looked, "They aren't working together at all and because none of these benders are strong enough, they don't have to. It's like they're in two different matches."

"And without working together, there's no flirting with fists." Lozulia sat back down.

Ibera made a sour face, "Maybe flirting with fists isn't so good. Playing with palms?" He shook his head, "Nope, also bad."

"If they had a worthy challenger they might have to play nice and rely on each other, but by the looks of it, we're not getting that." Taresc pouted and rested his head on his hands.

An idea popped into Lozulia's head, "Ibera, do you have a gold and a silver by any chance?"

"Yes, barely, but I do…"

Lozulia grabbed him by the arm cape, "Let's go then! Plans ahoy!"

Ibera protested as he was towed away, soon enough he was out of view and only Taresc and Woorq were there watching the fights. Taresc never really found fighting to be all that entertaining and watching Pio and Xulo overpower other contestants was even more boring. Time for the championship match was here and like the rest of the matches it was boringly unimpressive. They were up against two earthbenders again and like the last time, they were taken down with ease. Taresc sat back and sighed as he was certain his plan had failed, when the announcer announced, "Now for the Latecomer Arena. This round is for those who showed up late; they will compete against each other with hopes of getting the chance to fight against the champions of the normal arena. Now let the—" A man ran up to the announcer and whispered into the announcer's ear, "What? We only have one set of latecomers?" The man whispered again, "They all dropped out?" It seems like no one had confidence in going up against Pio and Xulo, "Well, in that case, it seems we have our champions of the Latecomer Arena!"

The crowd gave tepid and confused applause, "We now have the title match between The Normal Arena and Latecomer Arena!" The spectator cheered loudly for that. "Will the two sets of victors meet in the center of the ring."

Pio and Xulo walked out of their entrance, waving to their new fans, when they looked over to see their final competitors, they saw none other than Lozulia and Ibera. "Lozulia! Ibera!" Xulo said.

"Xulo! Pio!" Ibera said in completely aghast, "Hey kiddos, what are you doing here?"

"You sent us here!" Pio said, "Why exactly have you guys enrolled in this tourney?"

Lozulia clapped her hands, "Money!"

"This is good, I guess," Xulo said, "Neither of us needs to fight, one of us should just forfeit the match and we can leave with the prize money."

Ibera squinted his eyes, "You see… here's the problem…" Ibera pointed between him and Lozulia, "We want the money."

Xulo said, "What?"

"You heard the man!" Lozulia pounded her fist into her palm, "The coinage belongs to us for whatever we want to buy!"

Pio was flabbergasted, "What are you even talking about? The money should go towards supplies, medical supplements, scrolls for training, food, maps—" Pio listed off.

"Shoes." Ibera said, "I need shoes. When I win, I will be spending all of the gold on shoes, clothing and decorative hats for Woorq." Ibera waved to Taresc. "The Avatar's brother's pet parrot-toad has got to look presentable."

"My portion of the winnings will go Fire Nation infrastructural charities." Lozulia curtsied.

Pio whispered in Xulo, "We cannot let them triumph."

"If you want to forfeit, that'd be fine." Ibera looked at his fingernails.

Xulo nodded to Pio and turned to their comrades, "Good luck." Xulo smiled devilishly.

Ibera winked, "Save that luck for yourselves." They split and went to their separate sides of the arena. Taresc looked on in dread as the battle was about to begin. The fighters got into their stances, mentally preparing themselves for the fight ahead. The gong rung and the final fight began.

Pio and Xulo jumped into their usual tactic of divide and conquer, with Pio going for Ibera and Xulo going for Lozulia. Xulo began his attack by unleashing a volley of boulders at Lozulia. This had no effect on Lozulia, as she sidestepped and avoided each one with ease and—just to be cute—she stopped one with the brute force of her flames.

Pio was having such luck with Ibera. Pio took a wave of water from the fountain and bent it at Ibera like an aqua snake chasing its prey. Ibera simply floated around the arena as Pio madly attempted to hit him with his flow of water. Pio ran the water up and down the arena until Ibera decided to stop playing and come after Pio. Ibera ran straight for Pio and before he could stop his waterbending, Ibera swept his legs and Pio hit himself with his own water. "Am I too hard for you, Pio? Maybe you should head back to the swamp." Ibera taunted.

Pio flew into a rage; he bent the water out of the ground and additional water from the fountains and bent himself into the air with water. Pio wildly chased Ibera around the arena tossing shards of ice at him from atop his wave. With every throw Ibera caught one or two of the shards with his airbending. Pio was about to shoot another barrage of ice when Ibera turned around and tossed the ice right at his face with violent speed. As Pio very nearly avoided, Ibera jumped into the air and jumped right on Pio's dumbfounded head, sending him to the ground. While Ibera was in the air he sent a blast of air at Xulo, throwing him to the ground.

Lozulia saw this as her chance. She threw herself in the air with fire and jumped onto one of the many already thrown boulders. She jumped from one boulder to another and once close to the fallen Xulo, she flung herself forward and hailed him with fireballs galore. Xulo bent a weak shell around him to survive the fire. She landed on the shell and used her fire to heat the insides and get Xulo out. Feeling said warmth; Xulo launched Lozulia off of the shell and straight into the air. He began bending rocks to hit her on her descent, but Lozulia was able to gain control in the air with her firebending. With palms and feet ablaze, she rocketed down towards him, ready to dive-bomb him. Xulo threw more rocks, but she swerved between each one like she was a bird swooping on its prey. As she got closer, he attempted to bend a wall to protect him but not in time. Lozulia handed Xulo a blazing punching right into his face, knocking him to the ground in spectacular fashion. The crowd cheered when they saw it, but Taresc stared completely thunderstruck and worried for Xulo.

As Lozulia looked around she noticed Pio gaining an edge on Ibera, so she sent a well-timed fireball to disrupt his water and allow for Ibera to blow him backwards. "Avatars have gotten so shabby, even Avatar Niqan was better than this and he didn't realize he was the Avatar til he was 87!" Lozulia mocked.

The two of them stumbled to their feet, "She just compared you to Niqan." Ibera laughed, "Be embarrassed."

"I bet the two of you combined couldn't possibly take one of us on, let alone both of us." Lozulia hinted, "If you two are finished, Ibera and I are going to fight Woorq for a challenge."

Pio and Xulo looked each other in the eyes; somehow they just knew what they had to do. Pio and Xulo ran to each other's side and they began their round two. They switched targets, Xulo began sending rocks at Ibera, and Pio began shooting water at Lozulia. The Latecomers reacted accordingly; Ibera shot into the air and went straight for Pio, Lozulia created a globe of fire around her dissolving all water immediately. Lozulia was ready to discharge the fire when suddenly Xulo and Pio switched. When Lozulia was ready to throw her fire, she suddenly felt her ankles being shackled with earth. Ibera had no problem with dodging rocks, but as he zoned in on Pio, he was sent a giant screen of unavoidable ice. Ibera braced for impact as he crashed into the ice, falling to the ground.

With Lozulia distracted by her ankle situation, Xulo and Pio went after Ibera. Ibera groaned as he sat up to only see Pio and Xulo running at him. He rolled away as Xulo ran in for a punch. Ibera got to his feet and started fleeing around the arena. Suddenly Ibera blasted his way into the air and shot sharp waves of air down at the men below. Xulo responded by shooting Pio and bunch of boulders up at Ibera. With each boulder disrupting his shockwaves, Pio got closer until he was able to grab Ibera with a whip of water and toss him down onto the ground. Ibera slammed into the earth and Xulo ran to grab Pio from the air. Pio landed in Xulo's strong arms and looked into Xulo's stony eyes and between puffs of breath he said, "Thank you."

"No problem." Lozulia was staring off in the distance, quietly rejoicing in their job well done. Pio jumped out of Xulo's arms and they turned to Lozulia.

"I'm good." She raised her hands, "I forfeit."

The crowd simultaneously jumped to their feet after seeing such a display of bending, sure to make future 2 vs. 2 Tag Team Arena events pale in comparison. Even Taresc had to stand to congratulate his teammates. Pio and Xulo gave each other a hard, but warm hug as they saved their money from being spent on decorative animal hats. They released from each other and stared at one another, seeing things they had never seen before.

Taresc stood outside the arena, looking around for Lozulia and Ibera. Finally, Lozulia and Ibera came walking (mostly hobbling for Ibera) out of the arena. "Taresc!" Lozulia ran and flying hugged Taresc.

"Hey Loz." Taresc said. "That was your plan, huh?"

Lozulia nodded rapidly, "Yeah, great right?"

"Great for you…" Ibera said rubbing his side, "You didn't have to get the tag team pile driver treatment." He said bitterly.

Taresc nodded in agreement, "I didn't realize you guys were so good at bending."

Lozulia waved that notion away, "Pshaw, We're not thaaat great. We're just unpredictable which Pio and Xulo never had to handle before." Lozulia looked around. "Where are Pio and Xulo?"

"Well…" Taresc kicked up some dirt, "They went to collect their prize money and then Xulo started complaining about how his face hurt."

"Booyah! Lozulia Power." Lozulia took extreme pride in her damage.

Taresc continued, "Pio said that he could use his waterbending to heal the burn on his face. Pio said he needed quiet to concentrate, so they went off to a supply closet. 5 minutes in, Xulo bends a barrier to keep people out." Taresc looked dispirited.

"Ewwww… Gross." Lozulia said.

"They're just passionately kissing." Taresc said, "I listened."

"EWWW, you listened?" Lozulia's expression was queasy, "That's even grosser, Taresc." Taresc attempted to defend himself but only sputters came out, "It's okay, we're all a little bit of a freak. Some of us are just a little less incestuous than the rest."

Taresc squirmed in his spot when Ibera said, "Well looks like we succeeded, at whatever the cost: my cost." Ibera slid to the ground.

"Don't worry, I'll steal some of the coins for your purse, Ibera." Taresc said.

Ibera saluted Taresc, "Thank you kindly, sir."

As Taresc reflected on the day, he was happy that his brother was happy. But something didn't feel right; it was the same thing that was bothering him back at the end of the day of Cersiek's defeat. Something was decaying him from the inside out. Before, he could ignore it, but ever since Dayue it had been tugging at his heart. Taresc looked at Lozulia breezily tormenting Ibera on losing; he held his composure as Lozulia looked to him.

"Is there anything more embarrassing than losing to Pio, Tare?" Lozulia asked.

"Uh, me maybe?" Lozulia laughed and locked Taresc in the usual headlock. She said words but Taresc couldn't hear them. Taresc had no clue how long he'd be able to keep it together, he wanted nothing more than to make Xulo happy, but how could he do that if he wasn't happy? Onto Aurut repeated in his head until the bad feelings went away, because that's all that really matters. Onto Aurut, Taresc, onto Aurut.