"Are we there yet?"
Shin turned his head to face Li, frowning. "No." He said. His silent facial expression went further to remark that Li was stupid and should shut up, and sullenly, the impatient boy did.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there ye-"
"For your sake, Li, you better shut the hell up."
Casually, Li remarked how if only they were there yet, they'd be... um... there. Casually, Shin eloquently remarked his own thoughts by punching him.
"...Are we-"
"Finish that sentence; I dare you."
Li opened his mouth and thought better of it when he started smelling burnt hair.
They were traversing what Li felt was their hundred thousand millionth hill, when he could no longer contain himself.
"Shiiin," The blonde whined, "please, are we-"
The air suddenly got colder, and Li almost lost his hair to an actual fireball this time, and their journey was blessedly silent the rest of the way.
It's been weeks, and Li was absolutely sick of ration bars and the smell of the feces of his mongoose dragon and Shin's cheerless air and hills and fire that threatened to destroy his hair and oceans and seasickness and snow and the cold and...
"Shin..." The cautiously innocent seventeen-year-old braved to ask.
"Are we... you know... are we-"
"There yet?" Shin cut in, strangely affable.
Li blinked owlishly for a second, hardly believing his good luck. Then he scrambled to respond, not wanting to waste this opportunity.
"Yeah," He chirped. "I mean, we've been riding for ages now, and it's just I was thinking we should be there by now..." And Shin only spared him a short glance, before reaching the top of the mountain and pausing.
"It seems like you're right for once," He shrugged lightly, when Li reached his level to then gape at the sight of a lighted city twinkling a distance away. An ice-structured metropolis, the likes of which took breath away, and the two took the time to appreciate its beauty for a while.
"HA HA YES!" Li cheered. But as Shin continued riding and started leaving him behind, the excitable boy then realized something.
"Wait," Li frowned, furrowing a brow... "How are we going to approach them? I mean they'll probably attack us on sight or something..." The boy started to pale. "Shin? Shin!"
The air got even colder, even as it was the bloody North Pole, it couldn't possibly get colder- and Li shielded his hair. "We'll just wing it, I guess," Shin replied in as 'duh' a tone his emotionless voice could get. His expression went to further tell Li that he was stupid and he should shut up, and oh, Li just wanted to go home.
After several minutes of riding stealthily closer to the village, and seemingly not getting any closer... Li's bored and sorrowful and cold self suddenly had an idea.
"Shin, wait! I know of a shortcut!"
This grabbed the Avatar's attention. "A shortcut?" Shin prompted, betraying his own growing eagerness to finish the journey. More warily, though, because someone had to keep their head about themselves- "How exactly do you know a shortcut?" His tone turned wry and suspicious.
Li stilled, and the usually excitable boy seemed to wilt all of a sudden, and he loitered about in answering him. "Like, like Ming said, um..." His voice was still small after he cleared it. "I've been
here before."
Shin gave him an incredulous look for the answer- if it could even be called an answer- but he only got the feeling that Li would never budge on the topic, and then just relented. "You say this only now... why?" Shin grunted, but without real feeling. Still, all the Avatar wanted to do is find refuge from the blizzard and its unforgiving touch, and any shortcut Li knew of had to do. He dropped the matter, and gratefully gestured for his best friend to lead the way.
"I guess I'm not so useless after all." Li then grinned, shaking off his earlier misery and turning to another direction. "Follow me…"
Finally! Aika was thinking. As she ducked past another servant, barely escaping detection, the young Water tribe princess breathed a sigh of relief... I'm free! She almost dared to laugh, stifling her giggles just long enough to enter a secret tunnel, and almost, almost forgetting to close the entrance behind her in her euphoria.
She tiptoed, careful not to make a sound, treading on the snow in a stealthy manner. She wished that she could escape like this more often- the feeling of freedom from her duties thrilled her. She proceeded walking through the tunnel and when she was sure she was out of earshot, she started humming a happy tune amidst her skipping. "Snow is falling down down, to the very ground ground…"
She abruptly stopped singing once she heard footsteps coming from the other direction. Aika winced. She couldn't hide anywhere in the narrow passage, and her red hair would make her stand out on the spot. What was she to do?
Then the girl realized, slapping her forehead- who on earth would even know the tunnel? It was, perhaps the best-kept secret of the palace, known only to the royals and the guards as part of grim contingency plans, like if there was a coup or something and their servants couldn't be trusted, or...
The steps clattered a little louder, and Aika started panicking. It's just Cai, She tried to tell herself, she's finally wrangled herself out of the governess' watchful eye. Amira would be dutifully listening to the scary old bird, knowing her; but it could be her just coming to check on her too-
It could be a ninja intruder or something, Her mind couldn't help adding inventively. An assassin, breaking in, with a big sword and a scary frown and a really cute face...
Wait, what?
Dumbfounded, Aika could only stare as a raven-haired boy suddenly appeared in front of her. Nothing quite as scary as she imagined at all, actually- quite- quite- well, Aika had never seen a boy looking quite like that. Pale and dark-haired and she'd never seen such equally dark eyes either, a gray so dark it looked black...
"Shin, what-" A voice hollered from the corner the mysterious boy had come from, before a strangely familiar blonde appeared to find Aika frozen.
"Ahem..." Li looked like he was going to choke, as he forced a strangled smile onto his face. "Haha... well... this is awkward..."
"L-Li?" Aika gasped, taking a step backward. "Wh-What are you doing here?" It was a shock to her to see the blonde again. It was taboo for any non-water benders to set foot in their land ever since the Disease erupted. Aika turned around, about to run away to warn someone. Anyone.
However, she was tackled to the ground before she could make her way back. The raven-haired boy had pinned her on the ground, placing a hand over mouth, muffling her cries for help. "Just shut up." He muttered, and Aika stopped struggling, complying with his demand.
Her eyes then went towards Li, examining his every move. She couldn't say anything, not when her mouth was covered. She just stared at the blond, wondering why he would even be here.
"Aika." A voice echoed through the tunnel, one that made Aika sigh in relief. Li's face suddenly paled as another girl came into view.
"Oh damn it," He cursed under his breath.
Shin raised an eyebrow, turning to him. "Someone you know?" He asked wryly, flickering his gaze intermittently back to the girl below him, Li beside him, and the newest arrival: a brunette with blonde-edged locks, addressing Aika but glaring daggers at Li…
"What the hell are you two doing to my sister?!" the girl shouted. "You perverts!" The brunette ran forward and kicked Shin aside. "Fuck. We weren't doing anything!" The Avatar muttered as he rubbed the side of his body, thinking about how he was going to have one hell of a bruise in that spot tomorrow- great shortcut, Li, the perfect way to sneak in undetected... he grumbled quietly.
Aika quickly stood up, running to her sister's side, trembling slightly. "C-Cai…" The girl went in front of the redhead, fuming and angry. "Aika." She scolded sternly. "You're stronger than this. Did you even fight back?"
"N-No. Sorry." Aika bowed down her head in shame, apologizing. Cai sighed and looked at her. "You're the older sister, aren't you?" To this, Aika remained silent, and Cai stared reproachfully at her, before her gaze moved onto Li.
"Tch." Cai muttered ruefully, her eyes never leaving the blond. "Li… Still a jerk, I see… But I can't go easy on you after seeing what you did to my sister."
"Cai…" He only chuckled forcefully back. "Still as beautiful and delicate as a flower, I see?" Li tried to smoothen the situation, but his words came out in a nervous squeak.
Threateningly, Cai raised a fist, and the poor boy blanched.
"Why am I still surprised to see you getting into random situations like this?" The girl sighed in a 'you think he'd grow up' kind of voice.
Still rubbing his ribs, Shin crossly but also curiously watched the two interact. What was up with Li, and with the crazy violent girl? There was definitely some history there… They hadn't even reached the Water Tribe chief and Li was already bringing vengeful ex-flames into the mix- how typical of him, the raven scowled.
"Well Cai," Li started, mentally panicking over the fact that he didn't really know what to say. "I've matured. This isn't just a random situation. And hey, this isn't what it looks like! We were just in a pickle, involving travel and fireballs and an honest misunderstanding..." He rambled unintelligibly…
Unforgivingly, she just continued glaring at him. As she was about to retort, Cai heard people shouting in the distance. They must be the villagers. Of course, they were missing and the people were probably looking for them, she thought distractedly. Then, it was as if a lightbulb flashed above her head, and a predatory gleam entered her eyes.
She punched Li on his stomach and shouted. "Hey! I found the princess with some perverts over here!"
"Shit…" Li cursed again, from the pain and the fact that they were going to be discovered. "Y-Your punches haven't changed at all, Cai!" Li slumped against the wall, tightly clutching his abdomen. "That really hurt…"
Cai threw her fist back, changing her target from the blond to his friend, to which Shin immediately dodged by sidestepping to the left. Girls… all crazy and weird and emotional, Shin thought. I wonder what Li sees in them.
He hopped back, dodging the fiery girl's attacks more, refusing to counter them with his powers. I shouldn't hurt them. They're just defenseless dumb girls, in the wrong place at the wrong time...
Shin then felt a stinging splash against his skin, water exploding on him, throwing him back. He looked up to see that redhead he pinned down earlier in a fighting stance, preparing a sharp sphere of water. "I-I'm sorry. Did that hurt?"
Disbelief colored Shin's features for a moment, before he recovered and proudly scoffed. "Hurt? Girly, that didn't even-" He took a step towards her, smirking-
BAM!
"Hurt…" Shin's voice came out strangled, threatening to squeak like Li's had. "One… bit…"
He crumpled to the ground, his legs pushed tightly together. Cai stood behind him with a malevolent look in her eye, as she tsched scornfully at the two boys down on the floor around her.
"Boys," She growled in exasperation, rolling her eyes to Aika. "Liars and heartbreakers and weaklings and idiots, the lot of them."
Oh yeah, definitely some history there… Shin could only think as Li groaned nearby at her words, before a group of waterbenders appeared from another corner.
"Princess Aika! Princess Cai!" The leader gasped. "Intruders! Fire Nation intruders!" His voice turned serious and angry.
"Pervert intruders too," Cai chirped unhelpfully, and Shin couldn't help groaning with Li this time too.
By Agni, what were they going to do now?
"If we ever get out of this alive," Shin told Li once they were thrown into a prison cell, "I'm going to kill you myself. Fuck your stupid shortcuts." Li only gave him a look, before sighing, "You'll have to get in line; I think my ex-girlfriend wants to kill me first..."