Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. Avatar: The Last Airbender is owned by Nickelodeon, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone.
AN: Posting today because I have work on the weekend.
Chapter 4 The Beach Day Two
At dawn, on the second day of their vacation, The fire benders of the house rose with the sun, and woke the others inadvertently with a yaw.
At breakfast, with the teens and their elderly escorts eating on the deck, Connor looked out to the sea, and sighed. "ɪts ˈsʌndeɪ." He remarked.
Mai looked up from her food, with a puzzled expression. Azula filled Mai in, having understood Connor. "The last day of a week." All present nodded at her assessment.
"What's so important about it?" Zuko asked.
Connor turned to him. "On the seventh day, God rested… It holds significance to my people… We don't work this day of the week, and this is the first time I've really taken time off since I got here."
"Well good." Azula said. "That's the entire reason we came to the island."
Silence permeated the air, before Connor spoke again. "We don't work because we'd go to a temple to worship instead."
Azula thought back to the night before, how Connor bemoaned his isolation in the new world he was faced with, never knowing a home again. "Well, it might not be what you're used to but there is a shrine on the island… If you'd like, I could show you it."
Connor looked up from his breakfast and smiled lightly. "I'd like that."
After their breakfast, Connor followed Azula along an overgrown trail up the hill on the island's south side. Just before noon they'd arrived at the hilltop, where a small wood building housing a single burning candle, just beyond a fading red wood gate.
Azula turned to face Connor. "I know it's not much, but this shrine to Agni's been here since Zuko and I were little. If you're looking for a spiritual place today, this would be it."
Connor gave Azula a single grateful nod, before passing through the red gate, and coming to stand in front of the candle, ever burning, before he sat on his knees, and closed his eyes.
Connor took a breath before speaking. "I guess this is breaking two commandments, but I figure I've already broken five, six if your interpretation of kill means anything other than murder… So… If any god is listening, any of them at all, I just… I confess I am afraid, and alone, and that I've done wrong by not just any of your laws but by my own... I don't know what it is I've been sent here to do. I can only ask that you give me a sign... Just to let me know, that I'm doing something right."
Azula kept her distance, looking at Connor as he quietly spoke in his native English, which Azula would admit she knew far too little of to completely understand Connor. She'd caught enough to gauge that Connor was asking someone for advice, perhaps his ancestors, or someone he knew… Maybe even the gods he'd made mention of, but Azula couldn't be certain, as she didn't know enough about Connor despite their time spent together… Perhaps that needed to change.
Connor stood up, and Azula pulled her attention away from him before he could turn around to find her staring. He passed back through the gate, and the two started walking down the trail towards the bungalow they shared. Azula glanced at Connor before speaking. "I didn't realize how spiritual you were."
Connor glanced back at her. "I'm far less so than many. My father would have beat me for praying near anything like that shrine. False idols and whatnot."
"You've spoken highly of him in the past for what he's taught you though." Azula said.
"Yeah well he didn't teach me well enough I suppose. Still. Respect where it's due he is my father, faults and all. A good doctor, and a good Christian." Connor said, uttering the last word in English, as it had no translation.
"Chi what?" Azula asked, their respective languages catching them off guard.
"His religion, or the special one he practiced." Connor said as he rolled his hand in thought. "He's a Presbyterian."
"It might come as a surprise to you, but that word is completely foreign to me." Azula said, stepping over a fallen log.
"Well I guess that's to be expected… " Connor shrugged.
"You've seen what I and my people believe in, spirits and Agni, our ancestors, honoring them all. Are all your people, the Irish in America, this religion your father is?"
"Not even close." Connor chuckled. "My mother used to be Catholic before she converted to marry my dad. Catholics are what most Irish are. Most of my friends in New York were a mixed bag of beliefs and backgrounds though, what with it being a big port city and all. Lutherans, Episcopals, Calvinists, Baptists, Quakers, all sorts, so me and me five brothers didn't exactly have a set faith when we were young… Try as my dad might to get us to avoid other denominations, never mind they all worship the same God, just in their own way."
"So do you actually believe in the god you've spoken of?" Azula asked.
"I'd like to… I think there's got to be a god, or a few, given all that's happened to me in my life, but I can't know for certain. Or at least, I won't know for certain in my lifetime." Connor said before sighing.
"You said you have five brothers? I've never heard you mention them before." Azula inquired.
"Well, what's there to say… I care about them, but it's been so long since I've seen them…" Again Connor shrugged. "Before I'd even left for France, Danny ran off to join the army, Sean was studying to become a mathematician, Ryan and Fergus joined the postal service, and Collin Jr. disappeared into the green mountains with his wife."
"Leaving you alone at home with your parents." Azula accurately deduced. "I know the feeling." She said somberly.
"Oh please, like you actually care." Connor said with a hint of irritation in his tone.
Azula crossed her arms. "What's your problem?"
"My problem is trying to understand just exactly what goes through your head most days." Connor stopped walking and faced Azula. "I mean you act all high and mighty the first we meet, you treat me like you care for a while, then you shot me…" Connor filled up his sleeve to show Azula the scar from the lead that had grazed him. "You softened up while we were in Ba Sing Se, then the minute we got back, you couldn't help but run off and French the first guy who looked at you."
Azula narrowed her eyes. "You're still upset about that?"
Connor grunted in frustration. "A little." He admitted.
Azula raised an eyebrow. "It's really no big deal. Have you never kissed a girl, Connor?"
"You should already know the answer to that." Connor said.
"Right. Your culture's prudish opinion on physical contact between the sexes." Azula said as she started walking again. "Well if it makes you feel better, I don't consider what happened with Chan last night a real kiss, merely practice. So… Do with that what you will."
Connor scoffed in amusement as he started following Azula. "Well in that case you haven't ever really kissed anyone either then."
"Oh, bite me." Azula said with an eye roll.
"Why can't you just admit you like me as much as I do you?" Connor asked, a hand over his chest.
Azula sighed, as she slowed down so she was beside Connor. "I… I do like you, Connor. You're the only boy I've met who's not scared of me, the real me. Who doesn't treat me like I'm going to kill them…"
"You have tried to kill me though." Connor thought.
"You're the only boy that's ever made me feel vulnerable… And though I can't stand that you make me feel like that, I find it all the more intriguing." Azula said as she looked up at Connor. "That aside, I can't entertain the thought of a relationship with you. If my father ever found out, if my people ever found out, that the princess was having secret trysts with a foreigner, an earth bender at that, we'd both wish we were dead."
"Yeah but-." Connor started.
"But nothing, Connor." Azula said sharply. "And this is the last I want to hear of this nonsensical idea that the two of us can be together outside of a mere friendship at best." And with that, Azula started walking faster down the trail, leaving Connor to lag behind.
The two met with Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko on the beach, the peppy acrobat among them waving with a smile. "Hey you two, we saved a spot." Ty Lee said as they both approached.
"Thank you, Ty Lee." Azula said, as she sat on the towel laid out beside her friend.
"Aw it's nothing." Ty Lee said, waving off her thanks, before looking up at Connor who seemed lost in thought as he watched two younger kids, one firebending at the other as he splashed water around. "Are you alright, Connor?"
Connor snapped out of his musings, before answering Ty Lee. "Just thinking is all…" Connor started. "Actually… I have a question. How is it you're able to fight benders without weapons? I sucked at fighting them even with arms, but you've never had a problem. How is that?"
"Oh that's actually really simple. " Ty Lee smiled as she rolled onto her stomach, then held her feet over her head and stood from there, flexing forward to face Connor. "Chi blocking."
"I swear I've heard that before." Connor said. "So how's it work?"
Ty Lee reached out and took Connor's hand. "It's really simple…" Azula felt a twinge of irritation at how casually her friend had initiated contact with Connor. "Your body is full of meridians, pathways for chi, life energy. All along these pathways there are points where the flow of energy can be closed easily." Ty Lee ran her hand up Connor's arm to his elbow.
"Ok, so that explains the name. But how is it that this energy being blocked can knock a man out?" Connor asked.
Azula rolled her eyes, as Mai spoke for her. "It's a bunch of spiritual bunk."
Ty Lee smiled, before she struck Connor's left elbow with the second knuckle of her index and middle finger. His elbow lost its function, and Connor pulled away from Ty Lee to shake away the feeling of numbness. "How's that for spiritual bunk?" After a few seconds of shaking, Connor was able to flex his fingers again. "You can't exactly knock someone out, but you can still incapacitate them. If you apply the right amount of pressure to the right place, when the body moves in the right way, you can close the chi paths for up to a few minutes." Ty Lee's smile didn't waver.
"So what, it's just memorizing anatomy?" Connor asked, rubbing his palm with his other hand.
"It's more than that." Ty Lee said. "You need to be able to see in your mind how the chi flows through someone before you can block it. If a person's chi isn't flowing the right way then you can't create a block with something that's not there. That little love tap I gave you might have felt funny, but since your muscles weren't flexed and your joints weren't angled right, and I didn't hit you very hard, you can still move and bend with it."
"Ok, so if you can do that for say a leg, or an arm, how's it you can make a man stop moving completely?" Connor asked. "This doesn't seem like it'd do much to cause a good shock to their system, like a kick in the head would."
"Well, you can't just hit someone once, really." Ty Lee said, before scrunching her face up in thought. "I mean, there is the neck pinch, but that takes a lot of force. To completely take away someone's ability to move and bend consciously for any real amount of time, you have to start by blocking smaller pressure points, and create backflows to their chakras. Like creating cracks in someone's defenses before going for a final blow."
"Just like regular fighting, but more technical then." Connor surmised. "You know, on Earth we've mapped the body as well, but this chi and chakras are relatively new to me."
"Come sit with me, and I'll explain chakras." Ty Lee said, as she spun and sat on her towel, legs crossed, leaving enough room for Connor to sit, as he kicked one leg off to the side.
"Oh boy. Prepare to be confused, Connor." Azula said.
"Ignore her. You'll understand, I'm sure." Ty Lee said with a giggle. "Your Chakras are the seven spiritual energy centers of the body. They flow up the spine, starting at its base and travel up to the crown of the head. Each spiritual chakra has a physical body part it is linked to."
Connor nodded. "Ok, body parts have their own spiritual copies… I've heard about French soldiers who've lost limbs, but can still feel them. Is that in any way related to this?"
"In a way, yes." Ty Lee said. "You can't cut spirits. So when someone loses a physical part of themselves, the spiritual part remains… Anyways, each chakra connects specific spiritual, emotional, psychological, and physical aspects of our being together. And when they're blocked it leads to psychological, emotional, and physical disorders. Like being unable to walk." Ty Lee giggled. Connor smiled a little at that.
"The chakras radiate a specific color in a person's aura, but that's less important than what the chakra connects to unless you can see auras like I can." Ty Lee said.
"So that's what you ment when you called Mai's aura gray?" Connor asked.
Ty Lee nodded with a smile. "Her aura's all muddy because she doesn't let any of her energy flow through her chakras."
"Still don't believe in auras." Mai commented.
"You don't have to believe in Agni to know that there is a sun." Ty Lee said as she crossed her arms. Mai glanced up at the sun, before Ty Lee continued. "The first and lowest chakra is the earth chakra. It sits at the base of the spine between, well, between your butt and your genitals."
"Naturally." Connor said in a deadpan.
"The chakra is connected to survival and stability, and it's blocked by fear. Blocking it is a good way to destabilize and easily frighten someone."
"So a swift kick in the ass after a knock to the back of the knee is a good way to keep someone down?" Connor asked with a chuckle.
"Exactly." Ty Lee beamed. "The next higher chakra is the water chakra. It's… Well for you guys it's your penis, and the womb for us ladies."
"Of course it is." Connor said, with a shaken head.
"Well it's the chakra connected to pleasure, so where else should it be?" Ty Lee asked rhetorically. "It's emotionally blocked by guilt. Blocking it can completely deprive someone of their energy for a lot longer than the others, and leave them irritable for a while."
"I imagine it hurts a lot too." Connor said sarcastically. Zuko uncomfortably held his legs closer together.
"Yeah, but pain isn't the same thing as injury… Like with the fire chakra. If it's blocked, you can completely shut down digestion, and take someone's breath for a while. It's like pulling someone's willpower out of them, and emotional shame can block it. This chakra sit's between the naval and the bottom of where your ribs meet, just between your stomach and skin." Ty Lee said, pointing to the location on her body.
"Oh yeah, I've seen that blocked before." Connor nodded, having uppercutted his fair share of other boys in the gut.
"The next one is the air chakra. It's your heart. Pretty simple. It's all about love, and gets blocked by grief. Blocking it's really hard because of how deep in the body it is, but if you can block it, you can create massive anxiety, and even completely stop their heart from beating." Ty Lee said, holding her hands out. "I seriously recommend you never let it get blocked physically."
"Noted." Connor said calmly.
"The sound chakra is next. It's the chakra of truth, and is blocked by lies. It's in your throat." Ty Lee ran a finger up and down her's for emphasis.
"Which, I can imagine if it gets blocked, keeps someone from speaking either truth or lies." Connor smirked.
"See, you do understand." Ty Lee smiled, placing a hand on Connor's shoulder. "Now the next Chakra, is the light chakra. It's your third eye, the one in your forehead between your eyebrows. It's the chakra of insight, and it's blocked by a loss of focus or illusions. When it's blocked, you can get headaches, blurry vision, and eye pain."
"And the last one?" Connor asked.
"The last chakra is the thought chakra. It sits at the top of your head." Ty Lee reached up and patted Connor's crown for emphasis. "It's the chakra of pure cosmic energy. It's where all spirituality, thoughts, and energy flows out into the universe. Hardly anyone's thought chakra is unblocked. If it is unblocked though, they achieve inner peace, spiritual enlightenment, and an understanding of the universe."
"So how exactly would you unblock it?" Connor asked, genuinely curious.
Ty Lee rested her arms against her legs, palms up, as she closed her eyes. "It's blocked by attachment to all things in the physical world. Only in the absence of attachment, does one become their own master and gain true freedom…" Ty Lee opened her eyes. "That and you've got your skull there." She wrapped her knuckle against her head.
Connor giggled at that, before he sighed. "Yeah, well, that sounds right. Hit a man hard enough in any of those places and he's bound to be down for the count."
"See, I told you, spiritual bunk." Mai said.
"Believe who you want. But just remember, knowing about the flow of chi and the chakras might save your life one day." Ty Lee said, pointing at Connor.
"Oh I'm sure of it." Connor jested.
Their second day at the beach concluded, the Fire Nation teens packed their bags, and boarded the ferry to return to the mainland. The sun had since set, and while most aboard the ship had taken to their cabin's, Connor remained on the deck.
Below, Azula found only restless sleep. She had dreamt a terrible dream. A dream of her father, of the looming invasion...
She knelt before her father, as he sat upon his throne. The Avatar had made himself known to the world once more, alive and leading the charge into Caldera. Only after the tide had turned against the invasion did he run, to live and fight another day, to return again and haunt the Fire Lord for all his days. "Azula…" Fire Lord Ozai spoke harshly. "Why did you lie to me about The Avatar's demise?" He asked as he stood from his throne, parting the fire that separated them so he could approach her.
"I am sorry, father. I never intended to deceive you. I had no way of knowing that The Avatar could have lived." Azula said, on the verge of tears.
"You lie! Zuko told me everything. You knew The Avatar could have survived, and you did not bring this finding to me?" Lord Ozai asked.
"I-I did not wish to anger you with the troubling news." Azula said, a fearful tear falling from her cheek.
"You did it to protect Zuko and your servant, the filthy dog." Ozai said accusatively as he stepped closer, standing now so she was forced to look at his feet. "So weak… Just like your brother."
Azula felt her father's hand grab her by the side of the face, and she screamed as white hot pain engulfed her.
Shooting upright from her bunk, Azula took in panicked breaths as she held her left hand over her face. Needing air, Azula slipped free from the bed, and pushed the cabin door open.
Once under moonlight, on the main deck, Azula took in gulps of the cool night's sea air, before she walked over to the starboard side railing. "Agni, what is wrong with me?" She asked herself quietly, not expecting a response from behind her.
"You look near as pale as I do." Startled, Azula spun, only to find Connor on the other side of the deck, his back to the port side rail, face illuminated by the moonglow. "Seeing ghosts?"
Azula swallowed the lump in her throat, before she walked over to Connor. "No… Just… Just bad dreams." She admitted uncomfortably.
Connor hummed as Azula leaned against the rail beside him, her face becoming cast in her own shadow. Connor turned to look out to sea with her before speaking. "Want to talk about it?" Azula shook her head. "Did they have to do with… Well, getting shot?" He asked.
Azula rolled her eyes. "No, I'm… I'm over that." She wasn't sure if she was telling the truth.
"You know you can tell me about these things, Azula. If you need to talk but fear what people might think, just know I won't ever judge." Connor said.
"I appreciate the gesture Connor, but… It's not something you'd understand." She said, turning her head away from him as she gripped the rail.
Connor put his right hand over her left, the difference between his dry calloused meat hooks, and her smooth delicate digits made itself apparent. Azula looked down at Connor's hand first, then up to face him. "I'm a quick learner." He said quietly.
"Look…" Azula pulled her hand out from under his. "I know you fancy me Connor, but don't think that because I'm having an unusually sensitive moment, that you have any right to swoop in and take advantage of it."
"Azula, I would never." Connor said as he shook his head slightly. "I care about you too much to do something like that."
"Ever the gentleman." Azula said with an eye roll as she looked away.
"I'm being serious." Connor said. "Would you rather I just pretend not to give a damn?" He put his fist to his chest. "To shove aside my feelings because of some fear of a stupid societal rule like you do?"
"Fear has nothing to do with it." Azula didn't turn back to look at Connor.
"It has everything to do with it!" Connor said, throwing his hand out towards the moon.
"You have no idea what fear is." Azula said, finally turning to face the redhead. "But if you want to try understanding mine, let's start with a basic fact. I can never let my father know that I've made mistakes, because if I do, then I'm no better than Zuko. And the last mistake that Zuko made, expressing love for his countrymen, earned him our father's wrath. Now try imagining what he'll do to me if he ever… If he ever finds out I feel… That I feel the wretched weakness of love, for a filthy stone chucker." Azula said, as she looked away from Connor, not wanting him to see her show any hint of the tears she was going to shed. "Love is nothing more than a tool used to control the weak." She said to herself.
"Then do you control me?" Connor asked. "Am I weak?" Azula didn't answer. "Look at me." Connor said, before grabbing Azula's shoulder, and turning her to face him.
"Get your hands off me!" Azula said loudly, though was unable to push Connor off of her, as he grabbed both her shoulders.
"Look at me…" He said, keeping her smaller frame still. "Do I look weak to you?" He asked, as she pressed her hands against his abdomen and began to gather heat in them. He winced in pain, though didn't release her. She couldn't bring herself to engulf him in flames. "Azula, loving you doesn't make me weak. It gives me strength." He trailed his hands down her arms to her wrists before pulling her hot hands off of him. "You were the first person I met in this world who tried to understand me. You give me hope that maybe someday the last words I'll hear will be in English… You mean everything to me now."
Azula sniffed once before speaking. "If you really loved me, you'd let me go."
Connor sighed. "You don't have to push me away. You don't need to be afraid of your father… He never has to know."
"In what fairy tail could we be together and he not find out eventually? Unless we're to remain distant from each other until death takes him." Azula said.
Connor looked out to the sea and closed his eyes for a moment. "Then…" Connor looked back to Azula. "If we're never meant to be… And I am to remain alone in this world… Would you do me the honor of being my first and only kiss?" He let go of her hands, and knelt so that she looked down at him now.
Azula was dumbstruck, unable to move, even to flicker her tearful eyes. She didn't know what to do, as her stomach curled into knots, and her voice remained thoroughly stuck in her throat, her lip trembling. Torn between her rational mind urging her to slap him for such an absurd request, and her now rampant emotions whispering for her to give in, to admit weakness.
"I know I've no right… But I would give up my heart for you." Connor said, a tear in the corner of his eye. As he blinked, Azula had made her decision.
Connor felt his head pulled on, and the soft warmth of Azula's lips against his own.
Azula could have sworn she felt sparks fly, had she not known it to simply be her inner fire burning brighter and brighter, until the warmth that grew became overwhelming, and she broke the kiss. Releasing her hold on Connor, Azula pulled away, and met his eyes. The shared heat between them dissipated in an instant... And the world became cold, as the moon disappeared behind the clouds.
Azula brushed three fingers against her lips, before swallowing her nerve, and walking back to her cabin.
Connor looked up to the now overcast sky, and waited until Azula had closed the door to the cabin before he spoke, closing his eyes. "Goodnight, Princess."
In the wake of the governor's assassination and the murder of General Fuji, there was an order put out for all the subjects of the city to turn in what weapons they might own. The soldiers of the Fire Nation began going door to door in the Upper and Middle rings first, confiscating all they could by force... And force was met with force.
Resistance with swords and bending was remedied with arrests... Retaliation with gunfire saw houses torched... Burning houses turned into entire blocks... Before blocks became a neighbourhood set ablaze... At dawn, the Fire Nation organized their troops to march into the Lower ring, and the rural farmland beyond, continuing their attempts to disarm the people of Ba Sing Se. Crossing into the farmland outside of the urban housing of the Lower Ring, a detachment of soldiers of the Fire Nation army, were met with something strange. A collection of men, some in Earth Kingdom soldier uniforms, others the attire of peasants, all standing behind a wall made of the earth, across a bridge and river that divided the eastern and western farmlands.
Some of the men were armed with crude copies of Fire Nation muskets ignited by matches. Others with locally made hand cannons, or even crossbows. The soldier with a cock feather atop his round metal helmet, held up his hand, before dropping it. The many men of the bedraggled formation took aim with their weapons... And began shooting.
Author's note.
Connor is in fact not catholic as some have assumed. He holds religious beliefs true, (who didn't really in 1807) but is very open minded, which is why he's willing to learn mystical arts and such from Ty Lee... Well mystical is relative.
Oh, and you thought that after just one day of admitting their feelings I was going to have Connor and Azula get together?
Well you thought wrong. It's gonna take a little bit more than a heart to heart for Azula to go against her father's wishes... Unless?
Next chapter, Azula gets a vibe check.