Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ When Ice and Lava Meet ❯ So You're Thieving Tonight ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Disclaimer: I don’t own Avatar: The Last Air-bender, the very talented team of Mike and Brain own the show and characters. The rating maybe wrong but I did try to get it right.

By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) aka. crescentmoon (at mediaminer). And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt.

When Ice and Lava Meet

Chapter Nine

That night Katara went back to the Pit after delivering the two paintings they had found the actual home to. The Blind Bandit promised to come retrieve the Painted lady around an hour before sunrise.
The Painted Lady glided around her deliveries and then went to heal more of the poor souls figuratively locked away to rot. She would do her best.
Hour after hour she worked in that dank, dreary place. She bended healing water were it was needed with everyone she helped. This night the dead were gone, as were some of the people who weren’t dead the night before. ‘A ‘mercy mission’ must have occurred yesterday.’ She scowled at the thought. ‘I must work faster and save these people from that fate.’
The Blind Bandit came shuffling through the stinking sick people. She hated this, the smell and heat from all the bodies tying to fight the infections. The breathing was very loud and echoed in her ears. She was late. But she was still early enough that no one would be about for another ten or so minutes.
She touched the Painted Lady’s shoulder. “It’s time to go.”
The Painted Lady nodded and quickly finished the healing she was working on.
As they were walking down the street to get to a place where if any of the sick awoke they wouldn’t see them sink into the ground, a man in black with the blue and white face of a demon ran in front of them. He was holding a ornate box. The blue face turned to them and seemed to focus in on the Painted Lady. The Painted Lady drew her weak mist a little closer around her to hide herself and her companion. But it was more like an unconscious maneuver than a thoughtful response. Even so her eyes trained and seemed to lock on his. But that was impossible it was too dark to see such details.
The sound of lunging feet penetrated the fog between the still and the running persons. The Painted Lady sent ice for the demon’s pursuers to slide on. When the clash behind him resounded past his ivory horns he saluted her before disappearing down a darker road.
Then the earth swallowed the Blind Bandit and the Painted Lady before the latter could get them captured because of her dazed and tired state.
The Blind Bandit led her friend through the passageways she’d been creating all over the city of Aoi Falls. She could feel Katara stumble behind her blindly. ‘I wonder what passed between them…’ thought the earth-bender. If it would have made any difference in her sight she would have glanced behind her. But the bat-like radar that her feet ‘saw’ through the earth made such a move unnecessary. In fact most times she saw things better then anyone else, her mother had called it a sixth sense. Then her father would joke quietly thinking that she couldn’t hear that it was truly a fifth sense. They didn’t understand about her feet, the extent to which she could delve into someone’s ‘secret’ truths, no one had, until Katara came along that is. She had told Katara while her feet were healing and no one else was nearby. And to her surprise not only did she except it but she understood, at least a little.
Right now the Blind Bandit could feel Katara’s racing heart and lethargic movements. The extent of the lethargy wasn’t only from being tired. Katara was expressing classic symptoms of be enthralled. She wondered if her friend would be enchanted if she knew who was under the mask. ‘She’d probably try not to be… but this will make their fights in the day much more funny…’ thought the Blind Bandit. She grinned, she would keep this secret for now.
They stayed away from Iroh and Zuko the next day much to the Blind Bandit’s displeasure. Or more they didn’t have time that day to visit the old tea lover and his nephew.
Katara had to pay rent and buy food and supplies. Toph spent much of her day extracting gossip from gossip mongers and playing high stakes games against cheating con men. All in all a productive but Sparky and Sugar Queen fightless day. The Blind Bandit huffed. ‘I have to find a reason for them to be in the same area.’
Then the Blind Bandit hear a whispered pinch of a conversation and backed up so she could follow the people and hear what was said.
“What, a spirit thief for hire!” whispered a man franticly.
“Yes,” whispered back the woman. “The Blue Spirit. He contacted a couple in the wealthy side of town that had lost something important to them and he stole it back for them. They had to pay him highly but he did a fabulous job. The soldiers lost him in the pour part of town, near the Pit, that the Painted Lady has been visiting lately. They say he was in and out in seconds. He was just as ghostly as the Painted Lady.”
The Blind Bandit listened in carefully to the hushed voices.
The woman continued to say, “I bet if you offered enough the Blue Spirit would steal back that parrot-lizard that speaks of your secret room you hide refuges in, that Hanssi is blackmailing you with.”
“You think?”
“Certainly.”
‘Prefect.’ grinned the Blind Bandit. She could feel Zuko listening from on top of the stone wall beside her.
Zuko jumped and flipped down. He landed beside the two talking about him, down a very, very dark alley where they would only be able to see little of his figure and the mask he wore. “You are speaking of hiring me.” he said in a deep, gruff voice the Blind Bandit knew wasn’t his own.
The two people jumped and clutched each other in fear. Then they hurriedly let go and straitened themselves. “How did you know that?” the breathless man asked.
“I always know.” answered the masked man.
The Blind Bandit snickered and said ‘Bravo!’ in her mind continuing with, ‘Maybe you can pull this off after all Sparky.’
The man made to step towards where the spirit hid but the spirit said, “Stay back.”
“Y-yes Bl-Bl-Blue Sp-Spirit s-sir!” The man was trembling.
“Now tell me the prize and the pay you offer.”
And the man spilled his guts. He gave way more information than was needful. In the end Zuko said in the gruff voice that wasn’t his normal one. “I will take this job on. Meet me here tomorrow night at mid-night I will have your bird.”
“Y-yes Sir! Th-Thank you sir!” then the man and his partner scurried away.
Once they were gone and Zuko was back in his regular Fire Man garb, he came out and ‘Mai Ling’ made it so he ‘accidentally’ walked into her.
“Ow!” She pretended to be hurt. “Gosh Sparky, do you have a thing for running into women that you hardly know or something. Don’t let Jen know, she may get jealous.”
Zuko flushed and stumbled over an apology.
“If your really sorry have a late dinner with me tonight. Jen has to work at her new job tonight and we don’t have much food that doesn’t need to be cooked before eating it. Not a good idea for a blind girl to try.”
“Uh… I guess, at what time?”
“Around midnight, I wake up hungry around then.” ‘Mai Ling’ lied.
“I’m sorry I can’t be there that late tonight. I have other plans… But perhaps my uncle…”
“Don’t be ridiculous your uncle’s shift starts really early in the morning. I wouldn’t want to deprive him of his sleep.”
“I’m sorry… Some other time I promise.” Then he rushed off.
“So you’re thieving tonight huh Sparky…” she whispered darkly. “Let me add to the challenge.” Then she turned and waved at his retreating figure with a bright smile. ‘Mai Ling’ yelled after him, “I’ll hold you to that Sparky!”
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Hey everyone! Now so you know why this chapter of When Ice and Lava Meet took so long, I’ve just become a mommy… To three little kitten’s who’s mother disappeared. They don’t even have their teeth yet. So I have to feed and look after them. But they are so cute! For finger leeches. I love them already. To bad when they’re weaned I can’t keep them. *sigh*
Thank again to all my Reveiwers, You are an inspiration to this, if I may call myself, writer. I love you all! Thanks to love4anime, BrokenWolfKunoichi, Darkness’s Daughter, and Kaydreams (from fan fiction(.)net), Liontrackes, Mannie258, zutararules777 and phili91 (from deviantART). Love4anime asked ‘Does Katara know what the Blind Bandit’s name is?’ The answer is no, Katara knows her only as the Blind Bandit. BrokenWolfKunoichi asked ‘When are Sokka and Suki coming?’ I’m not sure, if I made a guessamit, they’ll probably be along somewhere between chapters 15 and 20. Liontracks asked ‘Did Katara blocked Zuko’s chi?’ I didn’t think of that, if you want to believe that then go ahead, but she didn’t know she did. Thanks again.


Please review and I’ll try to update soon. Goodbye!