Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ When Ice and Lava Meet ❯ Too Close to a Lady ( Chapter 15 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: crescentmoon 
Read and See. There are not any lemons, not even lime! Please review! Thank you!
Non Anime: Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.27.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 419 | Status: Work In Progress
Read and See. There are not any lemons, not even lime! Please review! Thank you!
Non Anime: Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.27.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 419 | Status: Work In Progress
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.
Chapter Fifteen
For the next few days ‘Mai Ling’ was very despondent. One day she said she was going to visit Aang. The week was nearly over and she’d only gotten to see one fight between Katara and Zuko that whole time! When she made it out of Aoi Falls Toph yelled, “I can’t stand this! I must get them together again! I need to see them fight! We haven‘t even had any reports of someone needing help with a rich boar lately!”
Toph ran around the edge of the city back between the two waterfalls. She knew that it didn’t help that she hadn’t really had any good earth-bending exercise for some time. So she pounded the earth into many different shapes. Until she felt as close to giddy as she’d ever come.
Later that day around two and a half hours ‘til sunset ‘Mai Ling’ sauntered back into town. A huge, content smile graced her face. She stretched one arm after the other over her head and yawned. Her clothes, which Katara had modified from her own ‘fortune teller’ wardrobe for her, shifted nicely.
‘This was a great day!’ Toph thought as she walked back towards her smelly apartment. ‘Just a few more days at most and that smell wont cause my eyes to water. I can’t even think of anything that could make this day better.’
On her way there she heard a man talking of a deal he had recently made with a spirit. The man was so drunk that Toph talked to him. Toph talked to him without fear. Thus she got the whole story from the man.
This man was one of the wealthiest men in town. He was a man who traded in metals and had a promising future. He even had hopes of his daughter marring into the nobility of the Fire Nation. The man’s tell was largely boring and very slurred to Toph. Thus she tuned it out. But when he said what she could only guess was, “So, I had no choice but to contact the Blue Spirit. I’m so desperate!”
“I was so wrapped up in your tell of woe that I have forgotten, what is it that you needed the Blue Spirit to do?”
“That foul spirit! He’s charging me more then that hunk of metal is worth to retrieve it!” He meant of course that the metal itself was worth less then he was paying for the important object’s return.
“And what is it that he is to retrieve?”
“My family’s seal!” the golden eyed man sobbed. “Without that my family could come to ruin! Foul spirit is what he is! The man who stole it could forge letters and documents from me! The wretch!”
“Do you know who has it?’
The man laughed, “Heh! I have nothing but suspicion!”
‘Mai Ling’ with false anxiety said, “I will pray for you. I must hurry home before the sunsets. It gets dangerous after the sun goes down. You should go too.”
“I can care for myself.” Yet the man stumbled off towards the rich neighborhood.
Toph rushed off to find if maybe she could get any information from Zuko without talking to him.
She couldn’t. Thankfully she had a backup plan.
Toph went home and told Katara that she had a new case for the Painted Lady but they had to wait for the right time. But she had to be prepared because the right time could come any time this or another night soon.
Katara shrugged and got ready while Toph told her what she would be going after. She put on her new paint. The familiarity of it was calming.
Zuko sighed as he shifted out of his bed. He thought he was tricking his uncle by leaving after the man was asleep. But he didn’t know that his uncle didn’t sleep until he got back. This night was his third mission this week. But it was also the last. He’d take a small break after this night.
Soon he was creeping on the stones paving the roads. Unknown to him he tipped someone off. He was being followed underground by two young females.
The Painted Lady blindly followed Blind Bandit. She trusted her blind friend. Yawning and stretching in the darkness. She smiled. A night or two more and everyone in the pit would be healed. It was a nice feeling to know that you helped saved so many lives.
This night Toph opened a hole in the ground in the garden of a man who wanted to appear rich. “Good luck Sugar-Queen.”
“Thanks.” The Painted Lady nodded at her before running into the building.
When she got into the library, the most likely place for a seal, she saw the Blue Spirit was already there. And so was the owner of the home. The owner was trying to bribe the Blue Spirit into not taking the seal. But he said nothing; he only advanced on the man who clutched the seal.
The Painted Lady smiled. They were distracting each other. ‘This is perfect. It’s time for a rematch Blue-Boy.’
The pour man’s heart was thumping hard. His vision had tunneled on the masked man before him. The Blue Spirit walked toward him slowly. With each step the Blue Spirit seemed to grow bigger, it wasn’t true but the pour guy saw it that way. Fear was rocking him as he continued to try to talk the Blue Spirit out of his prize. When the Blue Spirit was just over an arm’s length away the all too human man couldn’t feel anything but his heart shacking his whole world.
Then something flashed before his eyes and Blue Spirit was clutching the side of his head. He looked into the home owner’s arms, the seal was gone.
The Blue Spirit cursed under his breath and ran towards the door. The edge of red fabric fluttered past the frame. The Blue Spirit followed it. He couldn’t tell who it was but the Blue Spirit could guess.
Sure enough, when he got out into the garden the lovely spirit known as the Painted Lady was waiting for him.
“Why are you after my quarry?”
She only smiled at him and held up the large ornate seal as if to ask, ‘This?’
“Give that to me.” He put out his hand and started walking towards her.
The Painted Lady held it to her chest and shook her head. She was still smiling that pretty, teasing smile. Her dark brown hair seemed to say to him, ‘This spirit is not to be touched by any but our silky fingers.’ It was odd.
“You don’t understand.” He stepped closer. “I need that. I don’t want to live forever like a rat-pentapus in the sewer or as a thieving gopher-rat.”
Her voice was low, hard to hear but it almost suited her. Strangely it sounded like it was just too low for the spirit it came from. “You are profiting off the misfortune of others. It is not right.”
“And why shouldn’t I?”
“Because everyone falls into hard times, you cannot expect someone to help you if you do not help others in their misfortune. It’s karma.”
“Believe me I know, I am in hard times now. Please give it to me.”
“No.”
“Then I will have to take it from you.” He lunged at her.
She stepped to the side. But having learned from last time as she did this she made sure the place where she had stood before was covered in black ice. The Blue Spirit slipped and slid until he stopped upside down at the base of a tree.
“Good night, Blue Spirit.” she called lowly from where she was. He got up and ran towards her again. She stepped back. She appeared to fall. But when he got there, there was nothing, not even the scar of recently turned earth. Chills raised the hairs on his arm as he thought, ‘Maybe she is the real deal.’
That very night the Painted Lady snuck into the house of the man who was missing his family’s seal. She placed it next to the drunken, sleeping man on his pillow. Then she returned to the house she stole it from and shot another Panda-Lily into the door.
Following that she quietly went once again to The Pit. There were only a few people left in comparison to how many there was the first time she went to The Pit. She got to over half of the people. She left again before the sun rose.
The Painted Lady yawned and stretched when she entered Katara and Toph’s apartment. She was so very tired. She changed into a white under dress that she used as a nightgown. It was long and plain. After she had it on she blew out the candle Toph had left lit for her.
Crawling into bed she whispered good night to the world and the spirits.
After losing to the Painted Lady Zuko fumed all the way home. If he ever met the Painted Lady again she would lose to him, even if they had nothing to fight over. He would make sure of it.
When Zuko had his apartment in his sights the moon shown into his eyes. And he put his arm up to block the light. In one eye it only blocked tentacles of light. The shadows from his black gloved hand reminded him of lady hair. He had a flash of a scene, a scene he had tried to bar from his mind. There in the flash of memory was a woman; he could see mostly her back and a glimpse of the skin of her cheek. Her red and pink clothes were then hidden from view by a head of darker hair. But he could barely even see that. Zuko was too focused on the taller woman. Her hair was so long that he couldn’t see the end of it because of her friend. She wore it mostly down, except for the top layer that was pulled up into the traditional Fire Nation topknot. The hair was a dark brown that shown in the sun with mahogany streaks. It blew in the afternoon breeze and cast a shadow nearly as wonderful as it itself was.
Zuko shook his head at the memory. ‘Why did she come up? I was thinking of how mad I am at the Painted Lady. Maybe it’s because every time I meet either female the end result is a fight… They’re both stubborn shrews.’ Zuko smiled at that. ‘They would either get along very well or tear each other’s eyes out.’ Zuko’s smile turned into a large grin. He began to snicker.
He entered his apartment in a good mood. His mood was much better than it should have been after his loss.
The next day ‘Mai Ling’ and ‘Jen’ dropped in on his uncle at the tea shop. Zuko, who was sitting sleepily at a table, sunk down when he saw them enter. He was lucky that ‘Mai Ling’ was feeling generous at the moment. She didn’t lead ‘Jen’ straight to him but chose a seat on the other side of the shop. Zuko could see them even with his head resting on the table.
When ‘Jen’ turned to look around for Iroh, Zuko got almost the same view of her as his memory the night before. His eyes widened at the picture. His heart sped up a little too. ‘Mai Ling’ looked over at him curiously. But he didn’t notice. He was again reminded of the day he and his uncle saved the two girls. Yet the memory didn’t make him feel distain like it usually did. It was a little confusing.
Iroh stepped between him and the girls and he stopped staring. ‘Something is off here.’ Zuko thought. He got up to leave and got captured by ‘Mai Ling’. He should have seen her coming, but he hadn’t.
She grabbed his arm. “Come sit with us Zuko.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Too bad. I wasn’t really giving you the choice.” She grinned at him. “Jen was just saying the other day how much she missed you.” What Katara had actually said was that she hoped he broke his leg so he wouldn’t be able to cause Iroh worry over what he was doing.
“I’m not going to believe that.” He tried to keep his voice from sounding embarrassed. It worked, but ‘Mai Ling’ had a better source of judgment. She could tell he was blushing out of embarrassment.
‘Mai Ling’ teased him in a knowing way, “Maybe not. But you wish you can, don’t you?”
His cheeks went redder and he pulled his arm away. “I really can’t go sit with you. I have to leave. I’m very busy.”
“Lair. You’re just too embarrassed because I caught onto your secret wish.”
“No, I’m not! I’m not because I don’t have any such secret wish!”
“Sure you don’t…” She smiled and thought, ‘It’s so fun to mess with him.’
“I don’t, Mai Ling!”
“I know. That’s what makes you reaction to the claim that much more funny.”
Zuko slapped his forehead. ‘Mai Ling’ dragged him off to the table where ‘Jen’ sat with their tea.
“Drat! I was hoping you wouldn’t come.” ‘Jen’ said sourly.
“I’m not thrilled to be here with you either. I’m only here because your blind cousin is my friend.” ‘Sort of, if you can call her teasing and threatening me a friendship.’
“Yeah. You’re a bad influence. It’s no wonder she likes you.”
“I’m not a bad influence!”
“Sure you aren’t.” she said in a disbelieving tone.
“I’m not. I’m a good guy.”
“You can be a bad influence and still be a sort of good guy. But you can never be a great man.” ‘Jen’ said it so calmly that it really stung his ego. She sat there and didn’t even bat an eye while insulting him.
Zuko clenched his teeth and snarled, “I’ll show you a great man!” He leaned over her glaring. All the costumers stopped what they were doing to see how this would pan out.
‘Jen’ questioned as she looked up at him, “Are you threatening me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” She picked up her tea and calmly took a sip.
Zuko was confused. “What?”
She looked back up at him. “You just proved my point. Only a bad influence would threaten a lady.” People they had never even met gasped at her audacity.
‘Mai Ling’ had to hold back her snickering so she could hear what would happen next.
“You wouldn’t know a great man if he married you!” he hissed in her face.
‘Jen’s’ eyebrow twitched a little bit. Her next statement would be a doozy. ‘Jen’ whispered to him, “Don’t get so close to a lady, unless you want her to kiss you.”
Zuko flew backwards like someone cut a rope he was climbing up. His face was utterly full of shock.
‘Mai Ling’s’ super fine-tuned ears were the only ones that heard what ‘Jen’ had whispered. And all she could do was cover her slacking mouth while she tried to laugh around her shock.
After a long moment of staring at the floor Zuko looked up at ‘Jen’. ‘Jen’ smiled her victory at him. Yet he couldn’t see that all he could see was the sparkle in her eyes. And her lips, dark and shining, pulled into a smile, mixing that with her words of kissing meant doom to his sanity. Zuko got up and fled down the steps of the tea shop. He didn’t look where he was going until he was out of city limits.
‘Jen’ laughed after he left. She only said it to get Zuko to back off. Zuko’s reaction was very funny, and she did get what she wanted. Still her face heated up because of the action she had basically told Zuko to do. She had known he wouldn’t do it, more she had hoped he wouldn’t do it. Yet now her mind was full of thoughts of kissing Zuko. ‘Jen’ bit her lip, her smile was gone. Her heart pounded hard and her cheeks got even redder. She could feel the redness traveling down her neck. Her lips began to tingle like they had fallen asleep. ‘This is not good.’
She decided then that she would avoid Zuko until she was sure that she wouldn’t think of kissing him.
Zuko was thinking the same thing. He wouldn’t go to the tea shop and avoid her if he saw her in the streets. Zuko sat down under a tree and hung his head. He surpassed the redness of his faded clothes by many shades.
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This chapter is a present to keep everyone out there from skinning me for being so late.
To repeat I have two contests going one is just guessing how I would cast in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and the other is a fanart/fanfiction fairytales contest. For more information either go to my deviantART journal pages or find my link on my profile (fanfiction{}net people). These contests do have prizes but no entries so far. Feel free to check them out and enter. (Sorry to any who may be reading this on mediaminer but because I don’t know if you exist I’m not going to bother linking it. Sorry.)
Quick Fact: All of Toph and Katara’s clothing, aside from Katara’s special Painted Lady outfit, is from Katara’s fortunetelling clothes. The man who provided for Katara before she met the Blind Bandit insisted she look the part. So Katara remade her wardrobe to better suit quiet living after she and Toph fled.
Please review. Bye-Bye for now.
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) aka. crescentmoon (at mediaminer). And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt.
Chapter Fifteen
For the next few days ‘Mai Ling’ was very despondent. One day she said she was going to visit Aang. The week was nearly over and she’d only gotten to see one fight between Katara and Zuko that whole time! When she made it out of Aoi Falls Toph yelled, “I can’t stand this! I must get them together again! I need to see them fight! We haven‘t even had any reports of someone needing help with a rich boar lately!”
Toph ran around the edge of the city back between the two waterfalls. She knew that it didn’t help that she hadn’t really had any good earth-bending exercise for some time. So she pounded the earth into many different shapes. Until she felt as close to giddy as she’d ever come.
Later that day around two and a half hours ‘til sunset ‘Mai Ling’ sauntered back into town. A huge, content smile graced her face. She stretched one arm after the other over her head and yawned. Her clothes, which Katara had modified from her own ‘fortune teller’ wardrobe for her, shifted nicely.
‘This was a great day!’ Toph thought as she walked back towards her smelly apartment. ‘Just a few more days at most and that smell wont cause my eyes to water. I can’t even think of anything that could make this day better.’
On her way there she heard a man talking of a deal he had recently made with a spirit. The man was so drunk that Toph talked to him. Toph talked to him without fear. Thus she got the whole story from the man.
This man was one of the wealthiest men in town. He was a man who traded in metals and had a promising future. He even had hopes of his daughter marring into the nobility of the Fire Nation. The man’s tell was largely boring and very slurred to Toph. Thus she tuned it out. But when he said what she could only guess was, “So, I had no choice but to contact the Blue Spirit. I’m so desperate!”
“I was so wrapped up in your tell of woe that I have forgotten, what is it that you needed the Blue Spirit to do?”
“That foul spirit! He’s charging me more then that hunk of metal is worth to retrieve it!” He meant of course that the metal itself was worth less then he was paying for the important object’s return.
“And what is it that he is to retrieve?”
“My family’s seal!” the golden eyed man sobbed. “Without that my family could come to ruin! Foul spirit is what he is! The man who stole it could forge letters and documents from me! The wretch!”
“Do you know who has it?’
The man laughed, “Heh! I have nothing but suspicion!”
‘Mai Ling’ with false anxiety said, “I will pray for you. I must hurry home before the sunsets. It gets dangerous after the sun goes down. You should go too.”
“I can care for myself.” Yet the man stumbled off towards the rich neighborhood.
Toph rushed off to find if maybe she could get any information from Zuko without talking to him.
She couldn’t. Thankfully she had a backup plan.
Toph went home and told Katara that she had a new case for the Painted Lady but they had to wait for the right time. But she had to be prepared because the right time could come any time this or another night soon.
Katara shrugged and got ready while Toph told her what she would be going after. She put on her new paint. The familiarity of it was calming.
Zuko sighed as he shifted out of his bed. He thought he was tricking his uncle by leaving after the man was asleep. But he didn’t know that his uncle didn’t sleep until he got back. This night was his third mission this week. But it was also the last. He’d take a small break after this night.
Soon he was creeping on the stones paving the roads. Unknown to him he tipped someone off. He was being followed underground by two young females.
The Painted Lady blindly followed Blind Bandit. She trusted her blind friend. Yawning and stretching in the darkness. She smiled. A night or two more and everyone in the pit would be healed. It was a nice feeling to know that you helped saved so many lives.
This night Toph opened a hole in the ground in the garden of a man who wanted to appear rich. “Good luck Sugar-Queen.”
“Thanks.” The Painted Lady nodded at her before running into the building.
When she got into the library, the most likely place for a seal, she saw the Blue Spirit was already there. And so was the owner of the home. The owner was trying to bribe the Blue Spirit into not taking the seal. But he said nothing; he only advanced on the man who clutched the seal.
The Painted Lady smiled. They were distracting each other. ‘This is perfect. It’s time for a rematch Blue-Boy.’
The pour man’s heart was thumping hard. His vision had tunneled on the masked man before him. The Blue Spirit walked toward him slowly. With each step the Blue Spirit seemed to grow bigger, it wasn’t true but the pour guy saw it that way. Fear was rocking him as he continued to try to talk the Blue Spirit out of his prize. When the Blue Spirit was just over an arm’s length away the all too human man couldn’t feel anything but his heart shacking his whole world.
Then something flashed before his eyes and Blue Spirit was clutching the side of his head. He looked into the home owner’s arms, the seal was gone.
The Blue Spirit cursed under his breath and ran towards the door. The edge of red fabric fluttered past the frame. The Blue Spirit followed it. He couldn’t tell who it was but the Blue Spirit could guess.
Sure enough, when he got out into the garden the lovely spirit known as the Painted Lady was waiting for him.
“Why are you after my quarry?”
She only smiled at him and held up the large ornate seal as if to ask, ‘This?’
“Give that to me.” He put out his hand and started walking towards her.
The Painted Lady held it to her chest and shook her head. She was still smiling that pretty, teasing smile. Her dark brown hair seemed to say to him, ‘This spirit is not to be touched by any but our silky fingers.’ It was odd.
“You don’t understand.” He stepped closer. “I need that. I don’t want to live forever like a rat-pentapus in the sewer or as a thieving gopher-rat.”
Her voice was low, hard to hear but it almost suited her. Strangely it sounded like it was just too low for the spirit it came from. “You are profiting off the misfortune of others. It is not right.”
“And why shouldn’t I?”
“Because everyone falls into hard times, you cannot expect someone to help you if you do not help others in their misfortune. It’s karma.”
“Believe me I know, I am in hard times now. Please give it to me.”
“No.”
“Then I will have to take it from you.” He lunged at her.
She stepped to the side. But having learned from last time as she did this she made sure the place where she had stood before was covered in black ice. The Blue Spirit slipped and slid until he stopped upside down at the base of a tree.
“Good night, Blue Spirit.” she called lowly from where she was. He got up and ran towards her again. She stepped back. She appeared to fall. But when he got there, there was nothing, not even the scar of recently turned earth. Chills raised the hairs on his arm as he thought, ‘Maybe she is the real deal.’
That very night the Painted Lady snuck into the house of the man who was missing his family’s seal. She placed it next to the drunken, sleeping man on his pillow. Then she returned to the house she stole it from and shot another Panda-Lily into the door.
Following that she quietly went once again to The Pit. There were only a few people left in comparison to how many there was the first time she went to The Pit. She got to over half of the people. She left again before the sun rose.
The Painted Lady yawned and stretched when she entered Katara and Toph’s apartment. She was so very tired. She changed into a white under dress that she used as a nightgown. It was long and plain. After she had it on she blew out the candle Toph had left lit for her.
Crawling into bed she whispered good night to the world and the spirits.
After losing to the Painted Lady Zuko fumed all the way home. If he ever met the Painted Lady again she would lose to him, even if they had nothing to fight over. He would make sure of it.
When Zuko had his apartment in his sights the moon shown into his eyes. And he put his arm up to block the light. In one eye it only blocked tentacles of light. The shadows from his black gloved hand reminded him of lady hair. He had a flash of a scene, a scene he had tried to bar from his mind. There in the flash of memory was a woman; he could see mostly her back and a glimpse of the skin of her cheek. Her red and pink clothes were then hidden from view by a head of darker hair. But he could barely even see that. Zuko was too focused on the taller woman. Her hair was so long that he couldn’t see the end of it because of her friend. She wore it mostly down, except for the top layer that was pulled up into the traditional Fire Nation topknot. The hair was a dark brown that shown in the sun with mahogany streaks. It blew in the afternoon breeze and cast a shadow nearly as wonderful as it itself was.
Zuko shook his head at the memory. ‘Why did she come up? I was thinking of how mad I am at the Painted Lady. Maybe it’s because every time I meet either female the end result is a fight… They’re both stubborn shrews.’ Zuko smiled at that. ‘They would either get along very well or tear each other’s eyes out.’ Zuko’s smile turned into a large grin. He began to snicker.
He entered his apartment in a good mood. His mood was much better than it should have been after his loss.
The next day ‘Mai Ling’ and ‘Jen’ dropped in on his uncle at the tea shop. Zuko, who was sitting sleepily at a table, sunk down when he saw them enter. He was lucky that ‘Mai Ling’ was feeling generous at the moment. She didn’t lead ‘Jen’ straight to him but chose a seat on the other side of the shop. Zuko could see them even with his head resting on the table.
When ‘Jen’ turned to look around for Iroh, Zuko got almost the same view of her as his memory the night before. His eyes widened at the picture. His heart sped up a little too. ‘Mai Ling’ looked over at him curiously. But he didn’t notice. He was again reminded of the day he and his uncle saved the two girls. Yet the memory didn’t make him feel distain like it usually did. It was a little confusing.
Iroh stepped between him and the girls and he stopped staring. ‘Something is off here.’ Zuko thought. He got up to leave and got captured by ‘Mai Ling’. He should have seen her coming, but he hadn’t.
She grabbed his arm. “Come sit with us Zuko.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Too bad. I wasn’t really giving you the choice.” She grinned at him. “Jen was just saying the other day how much she missed you.” What Katara had actually said was that she hoped he broke his leg so he wouldn’t be able to cause Iroh worry over what he was doing.
“I’m not going to believe that.” He tried to keep his voice from sounding embarrassed. It worked, but ‘Mai Ling’ had a better source of judgment. She could tell he was blushing out of embarrassment.
‘Mai Ling’ teased him in a knowing way, “Maybe not. But you wish you can, don’t you?”
His cheeks went redder and he pulled his arm away. “I really can’t go sit with you. I have to leave. I’m very busy.”
“Lair. You’re just too embarrassed because I caught onto your secret wish.”
“No, I’m not! I’m not because I don’t have any such secret wish!”
“Sure you don’t…” She smiled and thought, ‘It’s so fun to mess with him.’
“I don’t, Mai Ling!”
“I know. That’s what makes you reaction to the claim that much more funny.”
Zuko slapped his forehead. ‘Mai Ling’ dragged him off to the table where ‘Jen’ sat with their tea.
“Drat! I was hoping you wouldn’t come.” ‘Jen’ said sourly.
“I’m not thrilled to be here with you either. I’m only here because your blind cousin is my friend.” ‘Sort of, if you can call her teasing and threatening me a friendship.’
“Yeah. You’re a bad influence. It’s no wonder she likes you.”
“I’m not a bad influence!”
“Sure you aren’t.” she said in a disbelieving tone.
“I’m not. I’m a good guy.”
“You can be a bad influence and still be a sort of good guy. But you can never be a great man.” ‘Jen’ said it so calmly that it really stung his ego. She sat there and didn’t even bat an eye while insulting him.
Zuko clenched his teeth and snarled, “I’ll show you a great man!” He leaned over her glaring. All the costumers stopped what they were doing to see how this would pan out.
‘Jen’ questioned as she looked up at him, “Are you threatening me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” She picked up her tea and calmly took a sip.
Zuko was confused. “What?”
She looked back up at him. “You just proved my point. Only a bad influence would threaten a lady.” People they had never even met gasped at her audacity.
‘Mai Ling’ had to hold back her snickering so she could hear what would happen next.
“You wouldn’t know a great man if he married you!” he hissed in her face.
‘Jen’s’ eyebrow twitched a little bit. Her next statement would be a doozy. ‘Jen’ whispered to him, “Don’t get so close to a lady, unless you want her to kiss you.”
Zuko flew backwards like someone cut a rope he was climbing up. His face was utterly full of shock.
‘Mai Ling’s’ super fine-tuned ears were the only ones that heard what ‘Jen’ had whispered. And all she could do was cover her slacking mouth while she tried to laugh around her shock.
After a long moment of staring at the floor Zuko looked up at ‘Jen’. ‘Jen’ smiled her victory at him. Yet he couldn’t see that all he could see was the sparkle in her eyes. And her lips, dark and shining, pulled into a smile, mixing that with her words of kissing meant doom to his sanity. Zuko got up and fled down the steps of the tea shop. He didn’t look where he was going until he was out of city limits.
‘Jen’ laughed after he left. She only said it to get Zuko to back off. Zuko’s reaction was very funny, and she did get what she wanted. Still her face heated up because of the action she had basically told Zuko to do. She had known he wouldn’t do it, more she had hoped he wouldn’t do it. Yet now her mind was full of thoughts of kissing Zuko. ‘Jen’ bit her lip, her smile was gone. Her heart pounded hard and her cheeks got even redder. She could feel the redness traveling down her neck. Her lips began to tingle like they had fallen asleep. ‘This is not good.’
She decided then that she would avoid Zuko until she was sure that she wouldn’t think of kissing him.
Zuko was thinking the same thing. He wouldn’t go to the tea shop and avoid her if he saw her in the streets. Zuko sat down under a tree and hung his head. He surpassed the redness of his faded clothes by many shades.
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This chapter is a present to keep everyone out there from skinning me for being so late.
To repeat I have two contests going one is just guessing how I would cast in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and the other is a fanart/fanfiction fairytales contest. For more information either go to my deviantART journal pages or find my link on my profile (fanfiction{}net people). These contests do have prizes but no entries so far. Feel free to check them out and enter. (Sorry to any who may be reading this on mediaminer but because I don’t know if you exist I’m not going to bother linking it. Sorry.)
Quick Fact: All of Toph and Katara’s clothing, aside from Katara’s special Painted Lady outfit, is from Katara’s fortunetelling clothes. The man who provided for Katara before she met the Blind Bandit insisted she look the part. So Katara remade her wardrobe to better suit quiet living after she and Toph fled.
Please review. Bye-Bye for now.