Avatar Rose: Dusk

Chapter 49: Rose

I blink a few times. "Draw? I haven't drawn in a long time..."

I take the pencil and sketchbook in my hands. I'm about to sketch, but my right arm uncontrollably fidgets, sending the pencil flying across the room.

"What was that?" I splutter, staring at my metal hand.

"Sorry, they're just reflexes. Your bionic arm and leg are connected to your brain in some complex way, meaning they both might react," Xander explains.

"Oh... right..."

Xander glances at Nathan, almost as if he just noticed him. "Is he a friend of yours?"

"Boyfriend," Nathan corrects stiffly.

He smirks. "Interesting."

I glance at Nathan nervously, only to see that his face is twisted into a scowl. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad.

Not just Nathan's possessiveness, but my reflexes too. I told Xander I am an earthbender, but I could possibly fire or airbend uncontrollably. If I did, Nathan and I are screwed.

"So, where are you from? It's not often you see someone blonde, let alone two blondes seeing each other."

"Uhh... Errr... Umm.. Hah, th- those aren't words..." I stammer, my face practically smoldering.

Nathan glares at me. Xander chuckles a little, looking up expectantly with those crystal blue eyes.

Snap out of it, dammit!

"Ganshan. I- I'm from Ganshan," I finally say.

"Wow! I guess you're lucky to be alive. The Fire Nation had the avatar and a whole army destroy the place. Wonder what happened to her," Xander muses.

I nod quietly, trying to avoid that subject. It's a good thing no one has a good description of "the avatar." It's not like I blend in to the rest of society.

I'm not sure if it's good or bad when Xander says he's going to have to put new nerves into my leg. I've never done this before.

"Okay! Yellow wires, here we go!" He chirps excitedly.

"What do the yellow wires d--" I begin, but I find out before I can finish my sentence.

If you think pain is bad, think again. Imagine having only ticklish nerves in your left leg, meaning the only thing you can feel is tickling through it. It's like some torture device.

"Wh- what are you doing to her!?" Nathan splutters nervously as I uncontrollably laugh and try to squirm away.

"Wow. Who knew a robotic leg could be so ticklish? Hold her down while I connect the rest of these wires. It's only the first layer," Xander orders. Nathan uneasily obeys.

Xander's palm pressed on my calf sends pins and needles of the horrible sensation up and down my leg. After about fifteen minutes of this, he finally let's go of my leg, which was frantically trying to escape his touch.

He flicks the bottom of my foot playfully. It clangs slightly, then sends a series of giggles out of my mouth. I breath heavily.

"That was probably the worst thing I've ever felt," I gasp.

Xander grins. "Can't be that bad! That was only the beginning."

I gulp. He pulls out a varied amount of colored wires. He then does green. Muscle nerves. My reflexes fidget so much that he has to strap them down. I accidentally put my ice cream cone into Nathan's face, smothering it with the frozen treat.

Then the red ones. This was for pain, and it was like a burning and stinging sensation at the same time. It took a while for Nathan to convince me my leg wasn't on fire. The finally colors, blue and purple, were just sensory. The blue made my leg feel like it was caked with ice, while the purple ones had a similar sensation that the red wires had. Burning.

"Why couldn't you have just disconnected the leg before all this?" Nathan mumbles.

I shudder. Disconnecting a limb for a long period of time can produce phantom pains; a sort of sensation like you're getting your limb cut off all over again. It's lasts a while too.

Xander shrugs. "I've actually never really worked on mechanical limbs before. I didn't want to disconnect it because I didn't know what that'd do."

"So you've had no idea what you've been doing this whole time?" Nathan asks angrily.

Xander doesn't seem defensive in the least. He's calm and collected. "I've been researching about it a lot. By the way, you don't have to pay me. It was my pleasure doing it for the experience."

I blush. What was that supposed to mean? "You sure? No offense, but this place doesn't look very busy."

"Well, I was actually planning to join you guys. You're traveling, right?"

Nathan and I both quickly rush to shut his idea down and denying anything about it.