Double Bender

Part 7

I would have screamed, but no sound came out. The horror of the dream still hung in my memory and froze the sound in my throat. I walked out of the tent, not wanting to wake the others, sat down and held my head in my hands. Zuko, who was apparently a very light sleeper, came outside, sat down next to me, and awkwardly put his hand on my shoulder. I apparently hadn't snapped out of the dream yet. "Get away from me!" I cried. "Stay away!" "What?" said Zuko. "You left me there! You left me there to burn!" I kept prattling on about how he left me to die. To be perfectly honest, it was very embarrassing. Finally, he put both hands on my shoulders and said, "Get ahold of yourself! You were only dreaming." My mind snapped back to reality. I realized where I was and why I was there. Without wanting to or needing to, I started to cry. Zuko, now feeling more awkward than ever, hugged me. "It was just a dream," he said again. "Just a dream." I hugged him back, which was awkward for both of us. After sitting there for a few moments, we pulled away and faced each other. "You think you can go back to sleep now?" He asked. "I-I dunno," "Try at least," "O-okay," I said awkwardly. "Good." He smiled a little bit and went back inside. Something snapped inside me right there. Well, it either snapped or clicked. I realized something. It could have just been a complete shock or completely natural. I might have been denying that feeling for a long time. Heck, it could have started the second I laid eyes on him and I just denied feeling that way. Maybe I wanted to, maybe I didn't but I wasn't sure until now. Maybe it was just because he felt the same way and we just...understood each other. But all that disappeared in that very moment, it was just me and that realization. I realized...that I was in love with Zuko.
All I could possibly think at the moment was WHAAAAAAAAAT?! Me and Zuko! That's the craziest thing in the world! I mean, why would he love me? And besides, even if he did love me back, very unlikely by the way, we'd just kill each other. I mean we're so dang different! UUUUUUGH! I walked out to the edge of the wall, snuck along the side to the crack and crept outside to the creek along the edge of the lake. "I mean," I thought aloud, "I'm crazy and he's...not crazy. He's hotheaded and I'm sarcastic. That's a recipe for disaster!" "You know," said a voice behind me, "talking to one's self is a sign that something is wrong." I turned around and saw Uncle. "Hello," I said. "So what's wrong?" he asked. "Are you upset about something?" "What? No, no no. I'm not upset. Why would I ever need to be upset?" I said, all a little too quick. Uncle took the hint. "So why are you upset?" "It's kinda complicated," He sat down on a rock and gestured for me to sit down next to him. "Tell me what's wrong." he said. I sat down next to him "Well, I just came to a bit of a confusing conclusion..." I trailed. "Tell me," he said. "I just figured out that...you can't tell anyone about this, not even Geo or... Zuko, okay?' "Just tell me already!" He said, laughing a little. "Okay." I let out a breath and said. "I'm in love with Zuko!" Uncle looked at me for a second then he gave me a big hug. "That was extremely unexpected." I said. I picked up a rock and threw it into the water. "That's wonderful news! Why would that upset you?" he asked. I stood back up. "Because it's the craziest thing in the world, that's why!" I shouted. "I don't know," I said, looking at the ground, "I mean, sometimes I just think the whole universe is against me, sometimes I just think I'm going crazy." "Everyone feels that way every once in a while, and my nephew is no exception." "But, me and him are just... too different. It's like...um..." I picked up a stone, "a rock loving a lake." I threw the rock. It splashed in the water and sank. "One of us is going to sink. One of us is going to end up breaking the other." Uncle went into old man mode. "Maybe, if you look at it that way. If you try and go in at a positive angle," He picked up a rock and threw it. It skipped across the lake five times before sinking. "You will get along harmoniously." I was still being negative. I guess I was just scared. It was felt completely new to be in love and I didn't know what to make of it. "Yeah, but one is still going to sink. In fact, it's going to be even more painful for the one who sinks because they'll believe that the other loved them before letting them sink. That is exactly what's going to happen to me and Zuko. As a matter of fact, Zuko and I should stay away from each other!" Uncle stood up and walked over to the creek. "Come over here," he said. I walked over to the creek. "You see, being in love is like a river. Constantly moving, always changing, and there always seems to be something that tries to slow you down." There were huge rocks in all places at the start and middle of the creek and even after the rocks ended there was so much algae that only half the water could make it through. Uncle tossed a leaf in the creek. It started to flow down. "If one does not love the other, or if one does love the other but will not openly say it, there will be no foundation and that love will be flimsy, like a leaf. You will get stuck." As if on cue, the leaf was overcome by the currents and flowed into a rock with a small "splat" and was stuck. "So you're saying if I don't tell Zuko that I love him I'll get stuck to a rock? Telling him won't work anyway. I know that he doesn't love me back." "I wouldn't be so sure..." said Uncle slyly. "Why do you say that?" I asked. "I know my nephew better than his own father does." "That's not hard," I said. "I've seen the way he looks at you. When you accidentally fell and he caught you, he blushed." "That's probably because he isn't used to catching a girl like that. He was probably just embarrassed." I have to admit that I was being a little bit difficult (understatement of the friggin' century!). "He catches Geo like that all the time and never blushes. Besides, you were blushing too." Uncle said. I blushed. "If he doesn't love you, then I'll eat my tea pot!" He said. He decided to go back to his "lesson" and dropped a twig into the river. "If you want to survive, you have to trust one another, even if you get stuck on the way." The twig twisted to one side and got stuck between two rocks. The water started building up against it before finally pushing it out of the way. "Even though you may think that your troubles are over, there will always be something else." As he spoke, the twig was entangled in the algae, twirling among the difficult plants. "If you truly love one another, you will get through. But you can't just expect it to turn out alright. You have to make it that way." He nodded at me and I understood his meaning. I started to water-bend around the twig, helping it along. The twig flowed freely between the algae and into the lake. "Do you understand what I'm saying, Tatiana?" "Sorta, but Zuko and I are still really different. We'd kill each other for sure! I mean, just look at me, him, and... Geo. Geo and I are practically the same, with a difference of height, hair, and eye-color. And she and Zuko hate each other. Just put me in that scenario and...and we'd STILL kill each other. When you look at the three of us it's like fish, dolphin, tea-pot, which one doesn't belong?" "You think far too much." Uncle said. It amazed me how I wasn't annoying him out of his skull. "Your head is speaking too loud that you don't hear what really matters. In here," he put a hand over his heart. "Do you understand what I mean now?" I looked at the ground and nodded. "Good," he smiled. "Now let's get back inside. It's chilly out here." I smiled. "Thank you, Uncle."