Double Bender

Part 43

(The Picture will make sense in a few minutes)

We walked home in silence. Do you know the kind of quiet where it seems to be too quiet to be natural? The kind of quiet that only comes after a serious fight or when someone says something offensive or ridiculous and you don't really know what to say, so you just stay quiet, expecting the other person to say something first? It was that kind of silence. Once we got to the house, I didn't even wait for Zuko to open the door, I just went straight to the beach and sat down on the sand. I closed my eyes and sniffed the air. Sea salt. The scent of my parent's room. It was right next to the lake. I remember it had a window seat with the most spectacular view. My mother and I used to sit there and she'd say, "Tatiana, if you ever need a place to think or even just need to be alone, just go to the water. Whenever you think you're lost, remember the water tribe and remember what my father taught me: 'Lost people of the water tribe always find their way to the sea'." Well, I thought, I'm here, I need to think, I need to be alone, I'm at the water. Now what? I was blind back then. So naive. I thought my life would be perfect and I'd have my mother and father forever. Then, in a pinch, it was all gone. Wow, I thought. It's hard to believe where I was several months ago. It's hard to believe everything I've done. But what now...? "Hey." Zuko said. "What are you doing out here?" "I was just...thinking." I said. "About what?" He asked, sitting down next to me. "About...stuff." I said. "Mmm hmm?" he said. He obviously knew that I was lying and I had something really big on my mind. "I was just thinking about...well, where I've been. I mean, it seemed like just one second ago, I was back in the Earth-Kingdom. Then, in just a heartbeat, I'm here. But, so much has happened and I sort of had mixed feelings about them. It just...seems like everything has changed." I kept my eyes on the rolling waves. "There's something else." Zuko said. I was silent for a little before finally saying, "Well... we have to face the Fire-Nation and the Fire Lord in just a few days and..." "And?" he asked. "What if you don't come back?" I blurted. "What?" he said. "You're going to have to fight Azula, or even your father. What if you don't come back?" He paused for a moment. Obviously, he hadn't thought of what would happen if he didn't come back either. "Well," he said, "I'm pretty sure that-" "Pretty sure isn't going to be enough." I protested. "This is a war we're fighting. People die. That's all that war is. Just merciless death and...families ripped apart. And...Promise that you'll come back! Try to win. Try to come back if you don't. I won't be able to bear it if you don't come back!" I paused for a moment and said, "Everything's just so crazy and confusing." "Calm down." Zuko soothed. He pulled me into a warm hug but then perked up for a second, like he had just remembered something. "Come on." He said standing up. "There's a place I want to show you." With his hand still in mine, I stood up. "Hold on." He said. "Close your eyes first." I rolled my eyes. "Really?" I said. "That's the oldest cliché in the book." "Just close 'em." He said. I rolled my eyes again and closed them. I felt him take my hand and he led me across the sand to a thick patch of plant growth on the west side of the beach. "Can I open them yet?" I asked. I know it's cheesy and used all the time. Bite me. Anyway, Zuko pulled aside a patch of vines and said, "Not yet." He took my hand again and led me into a humid place, down a short path that felt like solid sand (sandstone maybe?) and said, "Now." I opened my eyes to...more darkness. "I can't see anything." I said. "Is this some kind of trick?" "Hold on." He said. As soon as he spoke, a tiny flame appeared in his hand. Fear flew through me at a hundred miles per second. I nearly screamed. The only thing I could think of when I saw a flame was what happened in Ba Sing Se when I was burned and my encounter with Ozai. I cowered back and tripped off the pathway and into...Water? The fire had gone out. "What happened?" Zuko said as he knelt down by me. "Fire," I whispered. "I just...ever since Ba Sing Se, I..." He took my hand and helped me up. "I shouldn't have reacted that way." I continued. "I'm sorry." "No." Said Zuko. "I should have known it was a stupid idea to do that, considering...what happened." I could tell that he was just as embarrassed about Ba Sing Se as I was. "Listen," he said. "I promise that this fire won't even touch you." I nodded. He cupped his hands again and the tiny flame appeared. I did my best not to flinch. I waited for a second, then all of a sudden, another glow appeared in the corner of the cave. Behind me was a greenish glow. Another reflecting glow bounced off the wall, this time blue. Then green, then purple, one color right after the other. I looked around and saw different colored stones in the walls of the cave and those gems were reflecting the light from Zuko's fire as well as using their own (I recognized the stones. They were the kind that created their own light while reflecting light from a different source. I'm part earth-bender, I know stuff about rocks). "This is incredible." I breathed. "I found this place when I was five." Said Zuko. "I was playing with my mother and I ran into the bushes and found this place. After that, whenever we came to Ember Island and I had a lot on my mind, I'd come here. It always calmed me down and helped me think." Now the cave was a fluorescent mix of color, reflecting off the water that surrounded the walkway. It was definitely on the list of incredible views I'd seen in my life. "This is...my special place." He said. "I know it seems silly and girly but-" I cut him off. "It's nice." I said. "Everyone needs somewhere to go. They need a special place... Especially considering what that person has been through." He laced his hand through mine. "This will be our place." He whispered. I could feel myself blushing. "Ours and ours only." I whispered back. He placed his left hand on the small of my back and I put my right on his shoulder. We raised our intertwined hands and started to sway. We danced in there for almost the whole night. We forgot everything, there was no war, no sadness, no abomination making us seem like idiots. Just us, dancing and for that one second, everything was perfect. But of course, like everything that is perfect, it was not meant to last. We knew that the rest of the gang would be back home soon and they'd wonder where we were (Or what we were doing, and that can be a dangerous assumption, especially with Geo's dirty mind). We slowly pulled away and that left a sad empty feeling in between us. It was a sad feeling because we didn't want to be apart from each other and the war might separate us...maybe even for good. We wanted to be with each other...before time ran out.

EEW ROMANCE!

Oh man. Can I just say I've had enough of school? The PSAT was yesterday (my brain still hurts) and, because I'm a good girl, I did all my homework the night before, even spending 3 hours on chemistry homework. What do I find out today? Wrong homework and I have to do something else!!! The teacher put wrong homework on the website. Can school just stop for a few seconds????

(> ^#^<) I need a waffle.

Luv you guys

~Maeve