The Blue Spirit ღ (Zuko x OC)

Chapter ⅩⅤⅠⅠⅠ: Overture

Chikaro sat adjacent Nala, a sultry look adorned her gentle face, while her spindly fingers tugged at Nala's cheeks.

"Relax more. Imagine your eyelashes are very long, and thick and heavy but graceful. You lift and close them slowly. And  your brows raise ever so slightly." Chikaro coached her as Nala tried to emulate her teacher's expressions. Chikaro was truly a master of this. Just then, Qigo sat down beside them, her eyes fixated on Chikaro, who turns away as a blush fills her cheeks.

"I can't teach when you're looking at me like that, Qigo." Chikaro sighed.
"I can't do anything when you look like that, darling." 

Nala giggled at the two. She admired their devotion and love. They'd been together for a while, but the spark of love hadn't faded. Ying had walked up and offered out a hand to Nala, offering to try something new. She hadn't yet gotten over her nerves for performance, and everyone was trying different things to help her ease in to it. Ying had led her to that busy street and began to wiggle about. She cocked an eyebrow.

"What are yo—"
"Relax." He grabbed her by the shoulders to shake her out, earning a soft titter from her as usual. "We're not performing in this town so ... no one is going to know or care who you are and why ... you're just some girl, dancing with some boy in the street."

She nods, putting her trust in him as she takes his hand and they begin to dance about. Soon enough, however, she becomes painfully aware that people are looking them up and down with judgement.

"They're all staring at us ..." She murmurs, her eyes darting about the faces.
"Yeah ... almost like I'm wearing women's slippers, or something." Ying said. Nala looked down. He was in fact wearing women's slippers. Not just any slippers either, but the pair too small for his feet that he'd warn while shuffling about the forest as 'Madame Ying'. Nala burst out in to a wail of laughter.

"Why are you wearing women's slippers, Ying?"
"So you didn't think people would be staring at you." He murmured with a smile as they turned about-face, then stepped in synchronised movements to come together. "Let them stare. You'll have eyes on you plenty, and mostly, it will be because you're a star."

The next town over was where they'd be holding their show, and Ying had insisted on Nala being granted a small part to dip her toes in to. She held the words of Ying in her mind as she waited behind the curtain. Just before he was called on, he turned to her.

"Go get 'em, Grandpa." He chirped with a wink, then pranced on to the stage with all the charisma of 100 regular men. Nala took a long inhale as she heard her cue, shuffling on to the stage, scratching her long, glued-on beard and bent over a walking cane. She entered with Chikaro's voice in mind. She wasn't herself here, she didn't have to be the girl who's home was destroyed, or the last remaining one of her people ... now she was Old Man Gong and the audience's laughter as she spoke filled her with a new kind of energy, even as one member of the audience begins to howl.

"That old man sounds just like a poodlemonkey I stepped on once!"

*✧*

The troupe were practically hanging out of the windows of the caravan as they travelled through Ba Sing Se, Nala's jaw hadn't closed since they'd first arrived. Qigo, Ying and Chikaro were pointing out different parts of the city, and explaining the walls and history within them as they sped through the largest city Nala had ever seen.

Everything seemed so new and full of possibilities. Her hair had grown since all that time ago that she'd cut it, and the members of the troupe helped her keep it dyed black, all while being courteous enough not to venture in to how it was possible for someone to have red hair. She'd become more acquainted with the stage, and the Fire Nation Prince was but a distant, hazy memory. She'd found a comfortable place with the travelling troupe.

"So many people!" Nala squealed, trying to count all the houses.
"This is the main event now." Even Qigo wass smiling.
"Yes. We'll be here a while. There's a few days setup before opening night." Miss Akihiko stated.
"So no goofing off and getting injured!" Snapped Li Min.

The troupe had arrived and began to set up camp in an open area of the city, by the big city theatre. Qigo, who had grown up in the city, offered to show everyone around. She seemed somewhat in her element, for once, navigating the city with ease even though everything about it had changed even in the few years that had passed. Ying and Chikaro, who'd come once before, aided Qigo with anecdotes and history lessons. They took the time to put up flyers advertising the show.

Qigo had gleaned information on some good tea shops and noodles houses to check out during their stay, and the idea of eating out made Nala excited. Ying had been filling her in on the story of Ba Sing Se and the Dragon of the West.

"I remember that story ..." She murmured, suddenly her brow furrowed as she thought back to Iroh. He really didn't seem like the kind of man to lay siege to a city for a hundred days. Such is the deceit of the Fire Nation, she supposed. She was lost in her own thoughts for a moment, shaken from them as Chikaro began to chime in.

"We should make him a pantomime villain!"
"The disgraced General who couldn't yield Ba Sing Se ..." Ying added. The two played off each other's ludicrous ideas so well, it almost astounded Nala, if it didn't always spell trouble and mischief.
"... And so his brother — disgraced by his brother's failure — takes up the mantle ..." Came Chikaro, then Ying leapt out in front of her, singing.

"To restore my repute as fierce, fearsome brute ...
There's only one route I see..." 

Chikaro let out a chuckle as she grabbed his hand, and they danced about as she completed his verse:

"Arrange the slaughter of millions of innocent civilians!" 

Then the two came together, as if coming up with the same twisted idea simultaneously, turning to sing to Nala and Qigo.

"Then they'll remember me!"

The duo burst into laughter, exclaiming excitedly about their wishes to put it into performance. Qigo rolled her eyes.

"You two should really keep it down." She warned.
"Qigo it's Ba Sing Se. There's no Fire Nation here." Chikaro said.
"Doesn't mean you should be joking about that kind of thing. It's a bit ... grim." Coming from Qigo, it was saying a lot.

When they returned, Chikaro had begun to cartwheel about, obviously letting off some of the energy she had accrued while being cooped up in the caravan. Ying had taken Nala to the edge of a street again, standing in the cover of an alley that was still plenty visible to passersby. Chikaro and Qigo had followed, standing in the street adjacent to be spectators within the flow of strangers. Ying insisted on rehearsing the dance-fight that had been originally choreographed for them. 

They began a vibrant and zealous dance of passionate anguish, matching each other's steps perfectly. He gave her a look to check in with her as he grabbed her by the front of her shirt, and she laid her arms over his. He lifted her into the air as they counter-balance their weight, his forearm muscles flexed to hold her as she pressed into him. She turned her head just for a moment, but a moment long enough to catch a glimpse of something somehow distantly familiar, and her attention was stolen from her balance. As Ying pushed her backward, she gasped in shock and he immediately realised she was unprepared to catch herself. Nala hit the pavement with a yelp, wincing in pain.

"Dammit!" She hollered, cussing under her breath.
"Nala! Are yo—" Ying had begun, before suddenly being shoved against the wall.