Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was yet another day in that foreign land along with his parents. His father said it only was a business trip for a couple days, but they’ve already spent an entire week in that place. As much as the boy disliked his studies, he felt envious of his sister been able to stay at home so as not to interrupt hers. Unconsciously, a heavy sigh escaped his mouth as he turned his gaze to the outside of the window of their coach.

A couple hours passed; green, brown and yellow were the only colors the young one saw while traveling on the road. A seemingly endless sea of trees, mountain after mountain of different shapes and sizes and dirt, a lot of it. This trip was caused because his father didn´t want to run into any townsfolk, so they took an alternative route even if it meant more time to reach their destination. The kid didn’t like the earth kingdom at all. He just wanted to stay in the palace along with his uncle, aunt and cousin. As always, how lucky was his sister.

     After an hour, the constant pounding of the carriage began to lull him, the boy struggled to keep his eyes open but any resistance on his part was useless. Suddenly, a bump on the road caused his chin to hit the wooden arm of the window where he rested his face. A loud snort caught the attention of the child´s mother and, as usual, his father didn’t even bother to open his eyes when something happened to him.

     “Mom, why did we have to come here? I hate this place!” —he pointed out of the window —“It´s so boring… and there’s dirt everywhere. I want to go back home,” the young prince said with his arms crossed in front of his chest and pouting. She held him close to her and rubbed his chin, a faint smile appeared on her lips when she saw him wince in pain.

     “Zuko, after your great grandfather eased the tensions of the hundred-day secession fifty years ago; he insisted on reforging the bonds the fire nation had with the earth kingdom, and your grandfather Azulon agreed with that. He in turn entrusted your father to continue it; that’s why we are with him today. You can see it as experience for when you grow older and take a position on the family business or as tiny vacation.” She smiled sweetly at him. “Today we’ll go visit one of his most important business partners, here in Gaoling.”

     “Mmm… I see… but I don’t want to do that, I just want to go home and play,” young Zuko muttered while seeing his dad’s face, again, he didn’t bother to even open one eye.

In a moment, the sound of the continuous footsteps of the moose-dragons suddenly ceased, as well as the crunch that rocks made when the wheels passed over them.

     “We have arrived,” his mother said in a sweet voice.

     “Finally,” Ozai opened his eyes for the first time since an hour. A guard approached the door on Zuko’s side and opened it for him to descend of the transport. The boy was eager to leave that iron and wooden prison where he was confined for the past two and a half hours

     He set foot on the ground as fast as he could and quickly turned to the front of the carriage and stared at the enormous walls that towered over the other two vehicles at each side of theirs. Still, those nacre colored defenses weren’t as tall as the ones encircling the fire nation palace, he bet his cousin could climb them up with out to much effort.

     At the sound of the metal gates opening, Ozai passed him by without a word, three full armored firebending masters at each side of him. Ursa took her son by the shoulders and guided him to the entrance. A glimpse of his eye showed him other three guards at their right, two of them female. His mother’s guard.

     As they approached the giant gates, the voice of a man broke the silence. He was almost as tall as his dad and at both sides of his mouth, dark and thin moustaches fell past his chin. He looked kind of funny. Five soldier-like men followed him, all of them wore green cloths.

     “Ozai! Long time no see,” the man with the funny moustache and his dad shaken hands with apparent friendliness, as if they had met for a long time. Something very rare coming from him. Usually his father detested talking with non-fire nation citizens, well… the sole exceptions were this guy named Lao and chief Arnook: Yue’s father. “Well, come in,” the same guy said, “We have business to attend, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t come from that far just to admire this humble state” they both laughed and started walking to the inside of the complex. Ursa and the boy following behind them with a slow pace.

“Our Earthen Fire refineries have increased production in a forty five percent since the start of the year.” The older ones were talking as they walked down across a hallway near a really huge garden. For their privacy, all bodyguards had stayed near the entrance of the mansion. “Clients in Republic City, Omashu and here in Gaoling are pleased with the quality of the products our factories made. All the shipping permissions were granted immediately just by the sole mention of a surname,” Lao said with a very proud voice, he wanted to assure the fire prince that he made the right choice by partnering with him.

     His attitude didn’t bother Ozai, in the end he was only using him so his company gained influence over the biggest nation in the world, “Same in Caldera and Fire Fountain cities. And I know our incursion to the Northern Water Tribe territory drove our competitors in Ba Sing Se crazy” his response caused Lao to chuckle.

     “Of course, it has. I can’t remember how many letters those upper ring elbow leeches have sent me in retaliation.” He was sure one of them being that bending-supremacist lady.

As both men started to fade away in to the distance, a very feminine voice greeted his mother in a joyful way.

     “Princess Ursa!” a tall and fair skinned woman covered in a sophisticated green dress called to the rest of the royal family from an adjacent corridor. She bowed to his mother with uttermost respect.

     “Poppy! It has been almost a year since the last time. How it’s been for you?” the descendant of the avatar Roku asked.

     “Fine, I think. Lao and I had our differences, but now we are working to solve them and… Oh…” —Poppy blinked at the sight of a child’s face poking out from behind Ursa’s back —“Well, look what we have here. A young man as handsome as his mother,” the woman covered her mouth while giggling and then bowed to him, “Hello, prince Zuko.” The boy shyly backed behind his mother.

     “Zuko, where are your modals?” Ursa turned back and asked him with a gentle tone while glaring at him, her eyes sharpened. The dark-haired boy gulped and came out of hiding, he barely remembered the surname of that family.

     “Hello… Miss Beifong.” The kid stood in front of his mother and bowed at the woman with the massive hair buns wrapped, over and at both sides of her head. 

     Poppy smiled at this and responded with her gaze fixed on the princess, “I know that talks between adults can be pretty boring for children. If he wishes, he can walk freely around the garden,” Ursa gave her a concerned look, but she immediately added, “There’s no problem dear, the place is guarded with the most loyal men we have, and some of the servants can attend his needs.”

     “I don’t want to bother you, Poppy. I’m sure my son can wait near us while we have some tea.” Ursa thought of Zuko finding out a very sensitive secret about the Beifong couple, but her host reassured her yet again.

     “You´re not bothering me dear,” the Beifong mistress mentioned with a faint smile on her lips, “Recreation is good for the children.”

...     ...     ...

Fifteen minutes later, Zuko was able to lose the guards in the corridors where banners with a flying boar were hung over the room entrances, and finally walked on his own. His attention was caught by the small ‘r’ shaped pond at the side of the enormous garden. He didn’t like water that much but it was something different from all the dirt outside the walls.

     While he approached it, began kicking a rock over and over until it fell into the water, it was the only thing Zuko found to distract himself after a couple minutes away from the main complex. To him, it felt like he was going to die out of boredom. After looking to his left, right and then behind, he let himself fall into the soft grass below his feet, arms and legs extended; something his father would have sure called unfit of someone from royalty.

     A couple seconds passed, the sound of something that splashed into the water caught his interest completely. The sensation of something warm started appearing on top of his left shoulder and a light screech made him realize it was his companion. So, he wasn’t the only one intrigued by that.

     He turned his face to it, “Hey buddy, did you feel something?” the tiny bird-like creature screeched at the direction of the other side of a little stone bridge that divided the pond, near a couple of trees that produced a good amount of shade.                    

     The boy nodded to the bird and got up in a matter of seconds. He saw something tiny crawling near a bush between two trees. It looks like a little person. A dumb idea took over his mind; go and satisfy your curiosity. Normally he wouldn’t venture to do such a reckless thing, it could be a wild animal or much worse, a spirit like a Kemurikage. Anyway, it was better than doing nothing in that boring place.

     He turned sideways to be sure no one was following him and approached that place as silently as possible. His companion had vanished, Zuko knew it only appeared when he needed to bend fire, sensed danger or another spirit nearby; so maybe he had nothing to fear.

     Less than a meter from the shrub, he accidentally cracked a branch that was on the grass and froze at the calling of a very feminine and acute voice.

     “Who-Who’s there? I-I’ll call the guards!” the voice started to threaten him.

     “Wait! There’s no need for that. I-I just wanted to lay down on the grass, that’s all.” He steadily came close to the bush and looked behind it, there was… a little girl? She was crouched, holding her knees with both arms around them.

     “Who are you?! Don’t come any closer!” —she hissed at him, somewhat fearful — “I’ve never heard your voice before.”

     Zuko didn’t pay too much attention what she just mentioned, instead he took a close look at her, she had fair skin that reminded him of the pearls that his cousin used to collect near the beach house of their family in Ember island. Long black hair pulled upwards in a big bun (just like the lady his mother was talking to), still, some part of her bangs fell and covered her eyes. She was wearing a fine light green dress that made her look like a member of the earth kingdom noblesse. Who is this girl? He didn’t recall his mother telling him that the Beifong’s had a daughter. She was kind of pretty… diagh! No, why did I think that? Better to calming her down than thinking about girls. They were gross, like Azula or Mai, right? Well, Yue was kinda nice… but no, girls are gross and weird… right? After hearing her repeat the same warning, the boy gulped and continued.

     “I already told you, there’s no need for that. I heard something falling into the water, it got my curiosity and then I found you, that’s all,” Zuko showed to her both of his hands in the air as a sign of not having ill intentions.

     He was going to retreat when he saw part of her dress soaked wet. The bird spirit appeared next to him once again, “Your foot and your leg, I can help you make them feel better… if you want,” he muttered the last part the moment he saw her trying to lift her face in his direction.

     “H-How did you d-do that?” the girl asked softly, she could sense other presence near the boy. It suddenly became warmer around them.

     With the help of his companion, Zuko was able to create a small flame over his right palm, “Oh, this? Well, sometimes what we need is just a little spark to make great things happen,” he said, trying to emulate his older cousin Lu Ten. Then he slowly came down to his left knee and gently approached the girl’s left foot. She winced and drew it back, a little scared by the feeling, didn’t understand how he was able to do such thing. He had a strange presence around him just like her father’s.

     “Hey, it’s not a big deal, it’s just a little flame. I won’t hurt you, I promise,” with a light touch, he reassured her by putting a hand over her shoulder; she nodded, still somewhat fearful.

     “Alright, I’m going to start.” At the moment Zuko ran his hand over her foot, she took firm hold of his forearm. The boy pushed his hand away from her shoulder and took a quick look at the girl’s face; her cheeks where all flushed, her lips pursed and her eyes covered by her messy bangs. Now she looks very funny, he thought with a chuckle while resuming to help her.

After a couple minutes he talked, “I think it’s done, but, uhm… can you touch your dress and leg? just to be sure,” the girl did as he told her and sensed that it was true. A soft thanks was all she said to him. The spirit vanished into thin air.

     “Well… oh, right, my mother could scold me for this, I forgot my manners. Hello, my name is Zuko, prince of the fire nation.” The boy said the latter with a wide smile on his lips, so rare of him to act this way around a girl. Was he trying to impress her?

     “Mine is Toph… Beifong,” the little girl replied in a rather informal way, this surprised him, he never saw this type of behavior on any other girl he had met before. Also, this confirmed to him that she was the daughter of that couple, but why his mother never told him about them having a daughter?

     He decided to reach his hand to her to help her up, but she just ignored it. Heaving a sigh, he stood up with a swift move and dusted the left knee of his pants.

     “Forgive me.”

     “For what?” she replied nonchalant while her head pointed to her right side.

     “I just tried to help you stand up.”

     “I can do that myself.” The sole daughter of the Beifong’s told him in a rather cold tone.

     “I’m not saying you can’t, just trying to be nice with you. I’m a prince after all.”

     Was he really a prince? Who was that boy? With a little difficult the girl stood up and asked him, trying to avoid looking at his direction, “Alright, but what’s a prince doing in my house?”

     With that movement of hers, he saw something that surprised him. “Well, my father came to meet with yours and… Oh! You’re—”

     “Blind?” she answered softly while ducking her head, he has realized it. They didn’t know each other yet; he was nice with her. Maybe she could trust him, but now that he saw her condition, he may want to leave. The thought of them becoming… no, that would be too good to be true.

     Zuko’s face showed astonishment, he never expected her eyes to look that way. To him, they were beautiful. Her pupils were whitish, with a soft greenish hue. He never saw someone like that before, a little expression escaped his lips, “Wow.” He was upset, wasn’t he? The little girl thought.

     “I…” Toph started but he immediately interrupted her.

     “¡Toph, you’re amazing!” Huh? He said what? That caught Toph by surprise, she couldn’t believe what she just heard.

     “I’ve never met a non-bender that could sense Suzaku! Even some fire sages can’t see him. How could I not realize back when I summoned it, you noticed it!” the boy said quite cheerful while the little bird appeared over his left shoulder. She couldn’t believe this; he didn’t sound disgusted at all. This was new to her.

     “It just felt strange, like something hot from where your voice came. But wait, you really don’t think my eyes are gross?” the black-haired girl was blind, but not deaf. She remembered all those times while she walked silently around the main building, people talked about her condition, some in a decent way and others with total disgust.

     “What? No, of course not. In fact, I think they’re really pretty…” Oh no, Zuko realized what just had escaped his mouth, he had never felt this embarrassed before. On the other side, nobody had ever said something like that to Toph, she felt so happy. Eventually, both kid’s faces were completely red.

     “So” —Zuko giggled awkwardly trying to change the subject —“Uhm… Do you want to play something? I’m sure we can manage.”

     “Yeah,” the little girl replied without any doubting.

...     ...     ...

Both kids laid next to each other with their arms behind their heads, under the shade of the top of a great tree. A castle-like build of rocks rested next to where Toph was. They were playing with dirt for a while. Zuko hated getting dirty, but he remembered what Lu Ten said: the real men, warriors; they tend to get their hands dirty. He wanted to be one someday, so he made an exception this time.

     “Zuko” —the girl said as she kept trying to catch her breath after they escaped from a guard that was looking for her —“You’re real, right?”

     The golden eyed boy giggled at what she said, “Of course I am, what kind of question is that?” It annoyed him a little.

     “It’s just that, this is the first time I’m having fun with someone like this, as if we… were friends” she ended with a whisper. “Maybe you’re now thinking I’m weird, sorry. It’s just that I don’t have any.” It was true, the only other kid of her age she ever met, was that boy Ohev. He was good with her, but kinda strange… as if he did it just because he was the son of servants in her family’s state.

     “But why? Don’t you go outside of this place, to the city?” Zuko asked, a little surprised.

     “My parents, they are ashamed of my condition. People talk around the house; they don’t think I can hear. They say that my father doesn’t want anyone outside the walls to know that he has a handicapped daughter. I’m never allowed to leave this place.”

     What she had just said irked Zuko to the core. In a way, her father was like his. He never acknowledged anything he had done, no matter how hard he tried. He was able to relate himself to her in that sense. Without any thinking he snapped out, “Your parents are fools! How can’t they recognize how amazing and fun you are?” the little firebender cheeks turned red, and didn’t want to look at her. He could almost hear his own heartbeat cause of how fast they were. The kid tried to remember the breathing techniques his uncle Iroh taught him, he needed to calm down.

     Toph lowered her face in the hope her bangs covered most of it, it felt like it was burning, “Th-Thanks. You’re right, I also think they’re dunderheads” both kids chuckled at her response and stared at the tree branches for a couple seconds. The silence was shyly broken by the youngest of the Beifong, “Ahm, Zuko… do you think, we could be… friends?” she was so afraid of asking him that, didn’t want to spoil the moment and lose the first one to ever genuinely treat her like a normal person.

     “Aren’t we already?” the fire nation boy replied.

     “Really?” a wide smile formed on her lips; it was one of the best days in her life that she could remember of.  Without a second thought, Toph’s body acted on its own, guiding herself with her hands. A warm sensation caressed her right cheek and ear. On that instant, the black-haired girl was hugging tightly her new friend from the left side of his torso. Then, she tilted her face upwards trying to find his.

     For Agni, Zuko couldn’t understand what did just happened. At the contact, he instantly looked down to his left and found her face. With eyes closed, and a faint smile, the fair skin of her cheeks lightened up by the sunlight descending between the branches of the old tree. He thought his face was going to melt or start to produce smoke cause of the intensely hot sensation he felt. For him, that was horrible, but strangely nice in a new way. He never thought girls could look like this, Toph was so much different than his sister or her friend Mai, those two were nasty; and Yue would have never done something like what his new friend just did.

     Taking him by surprise, a fist punched him on his left shoulder, “Ouch! Why did you do that?” he finally decided to speak while rubbing the damaged zone.

     “I don’t know, just felt like it.” The girl began to withdraw until she returned to her original place. “My mom tends to be nicer with me than anybody else is, still she doesn’t let me go outside the walls. She hugs me like this because I’m important to her.”

     But we just met, having a friend is that important to her? Well, I know how loneliness feels and I don’t have that many friends either; only my cousin Lu Ten and Yue, Zuko just sighed. “It’s the same my mom does, only that sometimes she gives me a peck on the cheek while doing it.”

     “A kiss? oh, she does that too sometimes.” Toph cocked an eyebrow and replied tilting her head the side. Does he want one? Ugh! She shrugged at the thought.

     The prince gulped at the idea of she kissing him, that would be just too much. He could already hear Azula making fun of him for the rest of his days and even Lu Ten praising him, but no, that action was still gross for his young mind, “W-Wait, just forget about that, the punching is good enough.” She nodded and started giggling, it was so contagious that he followed her.

     “You’re my best friend, Zuko,” she now said without any remorse.

     “Well, you’re really fun, I think you’re my best friend as well.” Such an impact the words and actions of the young prince made on the blind girl, that even if they have just met, she appreciated him for treating her as an equal and being so genuinely friendly. Maybe she was never going to meet someone like him again due to the restrictions that her parents impose on her: never be able to leave the Beifong mansion and meet kids of her age. This chance appeared, and she took it.

Both children started laughing without any care to look like members of noble families, when a known voice for the boy was heard in the distance.

     “Zuko!” it was the princess calling him.

     “Its my mom, maybe we’re are leaving now,” the boy told to his new friend as both of them got up.

     “Can’t you stay any longer?” Toph’s voice sounded quite sad, that made Zuko experience a weird feeling on his chest. Ursa’s calling was heard again.

     “I’m sorry, really need to go or I’ll be in trouble.”

     “Oh, alright, but will you come visit me again someday?” she felt a little down, she wanted to be with him a lot more. This was the first time she had this much fun and wanted it to continue.

     “Yes, I will tell my mom to bring me here as soon she can” Zuko wanted to think that it was possible, but only the thought about his father Ozai and what he could think of this, felt demoralizing. But maybe it could be alright, Toph is part of a wealthy and important family almost like Yue; maybe he wouldn’t mind about this friendship, like with the northern water tribe princess.

     Now Ursa’s voice was getting closer to where they were resting.

     Zuko got an idea and reached for the metallic headpiece that held his hair in place. Proceeded to untie it and hold it in front of her. “Toph, I want you to have this, it’s a headpiece made of gold.” The girl followed his voice and with her hands located the gift that he was talking about. She ran her right thumb over the main body of the metallic accessory, a weird pattern was carved on it.

     “That’s the symbol of the fire nation, a flame. With this, you can always remember me.” She took it with such care that it appeared that it could broke into pieces if she lost hold of it.

     “Thank you, Zuko. I want to give you something as well,” the girl started to pull out of her wrist a silver bracelet, she handed it in front of where she thought the boy was standing.

     “Uhm… Thanks, I will always keep it like a treasure” the girl ducked her face down while blushing madly, he couldn’t help but smile stupidly at the sight. After a moment he looked down at the bracelet, it was made of silver, it was girly but seemed pricey. A winged boar carved on the central piece, the same one that was embroidered on the flags around the entire state.

     Both kids stood up, one in front of the other. He could hear his mom coming closer, but before leaving the garden, this time he took the initiative. Both of Zuko’s arms encircled Toph’s upper body, a tight and friendly hug joined them together.

     “I will never forget about you, Zuko” the girls voice started to crack.

     “Me neither. Take care of yourself Toph, pay no mind to those people that talk behind you and even your dad. I’ll come visit you and play, I promise.” He really wanted to see her again, this girl made him feel something he had never experienced before. It was weird and nice at the same time.

They parted from the hug and the young firebender started to leave the tree under they were resting. Zuko listened to a small screech over his left shoulder, he turned to so see his companion pointing back to Toph, it was something strange. He looked at her and saw something small and black hiding behind her right foot, it was… a black turtle? So, she was a bender after all, she had a kindred spirit of her own; just she doesn’t know it yet. He chuckled to himself and went to meet his mother on one of the hallways. He couldn’t wait to come back to the Beifong’s house already.

Chapter Text

For a moment, an enormous flash dyed orange the entirety of the miry ground with whom he had stumbled. The young teenager lay with both knees and hands muddy on the ground, the cold and slimy sensation between each of his fingers didn’t bother to him like it used to; not with ‘that’ behind them. After the long sprint, the insane drumming of his heart made his chest felt like it was going to explode at any given second. His loud and heaving gasps were silenced by a grotesque and haunting roar, followed again by the sound of a couple fire streams and some fireballs exploding at the contact against something.

He didn’t like that situation, not a single bit. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. All the excitement from moments ago just vanished in a matter of seconds. He was so afraid to look back.

“Zuko! Do not stop! Get out of this dung hole… Now!” the person behind him shouted with great concern.

That voice was right, he needed to get out that cavern as quickly as he could, but it wouldn’t be right. It was a stupid idea. The screech of his kindred spirit made him come to his senses, he started to get up with some difficulties.

 Another barrage of sparkles lit up the moisty dark tunnel, it resembled to him how the insides of a dragon’s jaw should have looked like according to old myths. He turned his head back and for some reason, he couldn’t see clearly the face of the other person.

“What are you doing you stupid boy! Run!” Behind them, multiple shrieks cried in pain at the explosive sound of a massive fire jet.

“I’ll never forgive myself if I leave you here! It’d be a dishonorable thing to do!” The fire prince furiously waved his arms in front of him while shouting back at his partner. As a warrior and a member of the royal family, the thought of leaving someone behind in a situation like that seemed like spitting and trample nonstop over his pride, his spirit; soul.

“And I’ll never forgive myself if you die!” The monstrous roar from before resonated again through part of the underground gallery followed by small tremors, caused by loud thuds. When the other person created a flame over their hand, Zuko quickly took a couple steps back when he saw dust falling from the ceiling and the small rocks that were spilled all over the ground bouncing with each blow as the thing came closer to them. Whatever was causing it, was not from their world.

In one instance, the other one at the front seemed to lower his head and extend both arms. Yet again, the same bellow pierced through his skull. The boy shivered at the thought of it finally catching up to them. Everything went dark after a loud strike echoed all over the place.

“No!” From the bottom of his lungs, the fire prince screamed in agony at what he thought was about to happen.

“No!” Zuko raised half of his body into a sitting position, with right arm and hand extended at the front; like so desperate to grab onto the edge of firm earth while swimming for the first time. After some thought, he realized it. He was on his bed, his room… it was a nightmare, just… a nightmare. The same for more than three years, it still felt… so vivid.

His chest was still expanding and compressing with violence, just like in that devious repetition of his unfortunate experience. A wet line started to descend around the left side of his nose, he moved that side’s hand to wipe it. The anguish he was feeling turned into rage in just a couple seconds. By tightening his left hand into a fist, he caused his knuckles to whiten and the edge of his forefinger to look like an already ripe fire chili.

He shut his eyes and growled through his teeth, “Aaagghhh…” Zuko knew that the stain will remain with him for a while.

...

The bender didn’t notice it at first but he woke up before the sun even came up, way earlier than he would have expected. Anyway, he just needed to get ready for the day to keep his mind distracted. He ironed his clothes and then prepared for a shower in the bathroom inside his room.

...

A few minutes passed and he was already out. Just right before putting on his shirt he stood in front of the rectangular mirror, looking at himself. He couldn’t believe how his face still didn’t have a single mark of any kind on it. It was as pale and smooth like in his days at the royal palace —at least that meant the mask served not only for hiding his identity—. That was the face a lot of girls longed for and many guys envied, or so he was told. He shrugged at how stupid that sounded to him. The prince wasn’t interested in boring relationships or petty conflicts.

Now, his body was another story. While his torso, arms and legs sure had more definition than even some of the top pro-bending players and the average military, they were afflicted with whitish scars of all sizes that seemed like the clefts on a very used metallic armor. Some of those marks were concentrated over his very well-toned abs and biceps. Three of the biggest ones were; a circle-like under his left clavicle; a straight diagonal line across his right pec and a hook-like one near his left oblique.

He grabbed his black t-shirt and then looked to his left bicep with discomfort, an already purple bruise printed across it. He remembered the cause: two days ago, the Blue Spirit stopped four guys that tried to attack a woman near the docks of Umi Bay. One of them carried a wooden staff and tried to hit his mask, he managed to block it in time but still, it had hurt like hell. Yeah… the masked guy sure had seen action.

After the passage of some minutes, he went down to the small kitchen on the ground floor to grab breakfast. With every step he made the floorboards creaked. He was looking for a jar with some broth until he found it, inside the wooden cupboard near the small window that overlooked the street. Now he only needed the dry noodles and the seaweed to prepare the rest of the dish Yue gave him the day before.

With a gentle flick of his fingers he lit the black iron stove and let the soup heat up. Meanwhile it was ready, he sat down on a chair near a tiny circular table where he had a police scanner, the one that the Blue Spirit borrowed from a patrol car. Who knew? Maybe he could listen something interesting or a traffic accident to avoid on his way to that boring place.

The prince was so carried away by the comms that he didn’t realize his soup was already boiling and it started to spill out of the casserole. Suzaku noticed it and let out a screech that got his attention.

“Oh sh…”

…

After fifteen minutes of eating and then brushing his teeth he was finally out of the house. He closed the weathered green garage-door behind him and prepared to ride his brilliant black motorcycle with maroon details, they matched with those of his leather jacket: a fire nation emblem embroidered on his right shoulder.

Like almost everyday since he moved on to his house in the fire nation part of downtown Republic City, his neighbor: a gentle old fire citizen lady, greeted him and wished him well on his day. He put on his maroon-black helmet and now was ready to go.

...

He still had time; it was yet to dawn. At a considerable speed, he was already crossing the Silk Road Bridge to the eastern part of the streets near the lake below the Museum of Republic City. The wind seeped through the holes in his leather gloves each time he accelerated; it was a sensation he really liked. Having a motorbike was way better and funnier than a Dao-mobile, just because he could dodge them with relative ease at traffic jams and thus preventing his rage from going off.

...

Near the junction that lead to the high school, a crazy guy in luxurious Dao-mobile honked repeatedly at Zuko for crossing him, that sparkled the short-tempered of the prince in just a second. “That… meathead…” He hissed through his teeth and abstained from swearing. He knew he had the preference to cross, maybe that imbecile was new in town or something. That encounter could help ruin his day even more.

The entrance of the high school was a block away from him, he could already see the huge granite statue of his great-grandfather Roku —the hero that solved a global crisis or so he was told during his earlier years in the palace—, it was placed at the entrance of the large building: The Four Season’s Institute, a boring name for a boring place. The boy turned to the parking lot at the far east part of the school facilities and left there his large two-wheeled vehicle after taking off his equipment.

A heavy sigh full of regret left his lips when he saw of a bunch of students entering the building. ‘One more year and that’s it’, he said to himself. The only good thing was that with the entrance of all those freshmen, there was a chance that he could find that airbender he was looking for. Or so he hoped.

...

According to the clock in one of the hallways he was fifteen minutes earlier. The classroom was on the second floor of the main building at the northern part of the land. As he headed there, some of the new girls —or at least some he had never seen before— were already ogling him from head to toe; he also noticed the occasional envious gaze of some guy passing by. All of that nonsense irritated him to levels of… he just wanted to burn down the place. At least he still hadn’t come across those two girls that now annoyed him so much.

When he arrived at the stairway that lead to the upper floor, he saw a very familiar looking earth kingdom girl leaning on the coarse stone railing. In her right hand, she was holding a rolled-up paper that seemed pretty worn; this caught his attention. Her brown hair remained as always: pulled into a bun with a red ribbon and two bangs falling over the far sides of her eyebrows. The clothes she was wearing now were so different in comparison to when she was outside the school: a juniper green tangzhuang; silk pants of the same color that barely caressed her ankles and carmine red shoes that combined with the cape that reached up to her elbows.

As the firebender approached, the teenager pointed the paper to her right side and looked away with total disregard as if her mind drifted into nothingness. A smirk formed on the side of her lips when the feeling of the rolled-up poster left the touch of her finger tips when he passed her by.

...

Zuko waited to be alone in the hallway to the classroom. When it was opportune, he unrolled a side of the paper; the word Wanted written with bold lettering. Without a second thought he kept it inside his jacket. Nobody needed to see him with something like that.

He continued his walk to the door of the room, to his surprise it was already open, maybe a janitor left it that way. His thoughts about being the first one in the classroom where quickly forgotten after seeing her already there.

She was sitting five seats behind the teacher’s desk, with a cheek resting on her left hand and looking through the large rectangular window facing the parking lot, with bored written all over her face. To him it was a little weird that she took that seat, she was like the nerd of the class, so it was normal she chose the ones in the front near the blackboard. Why the sudden change?

While approaching her in silence, he couldn’t deny the fact that she still looked really good even without the double hoops that towered from behind her head. At school she wore her hair down, with the exception of the two large loopies; one covering a respective ear.

The prince was so engrossed in his thoughts of appreciation that he didn’t notice a desk in front of him, “Agh!” He groaned in pain. In that moment, the attention of the girl was caught; her bright blue pupils stared at his golden ones. Zuko acted as clumsy as she could remember.

“Yue…” he spoke in a soft voice, barely lifting his right hand to greet her. To the girl, his attitude sometimes didn’t match his physical complexion; that usually serious amber gaze, his straight posture and broad shoulders could give a false impression of him being a presumptuous jerk.

The northern water tribe princess tilted her head to the side and gave him a warm smile, “Good morning, Zuko.”

The boy quickened the pace to the desk behind her and sat down. He laid an old brown leather backpack at his feet and leaned his torso and face downwards, staring for a couple seconds at the quite shiny marble floor. A black strand of his short hair fell to his left eye, he let out a heavy sigh in annoyance. It was going to be a long, boring day; the first day of senior year…

The gentle voice of his friend broke the silence that had regained its ground after their awkward greeting, “Oh Zuko, I thought you different… First day and already trying to impress the new girls,” she pointed with her thumb outside the window and then gave him a playful look while his cheeks got redder and redder, “Or perhaps your number one admirer…”

He knew where she was going, he didn’t want to hear anything about her now, “Stop it! Don’t you dare say anything else!” Yue tried to suppress a laugh at his hollow threat. “And about that thing over there… you know that’s not the case, I just prefer a bike over a Dao-mobile because of the versatility, not because of the stupid compliments.” For traffic jams it was better than the car he had abandon in a storage unit near the docks. A fancy gift from the Fire Lord himself.

Zuko quickly turned his face to the window, ignoring her for a minute. He wanted to remain calm, the nightmare was bad enough to completely ruin his day. Yue straightened her back against her seat and pretended to check something in her notebook, she wanted to change the subject so she casually asked for something less triggering to him, “So,” —she casually turned some pages without looking back at him— “how was the seaweed soup?”

The black-haired boy was taken aback by her question; the little anger he had, disappeared. He needed to be cautious or else he could end up hurting her feelings for sure. “Uhm… It was really good. Actually… you saved me. I had a portion that was left over as breakfast an hour and a half ago.” He didn’t like seaweed at all but his words were genuine.

“Oh really? How sweet, thank you!” she turned to him, trying to hide how relieved she was feeling at his response. “My aunt and some of the guards always try to hide their urge to puke,” she half joked, with an almost imperceptible sad tone.

Zuko replied with a smile full of confidence trying to cheer her up, “Well, they didn’t have the chance to get used to your magnificent seasoning or try your best dishes.” Since they were fourteen years old, he was used as a Foggy swamp-pig for her weird culinary experiments. At first it was horrible, but later on it wasn’t half bad honestly. If it were up to Yue, she would cook for him every day. After leaving the royal palace, she sure had an impact on his… and his sister’s lives in that foreign territory because she gave them a sort of mother-like treatment that they needed.

“Right, poor you.” She chuckled while returning to her notebook. He, she knew, had an obvious preference for spicy food. He was just being nice like always, a trait that she liked very much.

“Hey, on another note, why you choose these seats?” the firebender was super curious about it since he entered the room and saw her, now that the mood was different it was ok to ask.

She waited a moment to respond, of course he would ask for that. “I just wanted to try something different, we have been in the front line since first year and you never liked that,” Yue saw him giving her a pretty unconvinced look, “Alright, that and I was a little tired of the constant death-glares and gossip from your fangirls. I wanted to have a coverage for at least one side,” she turned and looked at him lowering his head while muttering a soft I’m sorry. “It’s fine, I know you won’t abandon me.”

Just seconds later, a random classmate entered the room and only greeted Zuko, with a huge grin of course. Being ignored like that by their female classmates was something Yue had grown used to since the second half of their freshman year. She lowered her voice to her friend, “Oh no! Its sophomore year all over again,” both teenagers chuckled.

…

Right after the bell —announcing the start of the first period— rang and the teacher entered the room, a tall and disoriented looking water tribe boy followed behind him with uttermost care. He stared at the room for some seconds, scanning until he found the only seat left available; conveniently next to Yue. He sat with his eyes at front, he was resisting the urge to turn to his left and watch her, it would be super creepy. The boy’s mind was captivated by her beauty at first sight, even though he started as freshman in the high school, that was the first time he had a chance to see her up-close.

With the course of the first and second period, Zuko started to notice that water tribe guy giving them constant peeks. At the start of the third one, he lowered his head for a moment and caressed his nasal bridge with the index and thumb of his left hand. That guy’s glance was starting to get on his nerves.

“Hey you, first day of class and already sleeping?” the teacher called out to Zuko, whom froze at the realization of everyone staring at him.

“N-No… I-I’m not sleeping at all”

The bald and short man around his forty’s chuckled while hearing him stutter. “Yeah, yeah, go out to the running track and grab some fresh air, would ya?”

“But…” the firebender tried to reply and the teacher just pointed the classroom’s entrance with his thumb. Half of the class started to laugh at the uncomfortable situation, the prince was so embarrassed his cheeks turned red within seconds. Just after getting up he saw Yue trying to hold back a snort while looking downwards. School sucked.

...

At the end of the final period, both members of royalty started to walk towards the main entrance of the school. He would wait for Yue’s ride to pick her up as usual.

Zuko was trying to process why Suzaku acted so strange awhile back, just when he passed a classroom of the eastern building —where some of the sophomore years were— on his way to the track. That was strange, as if it knew there was a bender with a singular spirit but it wouldn’t make any sense at all, he already investigated those students and Suzaku’s behavior wasn’t like that a year prior. Needed to make sure it wasn’t something random.

“Daydreaming again?” the boy was pulled out of his thoughts by her question. She interrupted her humming of a typical northern water tribe song for a chance to tease him with the dumb incident from the first hours.

“No… just thinking,” he turned his head at the girl and saw her playing with the straps of her lilac bag, ready to pry for more.

“About?”

Suzaku appeared with an orange flash, hovering over his right shoulder, “About whom picked the interest of this guy right here,” the water tribe girl greeted the vermillion bird with a gently smile and the spirit responded with a chirp of the same nature.

“Just when I was walking to the track field, I came across one of the classrooms destined for the sophomore students and suddenly little fellow here started to lose it. I think it sensed a kindred spirit, a big one and it could only mean…”

“No! Please Zuko, don’t do that again please, don’t even try it. Wait… don’t tell me that’s why I didn’t saw you during lunch time as well.” the firebender snorted at the comment already knowing what she was referring to. “Come on, prying into all freshmen classrooms and now a sophomore in the search of an airbender, and then stalking every single one that you found… Please! That’s super creepy.”

Her friend couldn´t deny that those comments hurt a little, she made it sound like some dumb thing or rather something sick, “Yue, this is something that I need to do. It’s of uttermost importance that I found whoever that person is, the one I’ve been looking for during the past three years. If I do it, a big step in fulfilling my destiny will be achieved and in regaining part of my honor.” They continued down one of the exterior hallways that lead to the main entrance and just a few meters before the last hallway that lead to some classrooms.

The girl lowered her head in defeat, there he goes with the honor thing again she thought, “Zuko, you don’t need to regain any honor, because you haven’t lost any of it.” The white-haired teenager looked at his face, searching for his eyes while she took his left hand on her right one.

He squeezed her hand with soft grip as they stopped near the adjacent hallway, “You really think all of that?”

“Of course, dummy, why wouldn’t I? Since you and I met, we have been inseparable.” He, she knew, had a lot of suffering in his heart, and in some moments, he needed to know that she cared about him and would be by his side as much as she can. They were best friends after all. “Zuko, you’re one of the most honorable men that I’ve known in my life, please don’t be so hard on yourself,” she let go of his hand and proceeded to stroke his left cheek with a motherly care that caught the boy off guard.

“Thanks… for some reason you always know what to say,” he spoke with a voice that was almost barely audible and then took the hand that was resting on his cheek with his, “But, I still need to know…. I need to know if that person I’m searching for is here… The avatar… Yue, I need to know…” he was interrupted by the glimpse of a girl approaching them from that adjacent hallway, he changed his tone in the hope of sounding a little angry or irritated.

“I need to know if you noticed that guy who was looking at you all day!”

She felt his touch left and lowered her hand in response, it was clear that talking about those topics around other people was pretty reckless, so she glanced at the boy and trying to play along, smirked with knowing about what he meant, “Of course I noticed it, he only stopped when it was lunch time and he left. But why do you ask? Could it be that you’re jealous?”

The firebender’s cheeks flushed red, —at least it worked and the girl that walked pass them quickened her pace in fear of eavesdropping an argument between the ‘couple’— that question was so unnecessary suggestive, “Wha- No. Of course not, but his way of doing it seemed creepy. If he tries to do something weird to you, I will…” the girl bumped at him in the shoulder trying to reassure him and he groaned in pain. It was curious that normally he had a serious look that tended to intimidate other guys even though he could be on a happy mood, and at other instances when he tried to act and look tough like in this time, he just failed miserably.

“I think he’s cute. But don’t worry, I know how to defend myself.” Her friend just growled with irritation about her words. “By the way… talking about that and your little escaped during lunch, made me remember that at least someone didn’t forget about me; little Zula sends her regards,” the golden eyed teenager chuckled after hearing her words. “You know she can be really nice when she wan—”

“She can’t. She acts that way when you’re around because you happen to be one of the few persons she likes.” The fire prince interrupted her with an air of seriousness.

“You should know that deep down she cares for you too,” Zuko looked at her with great annoyance, she was trying to be nice yet again. “Well… she may have told me that some other day before, if I’m not wrong,” Yue let a nervous laugh escape her lips when a sudden thought crossed her mind, an evil grin appeared on the water tribe’s girl face, “Hey! There was something else, something that really surprised me —not really— when she came visit me, her trusty companion wasn’t anywhere around.”

The black-haired boy put a hand to his face in annoyance, what his friend was saying didn’t make sense, “Uhh…You mean Fuzang? Isn’t it always hovering around her neck? You know how she likes to brag about her dragon spirit to other benders. Maybe she just hid it, what’s so surprising about it?”

“I didn’t refer to it, who I meant was… well… Lady Disdain of course, the one that seems to hold a grudge against me even though I’m always polite when we run into each other. If looks could kill, she wouldn’t need her knives to end me.” Zuko didn’t believe what she was spitting. He turned around and stormed out of the hallway to the main entrance; the princess got on his nerves. A loud growl was followed by him talking about how much he hated her. Yue couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of him blushing so madly.

...

They sat on a stone bench outside the school, waiting. Despite being mid-August, the weather was a little cold; maybe because of the snowy mountains a couple kilometers from the institute, so Zuko’s leather jacket didn’t seem out of place. He thought he looked cool with it. A few minutes, out of all the cars that passed he noticed the same one that honked at him in the morning; so that guy brings someone to this place.

“Hey, my father is in the city and he is going to make a fancy dinner for some important person from the southern water tribe, care to join? You know you’re always welcome and my father will be happy to see you,” the princess said.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass… I’ve got things to do,” she turned and saw him leaned over his knees, she didn’t buy that, maybe by that he meant those things he does at night.

She left out an angry snort, “Zuko, when are you going to finally listen to me and stop that double life of yours? If you get hurt…” He interrupted her, signaling that her driver had just arrive. He didn’t want to engage in the same conversation they had since last year when she discovered his other identity, it was enough for today with the avatar thing.

“Don’t worry, I have sword practice with master Piandao,” he lied, well it was actually somewhat believable coming from him. She just gave him a doubtful look but, in the end, decided to trust him.

“Well if you are free later, come at eight o’clock. You don’t have to bring anything, just that charming presence of yours,” she smiled at him and said goodbye.

Zuko waited until she boarded the car so then he could go get his motorcycle. As he was about to stand up, a loud thud on the opposite side of the bench he was, stopped him. He looked sideways trying to be as cautious as he could be and saw her, the same earth kingdom girl from the morning; standing at the right side of the bench, pretending to search for something inside her backpack.

She didn’t rise her head to talk to him, the raven-haired boy supposed she was trying to be sneaky, “Have your read it already?”

“Yes, it—” he tried to answer but was interrupted anyway.

“And aren’t you excited? It’s our first one, well the first one they’ll pay us for.”

“So what? We are now turning into bounty hunters? You and I don’t need the money,” Zuko replied.

“I know, but it’ll be fun, besides, the fool is no saint. Viper told me everything: he has a charge for carjacking and is being looked for five reported cases of aggravated robbery. He messed with the family of one of the sergeants of the city police. The good guys haven’t found him yet, that’s why the officer recurred to the underworld police,” —she chuckled slightly— “Who finds him first wins,” the brown-haired girl finished with a challenging tone. A small badgermole-like creature scrambled up over her left shoulder with its razor-like claws, growling. Her kindred spirit.

The calling of a well-dressed man caught their attention, “Miss Morishita!” her driver, and two meters behind him, two cars with three men each. Her escorts.

She took her backpack off the bench and finally looked at him with her copper-like pupils, “At the same spot tonight, see you there… Blue.”

The loud beep of the alarm clock made the boy wake out of his deep slumber, with a sudden jump he moved to turn off the annoying device. For a moment, he sat on the edge of his bed, still feeling a bit drowsy so he rubbed his eyes until a friendly growl made him come to a realization.

“Ahhh, it’s today! Appa, it’s finally today! First day of our adventure in a foreign school!” The short haired teenager shouted with excitement to the flying bison spirit that was making pirouettes over his left shoulder. “I hope we can make tons of new friends!” the boy said with huge smile formed on his face. The spirit licked his left cheek and couldn’t help but giggle.

A known calling from the outside of his window made him stop and blush a little, “Aang! You can shout and laugh all you want until after you’re ready to go… you don’t want to be late on your first day!”—yeah she was right, maybe he was overreacting a little—.

“Sorry aunt Iio, I’m going in a moment!”

...

Right after bathing Aang remembered what Gyatso told him about the clothes he should wear around the city; a black-red jacket with gray pants and black boots. He didn’t quite understand yet why he was restricted to wear air nomad clothes outside the air temple island, it didn’t make any sense why he had to follow that rule when the grown walked around de city with their classic orange-yellow clothes. In the end, those where Gyatso’s orders so he had to follow.

The young air nomad came out in a rush to the dining room next to the men’s dormitory. Iio welcomed him with a warm smile and hug, she proceeded to serve him some rice and vegetables. Minutes passed and he brushed his teeth right after finishing his food, the boy was so eager to leave the island so he grabbed his bag and tucked an orange cape inside of it. He said goodbye to the nun as he passed her.

Just as he was approaching one of the docks, he came in contact with a tall well-known figure; monk Gyatso. “Ah, it’s good to see you already here young one, I believe you’ll made it to the high school and still have some decent time left to have a look around.”

“I can make it in no time if I use my glider.” Aang said.

The old monk seemed take aback by his statement but chuckled in the end, “Of course you could, but you know you shouldn’t,” the young airbender laughed nervously at this, he remembered the talk they had before their arrival to the island, for some reason any expression of bending was heavily prohibited in the city and the surroundings. To him, it was something scary to don’t be able to use his airbending freely like in the southern air temple. The old master coughed and pointed to his forehead, Aang gave him a sheepish smile and took a red band out of his pocket to cover his arrow just as it was said, they joined in a tight hug, the man gave him a bag of coins and both wished well for their time out of the temple.

Now the dark brown-haired boy saluted his superior and started to take a step towards the sailboat that would take him to the main ground. As the old monk was about to leave, he catched a glimpse of the cape that the teenager hid inside his bag, “Aang, isn’t that one over there Momo?”

The disguised air nomad fell for it and centered his attention on a lonely flying lemur chilling by the rocks near the water, turning his back to the old master in the process, “Hmm, no… that one is Abe.” Gyatso took the chance and with a flick of his fingers pulled out the piece of cloth without any special effort; Aang didn’t seem to notice it at first.

“My bad, anyway… enjoy your first day at school and make some new friends.”

...

The ferry ride didn’t take that long, in minutes he was already on land. Aang still wished to just fly to from island to that place. He descended on the wharf near the seaside district and started walking to the street he was told he could catch a trolley that will take him to the school.

Astonishment was the word that could describe Aang’s face while he waited for the transport. Giant buildings towering others, houses of all sizes —he thought that some of them could even occupy half the island where the temple was—, the massive bridges that connected portions of land, the insane amount of those metallic boxes that moved across the streets one after another and those huge metallic boats that seemed like stones moving on the water; everything appeared fantastic and out of the world he was so used to back in the southern  air temple.

While he admired his surroundings an unexpected, deep horn sound made him jump a little and look upwards; a humongous grey and red thing that looked like a watermelon was hovering around the clouds. On a better look it was actually moving and heading towards the main land with all the big buildings, a flame insignia of the fire nation was imprinted on its right side. He had never seen something like it, the boy adjusted the bag to his shoulder when a honking sound caught his attention, it announced the arrival of the trolley. He finally noticed the absence of his cape; Gyatso.

He climbed the stairs to the inside of the vehicle and after paying he only needed to find a seat. It wasn’t that full actually, just a couple of old people on the first seats, a sailor and near the rear exit of the vehicle a pretty girl, maybe just older than him by a couple years with what looked a fire nation attire. Aang passed her and took a seat just two rows behind her.

The brown-haired girl looked behind her left shoulder as he passed her by, what she felt was right or just coincidental sensation? She wanted to have a closer look either way, so she stood from her place and walked towards the lonely boy.

She stared at him for a couple seconds until the airbender sensed her gaze.

“Uhm…Hiiii?” he answered with embarrassment. Didn’t know what to do, this was a weird first encounter with a foreign. A profound smile was formed by her lips when they looked into each other’s eyes, she gave a quick glance to the front of the cart.

“Can I sit here?”

“S-Sure.”

Her hair was put in a long braid that descended towards her lower back. Having the fire nation look maybe meant could be friendly like Kuzon but her eyes seemed familiar just like an…

“An airbender, you’re an airbender!” the girl leaned to his side and spoke softly, trying to suppress her emotion and don’t wanting to call any unnecessary attention.

Aang gulped, how did she find out? “S-Sorry, I-I think you’re mistaken me.”

“Nah uh,” she glanced to the front once again, “You’re one because of him.” She was pointing towards spirit floating in front of them.

Starting to freak out the monk came to a realization, “Wait…” he looked to the other passengers minding their own business and returned his attention, “You can see Appa!” the shortest of the teenagers lowered his voice remembering Gyatso’s words about benders.

“Of course… hey look, they like each other already ha ha.” Aang couldn’t believe it another bison —a little smaller than Appa— materialized from a tiny cloud and was playing with his, right above the front seat.

“You’re also an airbender! But, your arrow and clothes…”

The girl responded with soft laugh of embarrassment “Yeah, I know about these,” she pointed her blouse, “The arrow: mom didn’t let me complete the thirty-six tiers… but I can defend myself pretty well in a bending competition… I’m Ty Lee by the way, and the pretty lady is Jelly,” the girl extended his hand to him and with a smile he took it.

“Aang, the gentleman right there is known as Appa.” Both teenagers laughed at their silly remarks.

Placing her elbow above the seat back, the girl asked, “So, are you a student or something?”

“Yeah, of the Four Season’s institute—”

“No way… I know the school is big but why have I never seen you before.” The brown-haired girl said.

“Well today will be my first day in the school.” Aang explained.

“Oh! Let me guess, a freshman?”

“Sophomore, actually.”

“Intriguing, I’m a junior. I could show you around the city and the institute if you want of course.” Aang accepted happily.

Ty Lee remembered what he said earlier and wanted to take back at him, “Before, you were surprised by my attire but yours is not so different, fire nation huh? Or am I missing something.” The boy was taken aback by her statement and she noticed it.

“My uncle made me wear these, even though he says adult air nomads are allowed to wear our traditional clothes around the city. He also wanted me to grow back my hair and leave it like that, I just don’t get why can’t I wear or be what represents me. At least after seeing you dress like that —a fellow air nomad he thought— I’m not that sad anymore.” Ty Lee’s countenance changed after hearing him, she knew pretty well what his uncle meant by that, he wanted to protect him. That caused her to lower her head to the floor and remember sad memories that she wanted to forget.

Giving it a bit of thought she deduced that if he was new in the city, he surely came from either the northern or southern air temple, so it was a possibility that the red band around his forehead was hiding his arrow, cleaver move. “Aang, do not take off your headband inside or around the institute, you may not like it but I’m sure you uncle says that because he cares for you. Also, I believe you know the rules, not a word about bending and stuff.” The airbender nodded two times, it was sort of the same Gyatso told him and she was the third person to told him that, why were them so afraid of him showing his tattoos? 

Wanting to change the course their chat was taking, Ty Lee started talking about what would await him in his new school and after minutes of the ride they descended on an intersection and took a second trolley.  As their journey continued, they kept talking about teachers, most difficult subjects and the giant metallic structure they came across; the Harmony Tower.

...

With ten minutes left they finally arrived to their destination, the Four Season’s Institute.

Aang was impressed with how big the school was, it had three big fields, six buildings from big to bigger and even its own parking lot. But the thing that caught his attention with out doubt was the avatar Roku statue on the front yard; didn’t know why but a weird —but not so bad — sensation ran through his body. He knew of him from his studies back in the southern air temple but at seeing that figure he felt as if he was some kind of old friend, almost like close family.

“And here we are,” the other bender said to him, opening her arms in the direction of the main entrance, “I’ll take you to your classroom and when lunch starts, I’ll come for you and give you a tour around the place.”

The boy smiled at her and started to follow the girl as she headed inside, with the corner of his eyes he saw a short girl with a green headband, almost the same height as him, walking with the help of another boy and some kind of crane away from one of those black moving boxes. Weird, but he hoped she was alright. She wore light green baggy clothes, from the earth kingdom for sure.

...

“Aaand… here we are, ground floor of the eastern building,” The female airbender pointed to the door of the room, “Class D-10, World History with professor Zei.”

“Thank you, Ty Lee. I mean it; you have been a nice person with me.”

The girl blushed lightly, “Oh its nothing, but better than calling me a person… what about calling me a friend.”

“I will gladly, I can’t believe I’m finally making new friends.” He informed Appa whom was so happy for him that started swirling around him.

“You’ll be fine Aang, you’re a friendly guy and I know you’ll make even more friends. Oh, almost eight o’clock, now I have to get to my own classroom before the bell rings. See ya during lunch.” Ty Lee smiled and disappeared in an instance; at that moment he was on his own until break. He took a deep breath and entered the room.

To his surprise it was almost full already, with half of the seats taken by the belongings of students that were out class. Aang stood there near the entrance, playing nervously with the laces of his bag, didn’t knew what to do. He directed his sight to the door at the hearing of people coming closer, a man followed by a boy in chair with two big wheels.

“Good morning, you must be the new student, right boy? My name is Zei, nice to meet you.” A man from around his late twenties spoke to him just after entering the classroom and extended his hand to him, he took it and responded in the same respectful way. He was carrying a big backpack and few books under his left arm; the professor. His head looked funny, from his forehead to the half was bald and the rest of black hair tied up in braid. The man helped the other boy with his desk at the start of the row near the entrance and then walked towards his desk.

Trying to ease the nerves of the first day, Zei told him, “Don’t worry, I assure you everything will be fine. You will integrate without issue to the institute like every other student. Also, could you come closer to the board; we’ll wait for the other one to arrive at any minute… I hope.”

The monk obeyed what he was told and as he was about to ask something to the teacher, said student entered the room. It was the girl he saw at the entrance, accompanied by the same boy.

“Be careful miss Beifong, only a couple more steps and… you’re good.” The messy haired boy that was guiding her, told.

“Thanks Ohev. I’ll meet you later.” The raven-black haired girl said.

Zei quit the arrangement of his papers and dismissed the boy telling him that they’ll take good care of her. He saluted the girl in a same manner as with Aang, proceeded to guide her two desks behind the wheelchair boy and waited until the bell rang.

...

Now with everyone inside, the professor started with the introductions.

“Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a nice period of holydays and now are ready for some fun studies,” some groans and laughs were heard here and there, “But first, our newest members of the family will introduce themselves to you,” the little girl stood up and seemed to tense up at what he just said, Aang smiled and took a step front.

“Hello everyone, my name is Aang. I come from… Fire Fountain City because my uncle wanted me to improve my knowledge of the new world after the advancement here in Republic City… and I hope we can be friends!” Zei clapped his hands and the rest of students followed, some yawned, others laughed, a girl seemed interested and others didn’t even care.

“Aang, there’s a sit behind Teo on the first row if you want. Sorry, next one please.” the brown-haired boy accepted and sat behind said boy who looked at him with great curiosity.

“Uhm, well… my name is Toph, and… and I come from Gaoling, I expect to improve my studies…here.” Some of their classmates started to laugh at her.

The professor didn’t like that attitude from his pupils, “Really, on the first day acting like this, it will be a warning but if you keep doing that, I’ll have to send you to the principals office, alright… Thank you miss… Beifong, take a seat.” It wasn’t the warning Zei gave them, that cause them to cease with the laughs, it was until he read and said the Beifong last name that they stopped, some of them looked scared and some disliked her even more now.

“Ok class, for those of you who didn’t know me, once again I present myself: my name is Zei, graduate from the Ba Sing Se University and I will be your World History teacher for this course…

...

With the end of the first class and while they waited for the arrival of the next teacher —which class thankfully was in the same room—, the boy in front of the monk turned to him as much as he could.

“Hi, as you heard earlier, the name’s Teo and yours?”

“Aang, nice to meet you.”

The handicapped boy couldn’t help but ask, “Are you really from Fire Fountain City? How is it like?”

The airbender knew that lying was bad but Gyatso insisted to tell that in school, “Uh… yeah, I’m from there, pretty hot and red… you know, the weather is like that almost all year and the red, white and black buildings heh heh.”

“I know that, but I mean the factories, all of the technology like the Dao-mobile agencies, the airship ensemble factory, The Ensemble Factory! Is it that huge? My father said is incredible, all that advancement in one spot.” Teo kept talking and asking questions about things Aang didn’t had any remote idea of, maybe Kuzon knew some stuff the boy was talking about.

“Oh yeah, yeah, it’s like… the most visited place in the entire island.” Aang lied, he wanted to follow what he was told but be in good graces with this new stranger, maybe gaining another friend today?

“Of course it is! I knew it! And I understand that you came here to gain some knowledge on the new tech that’s been in development.”

“Right.” The monk replied.

“I think we can be very good friends Aang.”

“I will love to.”

“We can talk during lunch, no wait, I can’t. I have to go to the principal’s office during break, sorry friend maybe tomorrow we could grab lunch together!” Aang kept listening to him with genuine smile on his face.

…

Another hour passed; he didn’t think that the next class after history had a two-hour duration, it was a female teacher around her forties; fire nation.

Biology class was sure interesting and all, but looking at Appa flying and inspecting the wheelchair of Teo was more entertaining than the monotonous voice of the woman.

While idling, the sound of a pencil hitting the ground stole his entire attention. It was a belonging of the girl behind him, Toph was her name. He leaned down and managed to grab it with a little help of Appa —it was a good thing nobody looked his way—.

He glanced back, “Hey, your name is Toph, right?”

Without even looking up to him, she responded, “Uh, I believe that’s what I said earlier.” She gave him a dry answer, wanted to take her distance. Didn’t knew if he was a nice person or not.

“Sorry, I-uh, you dropped this… here.” He felt a little ashamed by that.

“Thank you.”

“You there. Aang, right?” He nodded, “Could you please stop distracting your classmate, and also take off the headband inside the classroom.” The teacher said and everyone seemed to look on his way, that lecture was way interesting than class itself.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again. The headband helps me cover a horrible scar across my forehead could I keep it? Please? It’s something really embarrassing.” The teacher reluctant at first but allowed him, phew that was close.

Aang kept his gaze at front during the teacher’s explanation and the moment she turned to the board to write something, he noticed some of the girls in the last seats of the rows near the windows —that lead to the track field—, giggling and smiling at something. He tried to take a closer look, it seemed like a person was hiding near the window close to the teacher’s desk. It was a boy, a tall one. He had black messy hair, way longer than his but still short. Dressed all in black. What stood the most of him where his amber-like pupils; searching for something or someone. He fled as the teacher approached the wooden desk in search of a paper sheet. Pretty weird, but interesting guy.

...

Lunch break finally had arrived and almost everyone exited the room they were in. Aang thought about apologizing to Toph once again but that boy Ohev came in and took her out.

As he stood up, Teo prepared to leave as well when the same friendly voice from earlier that day approached the door.

“Ty Lee!” the boy said with evident happiness.

“Hi Aang, ready to go?”

“Sure.” When Ty Lee disappeared from the entrance, Teo couldn’t help but gave him an incredulous look.

“Hey! You know her?” he tried to be as silent as he could be, Aang just nodded and followed after his friend.

...

As they approached the school cafeteria stands inside the biggest building —southern one—, Ty Lee saluted a pair of girls around her age, both with brown hair and fair tanned skin. They where sitting in a table with bagpacks occupying the rest of the seats. Aang’s new friend seemed like a popular girl around the institute, —or so he thought— multiple students talk to her as she showed Aang the rest of the buildings; especially the male students. They only had left to see the western building where the labs and the junior classrooms where, but they made an urgent stop to recharge energies as both their stomachs growled.

“Girls, this is Aang. Aang this are Shui and Lian: members of the female Kuai ball team and cheerleaders respectively; also, my friends and classmates.” Both girls greeted Aang with a friendly manner.

“Ty Lee, if you want will keep you a seat.” Shui said.

“It’s alright, we still have another place to see, where are the rest?”

“Captain is with the new girl, helping her find her brother or something like that, the rest didn’t tell us.”

The grey eyed girl excuse herself and took Aang to get some food. They needed to get there before the best food disappeared.

...

When the monk returned to his classroom, he was a little sad by remembering that he could not travel back to the wharf with his newly made friend, she told him that her last class ended until three p.m and his at one. Anyway, as he prepared for the arrival the new teacher, Toph entered the room, again helped by that guy Ohev and a metallic stick. Maybe it was a good moment to apologize from before, he waited until the other boy left the room and turned to her and sat sideways with a hand resting on the back of the seat.

“Hey, sorry for what happened before lunch, I wanted to help and…”

“Uhhh… are you talking to me?” Toph asked with a puzzled expression, her eyes at front all the time as if she was looking into his eyes. Both of her hands moved across the surface of a book twice the size of his, it had some kind of dots popping all over the sheets.

Was she joking with him or making fun of him? Why would she ask that if she was seeing him? “Yes, I was talking to you, but alright… oh, your book looks weird, did I miss something or mine are—”

“Haven’t you realized that I’m blind!? Are you just dumb or a dunderhead trying to mock me for this.” She pointed angrily a finger at one of her eyes.

Aang’s cheeks turned red of embarrassment, he was indeed dumb this time. How couldn’t he realized it earlier. The color of her eyes was like he had never seen before, foamy green; almost whitish. “I’m so, so sorry please, I apologize for my disrespect.” The monk clapped both hands and bowed to her.

“Heh, at least you thought I was normal, apology accepted.” The girl’s mood changed and answered him with a smirk while folding her arms over her chest. Teasing this guy could be fun, she thought. With a hand placed on the wall next to her, she sensed outside of the classroom if someone that was tall enough —according to her believes— to be a teacher could be approaching.

Now relieved, the airbender let a breath out quickly, and returned his hand to the seat, “Yeah, I thought the crane was because of an injury on your legs or something, and I didn’t pry because I thought you didn’t like to talk, haven’t seen you approach anyone yet.”

“Half-truth. Indeed, normally I don’t like to talk to much —maybe she lied—, but wrong about this,” she patted her thighs with her fists, “My legs work just fine, only blind,” the girl put her feet up in the back of the seat Aang was resting his hand on. He groaned, pulling his hand as fast as he could.

“I apologize, I can’t see where I step on.” Toph replied with snarky comment and shrugged at his pout. After some seconds of silence, she spoke again not wanting to let the conversation die, maybe happy of being heard and treated like a normal human being for a chance, “By the way… you were right moments ago, these things feel weird and are so heavy—"

While looking again at her books Aang couldn’t help but ask, “Can I touch them?”

“No.” That just… irritated her. She placed her hand again on the wall, this time someone was coming, with a thin complexity and light step.

“Heh heh, sorry.”

“You say sorry to much, you’re a lame guy.”

“Hey! I’m not lame.”

“Shut you airhole, the teacher’s here.”

“First day and already late, I’m so ashamed of myself… ok class…” a thin and brown-haired woman spoke as she entered the room, followed behind by some of the students that were fooling around —Teo being one of them—.

...

Finally, the bell that announced the end of their last subject of the day, rang.

Aang started to gather his books inside his bag when the boy Ohev came past him to where Toph was sitting.

The monk looked at the girl deploying her thin crane, “See you tomorrow Toph.”

She moved her head towards her helper, it looked as if she was ignoring Aang but that wasn’t the case, he found pretty funny that quirk of hers; “Oh yeah, I’ll definitely see you tomorrow.” The earth kingdom girl chuckled and waved a hand in the air; Ohev gave Aang a conceited look and leave the room with Toph.

To each their own he thought. He walked along side Teo in direction to the northern building, just until they parted ways to the entrance of the school and him to car of his father acquaintance.

“So, Aang… Can you tell something?”

“Sure.”

“It’s your first day at this school, right?”

“Uhm, yeah it is.”

“How did you manage to talk to such a pretty girl like the one you talked to at lunch!!!”

Alright, the boy in the moving chair switched his attitude from before, “Oh, you mean Ty Lee. Well, I don’t know…just talking to her I guess —excluding the airbender bonding time—, I met her on my way here, on a trolley.” He gave his companion a big smile, sure she was pretty but he didn’t get why he acted that way.

Teo’s poker face showed everything, he remained silent for a few seconds, “Man, you get to teach me all your moves, please.” Appa’s partner laughed and patted him on the back, he wasn’t sure what was so special about that but he could try.

...

Aang walked half a block until the trolley stop and waited. A tall guy with his hair in what seemed like a ponytail and dressed in blue —from the water tribes, clearly— walked in front of him, mumbling something about losing his chance to talk with someone during lunch because of the presence of a scary girl, poor guy.

It was so good that he didn’t have issues of the kind. The trolley honked as it approached the stop, he couldn’t wait to tell Gyatso and Iio about his first day.