"You can't knock me down!" She stands proudly on top of the end of the banister. Cheers. Pakku's not so well-liked among the younger generations. That's what I'm for, I suppose. A tool in Yue's campaign when she makes her bid. It's not too late to become a hermit, I hope. Then she won't be able to use me.
...
That bit of instinctive bending Katara does, anchoring her feet is well and good, but what if someone takes control of that ice around her ankles and just snaps them? Not, that Pakku would do that to a girl. But he's been known to be a bit rough on his students for making mistakes.
While we're not taught to be outright malicious, exploitation is definitely part of his curriculum. It's only sensible.
He teaches how to stay alive. At all costs. Outside the city, when encountering Fire Nation, it's saved my life.
Again, she tries getting close. A small fissure of ice slows her enough that Pakku can choose how to engage her in hand-to-hand combat. His stance is comfortable and uses his longer reach to disable her honestly rather pitiful attempts at hitting him in the face.
I have an urge to teach her how to properly throw a punch.
While she concentrates on that, he smoothly integrates his bending, sweeps her off of her feet and into the fountain whose figurine he stealthily removed at the beginning of the fight, to show off.
She surfaces with a gasp, and goes right on using what was her downfall just a moment ago as her weapon.
Her tenacity is impressive, and she's creative in sending those slabs of razor-sharp ice at him, one by one, each probably life-threatening if she had the right aim and wasn't up against Pakku. He too is surprised. She presses her advantage, the slight moment of her being the attacker, and the one to control the fight.
But Pakku's a master. The master.
She's forced back, again, her own bending turned against her. He knows where all bodies of water are at all times, and Katara still works with visuals. What is in front of her is her weapon, not everything that surrounds her.
Those last urns of melted snow that were meant to be our drinkable water in case of a poisoning of the lands, Pakku easily turns into cystals of its original state. "Well, I'm impressed. You are an excellent waterbender."
That's high praise. Especially from Pakku. I'm surprised he'd tell her that. But then again, when Pakku is impressed, he is impressed.
"But you still won't teach me, will you?"
She's angry. Humiliated in parts and not ready to accept complete defeat in others.
"No."
Two more attacks, each made use of and adapted smoothly into his own, Pakku takes one of my favourite manoeuvres and surfs along his bended ice to get close to her. He trips her, and lands smoothly one the edge of the other fountain with a bit of a flourish.
That water he uses to finally end this.
I don't worry about those spears. He has superb control, knows exactly where each one is at any given moment, and to there is very little chance of him harming her. Even if he does, there's always the healers, no? The boy clinging to my leg jerks in fear for her. I pat his head comfortingly before I realise what I'm doing.
I glance around. No one saw. Phew.
She struggles, of course. But his control hasn't left those spikes, and hers is untrained. She's never tested her will against another in bending.
"This fight is over."
The man's arrogant. But he's the superior one. He won, soundly.
"Come back here! I'm not finished yet!"
I sigh.
"Yes, you are." He bends down to pick up her necklace, that fell during the fight. All tension exits his body. His voice is barely audible as he says, "This is my necklace."
The astonishment in his voice is rare. I free myself from the boy to go down the steps. Yue follows.
"No, it's not! It's mine! Give it back!"
She's soundly ignored. "I made this sixty years ago. For the love of my life."
He relinquishes his control over Katara's trappings. "For Kanna."
"My Gran-Gran was supposed to marry you?" That's kind of insulting. He is the Master of all Waterbenders of the Northern Watertribe. Even if he is an arsehole. But most of us aren't in much of a position to judge. Then again, she probably doesn't mean for her reaction to be anything but that. She's not very controlled.
For once, he doesn't comment. All he does is look at her more closely. He sighs, a bit sadly, and looks back at the necklace in his hands. "I carved this necklace for your grandmother when we got engaged. I thought we would live a long happy life together. I loved her."
"But she didn't love you, did she?" Even though her tone is gentle, that's a pretty shitty thing to say. "It was an arranged marriage."
And then, she proceeds to manipulate his fragile state to her own advantage. "Gran-Gran wouldn't let your stupid customs ruin her life." She steps closer to his still-turned back. "That's why she left. It must've taken a lot of courage."
Beside me, Yue sucks in a breath of air. My hand twitches to land on her shoulder, but she wouldn't want my sympathy, or comfort. Not in public. But, glancing around, I shift closer anyway. She meets my eyes for a short moment, and walks off.
I don't follow.
Arnook and I watch her go. Sokka follows. "Did you know?" Her father whispers.
My shrug is answer enough, and he sighs. It's good that Hahn's not here to see that. He's got enough other things to worry about.
Moving forward, I judge that Arnook can deal with his shit himself. I clap Pakku on his shoulder. "Told you she's a spitfire." Then I sling my arm around his shoulders and drag him off, under the surprised eyes of the audience. Daydrinking it is.
He goes with half-hearted protests. We both know 'no, Kaito' means 'you pay for the first round'.
...
Later, when he's talked about his woes because he's too intoxicated not to and I've dumped him at his home, I amble back to my place. And witness Yue kissing Sokka. Then running off. Again.
Ah, young love. Also, what is she doing? Does or doesn't she want to rule the tribe?
Sokka spots me, tries and fails to act nonchalant. "Uh, hi Kaito, whatcha doing here?"
I wave him off. "On my way home... Sokka, man, I gotta say, you better hope I don't see Hahn around. Or you get Yue to tell him, or something," I rub the back of my neck, "I can't be lyin' to my friend."
Sokka, suddenly solemn, frowns.
I begin to move on. "See you around."
"Wait!" He runs to me and grabs my shoulder to spin me around, "Can you just not tell him? For a day or so?"
"Sokka." I make a pained face not just for his benefit, but for the memory of last night. I hope Hahn's just been sleeping for now, instead of back at training already. Knowing the idiot, he's still there, overexerting himself. "Hahn loves her. He has a right to know. Especially because she accepted his proposal. It's not an arranged marriage. She evidently likes you better, but if she doesn't own up, she's getting married to Hahn. Then they'll both be unhappy."
I don't mention how she wants to become chief one day. How, if she and Sokka get involved properly, he would be expected to put his quest on hold.
Sokka's entire frame droops. And he whines, "Why does this have to be so complicated?"
"Yeah. I don't envy you right now."
"I mean, she's beautiful and wonderful and funny and smart, so why did she say yes to that jerk?"
I pat his shoulder. I've already done too much comforting the past few days and I haven't gotten better with practise. "I get it, she's the apple of your eye and all that."
Suddenly, Sokka eyes me suspiciously, "What, you're engaged?"
I laugh. I must've sounded more sympathetic than I thought. "Nah, not gonna happen."
"Why not? Isn't it tradition?"
"Do I look like a traditionalist to you?" I smirk. Seriously, where did he make the leap to me being engaged? I'm about as far from marital life as a mountain is from flying. But then again, I'm here, in a cartoon world, and how likely did I think that was?
He shakes his head. "Don't you have someone you like?"
I shake my head, too. Then I decide, since he clearly wants something to relate to, I have to give him something vulnerable. "Not really. 'Sides, all they see when they look at me is the lazy orphan bum who drinks with the chief and annoys Pakku."
That's a blatant lie. But Sokka doesn't have enough contact with the citizens to know that.
"What, you drink with the chief?" His eyes bulge. It looks kind of comical.
"Yeah, I mean… Actually, I'm not gonna tell that story. Swore not to." Bait set.
Clearly interested, he slings his arm across my shoulders even though he's shorter than me. "Come on, you can trust me."
I pat his cheek. "I trust you about as far as I can throw you."
He is not deterred and fingers my biceps. "So pretty far then, eh?"
Which, I'll admit, is funny. I consider him for a moment, then I grin. "Sure, fine…"
I drop him off with the Avatar and his sister, still laughing in that obnoxious way of his. I really hope that if Hahn is crashing at my place, he'll already be asleep. I have no desire to be in the middle of this little drama. He's already in such a fragile state, but I know his affection for Yue, in the beginning, only ran as deeply as his father's political connections.
These days, their story resembles Pakku's quite a bit. So much heartbreak.
And I get to be here for all of it. Lucky me.
...
Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
...
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