4/4

He proceeds to show off a little. But it's sloppy. Sloppier that I've ever seen him. So, what he's doing here, is allowing her to see what works, but not the perfect way to do it, sabotaging even her study through observation. That's just petty.

She tries to go in close, knowing that she probably has little chance of beating him when he's got a bit of range. He's an old man by now, after all. One punch to the face would be enough.

But Pakku know his strengths and plays to them.

A blast of water sends her careening through the air. Once she's lost her momentum, he forces her close with a tightening circle of quickly flowing water. He likes that. Showing an opponent that they can't touch him, but he can very well do the opposite.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

Spirits, I forgot how patronising the man can be.

She breaks the circle, the blast coming at the audience. Smoothly, I bat it away, like an annoying fly and cross my arms. It becomes part of the banister. Pakku really is being gentle with her, if this is all it takes to take the momentum out of his bending. And she should take care who she hits. There are spectators – children – here. One little boy takes cover behind my leg, bunching the fabric in small fists, even as he peeks at the fight. I recognise him as the little brother of one of Yue's more bearable friends.

Once more, she tries getting close, and he sends her up a ramp, over his head. He can control where she goes, is the message, and where he wants her is the healing huts.

"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.

The next day, I'm assigned to Yue's guard duty. Which always sucks when she's had a rough time of it. But today, it sucks especially. I really am the wrong person for all this subtle touchy-feely-stuff. Always was.

In any case, she tells me that Pakku has officially made both Aang and Katara his students. The other ones he had will train with them, and are, apparently relieved that he has others to focus on for a time.

I listen and nod at appropriate times.

She notices something's off. Which reminds me not to let my guard down around her. Through my friendship with her father, we've inevitably gotten to know one another quite well, and while I find her a bit too abusive of her status as princess over me at the moment, she's also Yue and in a way, my friend.

As Hahn's feelings for her gained depth, I thought she might feel the same way for him. But that was all speculation, since I don't think she has many people to honestly confide in.

"What?" she snaps when I eye her a little shrewdly.

I shrug and don't answer. What can I say? This is a bad time, and she probably doesn't know what to do with herself any more than I could tell her.

It riles her up more. "You are so annoying! Why can't you ever behave like a normal person?"

I sigh. "Princess…"

She whirls, turns on me. "Spit it out!"

"I met Sokka last night."

She freezes, the corners of her mouth pulling down. "So?"

"Just, princess, if you're gonna break Hahn's heart, be honest about it."

She tries to slap me. Slap me! Like I've done something wrong. Like I'm the one who won't break off my engagement.

I duck away. "Coward!"

"That makes no sense at all, you hypocrite," I tell her.

Tears begin to form in her eyes. Wonderful. She throws herself into my arms. Which is. So stupid. Why am I her tissue again?

I sigh and let her cry on me. Things were much better when the Avatar wasn't here. We were all so caught up in ourselves that these new and interesting people symbolising freedom are throwing everyone's game off. While I can do as I please, Yue was always caught and caged in her role as the chief's daughter. She has responsibilities, and there are expectations for her. Now she wants to exceed them. With my help.

Part of me yearns for a soft, fluffy bed to climb into, and never back out.

When she's done and backs off, still sniffling and red-cheeked, I decide to lighten the mood and take a bit of revenge for my poor shirt.

I bend her snot out of her nose.

For a moment, neither of us moves.

Then she screeches bloody murder and I take off towards where I know Pakku and his students are. There are plenty warriors and benders to guard her there and I can make a clean exit.

It doesn't happen quite that way. When the Avatar sees me coming, he waves enthusiastically. I understand the need to escape Pakku's lectures. "Hey, Kaito! What are you doing?"

"Saving my hide!" I barely slow to give him my answer, Yue is hot on my heels, doesn't even care how undignified she's behaving. Good for her, I suppose. Pakku's struggle to remain stern with her later will be hilarious to watch.

Aang decides that I am more interesting than Pakku and tags along on his airbending ball of awesomeness. I always thought it was cool, but seeing it with my own eyes is double that. "What did you do?"

"Eh, nothing special." I cross a bridge. Yue is not yet ready to give up.

"Nothing special! I'm going to get you for this, Kaito!" She shouts and people are starting to look alarmed. Okay, so maybe not my brightest moment, but at least she's not crying anymore. I risk a look over my shoulder to check on her progress. There's about twenty feet separating us.

The Avatar laughs and we lead her on a merry chase until I have the bright idea to crash in on Hahn and his warriors. That means she can use her ire to power through breaking things off, and Hahn can come find me later.

"Kaito! Aren't you on guard duty for Yue today?" So protective. So suspicious.

She appears in the doorway. "Kaito! Don't think you can hide behind Hahn!"

"What did you do?" Hahn rounds in on me and I shrug as I hide behind him ineffectively. Damn my height! Well, nothing more for me to do here.

"Hey Aang, help me out here?" I ask and he laughs loudly, happily, yanks on my collar, and off we are. This is turning out better than expected. The clean escape is nice.

We stop somewhere closer to Pakku's training grounds than I'd like, but we're not in his sight, so we should be fine. I lay back, laughing and Aang joins in.

"Seriously, what did you do?" he asks after a while.

I chuckle. "I bended the snot from her nose."

Aang laughs loudly. It was pretty funny. That look of outrage…

Maybe she'll reconsider involving me in her campaign.

We stay like that for a while, and I take the opportunity to practise guiding underwater currents without disturbing the surface. The trick is to spread your awareness of the body of water in front and beneath you so far, that where you bend is only connected to you through mind and feeling. That's usually what we speak of when we say 'mastery'.

Aang is silent, but thoughtful until he has an idea. "Kaito, do you think you could help me with something?"

"I'm not bending your bogers, Aang."

He laughs. "No! Katara and I found this scroll with a waterbending sequence, but neither of us have managed it. Maybe we were missing something."

"Sure, show me," I say, hoping it's the one he used to get rid of the Fire Nation fleet in canon. I have this idea that if enough benders work together, we can produce the same effects, only far earlier, so that no Fire Nation soldier even sets a foot into the city. It's only a vague concept so far. Hardly worth agonising over until I know.

Aang begins the sequence and I think it's the one. His results are far from stellar. It really is just a thick tendril of water that splashes back down as soon as he's done.

"You know you can just do it like this, right?" I ask, raise one bent wrist and open my fingers as if dropping something once the tendril is at the same height Aang's was. It looks exactly the same.

His face is a hilarious mixture of astonishment and frustration. "That's not it!"

I laugh. "I know." I get on my feet. "Sometimes things work better when you're doing them with another bender. Run me through it once, then we try, yeah?"

Aang nods. It's good, it flows, we fit.

"Wow, you got that down pretty fast," he says, impressed.

"I've been bending since I was two," I reply by way of explanation. "It'll be a wall at first, and there will be power in it, to destroy or subside. We're going to want to let it down gently. Let's try it then. Remember to just feel what you're doing."

The first stance feels very much like the beginning of something grand. With the slight crunch of snow beneath our heels we shift into the second. This one guides its shape and our intentions. The third moulds our power, and from there, it builds.

With every shift, and gesture, it rises. I can feel Aang's astonished glee, and he will experience my elation for how it is working, thought I doubt that he could detect that it is mine.

The wall of water builds nicely, evenly and looks magnificent. It feels magnificent. Bending is always like this, to some degree, but if it's something you need to be in perfect synchronisation with another bender with, it's just so much more. We click well.

Aang obviously feels the same way, because he whoops and breaks form. But it's his first time, and he's twelve, so he can be forgiven.

Which is, of course, partner-bending 101: never break form.

I manage to avoid getting wet by way of directing the water towards Aang.

He looks like a wet puppy and splutters appropriately. He draws himself up, but before he can retaliate, Katara and Pakku show up.

Aang is suitably distracted by this. I'm getting away with so much today. Must be all the comforting I did. Has to be good for something.

"Katara! Kaito and I managed it together! It's really cool!"

She seems to know what he's talking about without a proper explanation. "Show me!" she demands and Pakku nods along. He's curious. At the core of his cold, shrivelled heart, he's just a ball of wonder for the world.

So Aang bends his clothes dry and we do it again. This time, we bring the wave back down gently.

Katara looks stupefied, Pakku is grudgingly impressed. "Want to join in?" I suggest and both of them nod.

We have two dry runs until we're in harmony, then we bend. This is much quicker than usual. In parts because Pakku and I know each other so well, in a parts because the phenomenon of inexperienced benders meshing with experienced ones always allows the latter to set the pace. There is no struggle for dominance of will and control, because it's already so clearly established. I doubt wither Aang or Katara would know here to tug to wrench control from us, much less succeed.

The build-up is even more impressive than it was with just Aang and myself. We've got the wave about halfway when Katara moves on a little faster than us and the water destabilises.

Aang stops altogether, which Pakku will need to talk to him about. It's fine to just stop with something small, but if it's a sequence like this, and together with others, it's safer to keep going and salvage what you can.

Thankfully, Pakku and I know each other's style by heart and we synchronise our movements to bring the wave back down gently. His control always feels like a prompt greeting, and I mentally pat his shoulder in turn as we move simultaneously.

The other two watch with open mouths.

Pakku draws himself upright. "Sequences like this," he begins to lecture, "Are all about harmony. That means we need to all work together, there is no competition, no rushing ahead. Aang, I expect you to follow through with the movements the next time. Katara, you too. You have to synchronise with your fellow benders and get the water back under control."

They nod, "Yes, Master Pakku."

I stifle my laughter and flatten my expression. I was never this polite. Pakku glances at me in warning. No corrupting his cute little students.

"How did you…? What you did wasn't ending the sequence," Katara says, still astonished.

Pakku and I share a look. He stares a bit. That means he wants me to answer. "Pakku and I have been bending together since I was five. So, twelve years now. With that amount of time you just know what the other will do and how to take up the rest."

They both nod looking thoughtful. "Okay! Let's do it again!" Aang enthuses and we get back in position.

We manage it together, this time. It's a heady rush of power and it's fucking impressive.

When we've brought the wave back down, there is clapping from behind us. We've gathered an audience. Perfect. Ah, and there's Arnook. Even better. He always knows what I'm thinking.

"Very impressive," he compliments, "I've never seen it before."

That's a question for Pakku. "It seems the Avatar and his friends stumbled across a waterbending scroll from the Southern Watertribe. They had trouble with it individually, but this is one of the sequences that are best done with many."

Arnook, thankfully, looks at me then, and he understands immediately what it is that I want to do. "With many, you say? How many do you think could do this?"

Pakku catches on that this could mean an extra layer of defence for the city. He's all for it. "With enough practise, I'm sure thirty benders could manage it to create a wall taller than the palace."

Thirty is usually the very limit to synchronised bending. The creation of our city is one of the few known examples where the number of benders was greater. Far greater. It illustrates how much the city was every single one of their desires.

Aang and Katara trade looks of confusion. Arnook looks thoughtful, then his eyes lock back onto me. Aw, crap. "Kaito, how about you teach twenty-nine of your fellow waterbenders this sequence. We'll have a demonstration in four days on the night of the full moon."

I sigh heavily. Pakku elbows me in the side. "Yeah, fine…"

Most of the bystanders express their exasperation by rolling their eyes or exchanging amused glances. All Arnook does is smile. If he thinks responsibility will make me grow up, he's about to be proven wrong.

Six days is a bit short to make thirty people harmonise a rather complicated sequence, but I'm sure I can beat them into shape. I learned from the best, after all.

I hoped I'd get an aide or something, but it seems not. I'll have to pick my own, then. Why do work you can delegate to someone else?

Hiraku seems like a good choice. He might not like me, but he's one of Pakku's, so we should work. I find him at the market where he's chatting up a girl. She looks distinctly uncomfortable.

"I hate to interrupt…" I say as I approach them, and it's true, I'd like to have seen if she was going to do anything about her discomfort. She sends me a grateful smile that Hiraku doesn't see, and beats it.

Hiraku's turned to face me. "Kaito. What do you want?"

I smile a lazy smile. "Chief Arnook is asking for a demonstration of a new sequence the Avatar and his friends discovered. I'm meant to teach it to twenty-nine others to give a demonstration on the full moon."

His eyes widen. Then they narrow suspiciously. "And you want me to help you?"

I shrug. "Yeah, sure. I mean, if Pakku let you go, you have to be competent and I figure you know a bit more about the other bender's abilities and who clicks with who."

He adopts a haughty expression. "Quite. After all, not all of us have the privilege of guarding the princess."

That's meant to sting, is it? It's always been a sore spot for the others. Guarding the princess is meant to be an honour, and I've been on the rotation ever since I made master. That's not to say that I haven't been on patrol, just that it's been less frequent.

I give him a bland smile. "Sure. You in or not?"

He nods haughtily. Spirits, he's worse than Pakku on a bad day. Worse than Hahn when he's in front of his dad.

"Good," I pat his shoulder, which he hates, because he's not as tall as me, "See you in two hours in front of the palace steps with the others then."

"Fine," he says, then marches off to rise to the challenge of finding twenty-eight more benders for our cause. That was just pathetically easy.

I set about finding myself some lunch.

Pakku and his students have agreed to move to the side a bit, so thirty more people have enough space to bend together. About half of the lot have arrived, and we wait on the rest.

Hiraku leads the rest and then comes to stand beside me.

"Nicely done," I comment to him, then I smile at the assembled benders. "I'd like to thank you all for coming. I'm sure Hiraku's already filled you in on our objective, but I'll lay it out again, just in case. The Avatar and his friends have shown us a new sequence that could potentially serve to strengthen our defences in the case of an invasion. Chief Arnook would like all of us to get it down and demonstrate on the night of the full moon, which is in six days."

They all nod along, so I nod back and then turn around.

"Hey, Aang, Katara, why don't you show us how it's done?" I holler and at a nod from Pakku, both of them come over.

They manage quite nicely and everyone is suitably awed. I give them an applause in which everyone joins in. "Very good. How about we repeat dry and see who can get it down well enough to try with a partner?"

I gesture the kids over and we stand in front of the assembled to demonstrate the movements. "Alright, let's do this a little slower, so everyone can see the sequence properly."

They stand on either side of me and we work it like professionals. When we're done, I clap their shoulders. "Thanks. If you don't mind, would you keep doing that, so everyone can see the sequence while I go and help the others out?"

"Sure!" Aang agrees and Katara rolls her eyes, but does as asked.

Hiraku, I note, has got it down to two mistakes that he corrects on his second run. Five of the others are just as good. The rest need a little prodding.

"Hey, Kaito, can we stop yet?" Aang asks after their seventh rendition. I wave them off and they scurry back over to Pakku.

Those who I think should be okay I send to pair off with someone and the results of that vary from close to perfection to abysmal. After one such horrifyingly catastrophic attempt, I tell Hiraku to supervise the singles while I go around and help with synchronising the pairs.

Mostly, I insert myself into the dynamic and have them match my tempo. That way, when we go at it later, they should all have the same rhythm. I make two of the better pairs work as a team of four and that goes less smoothly, but still quite well. I hope to have at least three teams of four work as nicely as Katara, Aang, Pakku and I did.

I get four, which makes me dismiss them all with a grin. "Right, good going for today, I'll see you tomorrow after lunch!"

Hiraku lets them go, but turns on me with a frown. "Why so late?"

"We have to perform at night on the full moon. I intend for them to stay until midnight tomorrow, longer the day after and so on. We need to get used to bending together as we grow stronger with the moon, otherwise we might just botch it all up because of the power increase."

He nods stiffly, then marches off.

"Not bad," Pakku says from behind me, smirking.

I shrug, "We're getting there. Up for a spar?"

He grins. That's definitely a yes.