-
"You signed us up for a WHAT?!" Tseng roared.
Hayoda winced back from the sudden outburst from the normally calm teen. "Look, I said I was sorry, okay? How was I supposed to know that none of us can dance? I thought at least one of us could!"
"Hey, I can dance!" Yi Lin protested, feeling slightly left out.
"You. Don't. Count." Tseng muttered through gritted teeth, not even looking at her. "Now you listen to me mister," he continued, pointing an accusatory finger at Hayoda and advancing on him, summarily ignoring the protests behind him. "You get right back there and you tell them that we're not going to go through with this. Absolutely not."
("Whaddaya mean, I don't count? Hey! That's not fair, Tseng!")
"But Tseeeeeeeeng," Hayoda whined, retreating before the wrathful finger. "It's a matter of Pride and Honor!" One could almost hear the capital letters. ("Is it because I'm an airbender? Is that it? Look at me, Tseng!") "Besides, the contest is the day after tomorrow."
For a moment, Tseng merely breathed heavily, face contorted into an expression of unspeakable rage. Finally, though, he managed to find his voice, in a shriek that made everyone in the vicinity wince. "WHAT?!"
"What the hell is going on over here? For Roku's sake, could ya keep it down a little?" Irah stormed over.
"This IDIOT signed us up-"
"Tseng just started yelling and it's really not my fault-"
"He said I don't count and, like, what does that even MEAN-"
The other teens turned on her, all of them yelling their own opinion in the hope of getting her on their side first. Within moments, Irah herself was yelling back, confusing everyone further. The situation was getting dire. It was time to speak up.
No one had even noticed Yue standing in the background, desperately trying to not get noticed. Now the time had come, though, for her to speak her part. "Um..."
"WHAT?!"
All four of them whipped around and glared at her, misplaced anger and righteous indignation oozing from every pore. She jumped, startled, and couldn't help the tears that started in her eyes.
The other teens looked immediately guilty. Tseng began rubbing the back of his head, staring at the ground, Irah gazed off into the sky, and Yi Lin and Hayoda rushed over to cuddle Yue.
"What's up, cutie?" Yi Lin asked kindly, rubbing Yue's shoulders. Any trace of irritation was gone like smoke on the wind.
"I-I-I," Yue sniffed and took the handkerchief that Irah guiltily thrust at her, "I was ju-just gonna ask wh-what Hayoda signed us up for."
Hayoda sighed, ruffling his little sister's hair. "A talent contest, sis."
"Did-Did you say we were gonna dance?" She asked, looking up at him, eyes shining with tears and hero-worship.
"Something to that effect, yes," Hayoda muttered, sighing again. Yeah, he had been stupid again, and now everyone was mad at him, again, and now they were going to have to cover for him, AGAIN, and the only thing he hated in the world more than being trapped at home was seeing his cute little sister cry.
"Well," Yue said slowly, brightening, "If nobody knows how to dance, but they're expecting something with music, we could just play a song!"
"YEAH! Good one, Yue!" Hayoda crowed, holding out his hand for a high-five. Yue slapped his hand gently, then giggled as Yi Lin ruffled her hair again.
"That's a good idea, Yue..." Irah said, and her tone implied bad things to the happy three, "But I don't think any of us have an instrument with us..." She trailed off, looking expectantly at the others, all of whom frowned, trying to think if they had brought any instruments on the journey and failing.
"Weeeeeeell, could we find some?" Hayoda asked, not wanting to knock off Yue's plan so quickly.
"In case you haven't noticed, Hayoda," Tseng said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "We're kind of a little short on cash right now. As in, we have no money of any kind."
"Coooooould...weeeeeee..." Yi Lin muttered, drawing out the words as she tried to think of something before she reached the end of the sentence. "....makesome?" she asked, knowing as she said it the idea was a flop.
"Of course not," Irah snapped, frustrated by her friend's dumb idea. "It takes years to make instruments of any quality. We could never make anything in time."
"Wait a second," Hayoda said, obviously deep in thought. "What if we.....fly to another island, BORROW some instruments, come back here..."
"And then what?" Tseng interrupted. "Number one, we'd have no time to practice, number two, THAT'S ILLEGAL, number three, there's no guarantee we'd be able to FIND instruments and get back here in time, number..."
"Four," Hayoda offered helpfully, earning himself a dirty look.
"Number FOUR.....that's illegal-"
Irah interrupted. "You said that one already."
Tseng exploded. "IT'S REALLY ILLEGAL, OKAY?! FOR KURUK'S SAKE!"
Bristling, Irah snarled right back, "Hey, don't yell at me, okay? I'm not the one who suggested the stupid idea, it was blockhead over there and another thing-"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Yi Lin interrupted, obviously deep in thought. "I totally just had a great idea."
"Well then, that solves everything!" Tseng yelled, tossing his hands in the air. "If it's of the same caliber as THAT-" here he pointed viciously at Hayoda, who quivered and tried to hide behind Yue "-than you can just forget it, mister."
Yi Lin looked offended. "Okay, first of all, I'm a miss, thanks. And second of all, it will totally work. I just realized, instruments like the lair work by vibrating in the air, right?"
"Lyre," Irah muttered.
"What? Hey, they totally work like that! Your uncle told me!" Yi Lin huffed.
"What? No, I was saying, it's 'lyre', not..." Irah trailed off. "You know what? Just continue. Forget I said anything."
"Yeah, okay, whatever," Yi Lin said, still looking slightly miffed. "Anyway, I was just thinking, what if we totally took out the whole 'needing an instrument' thing and skipped right to the 'vibrating the air' thing?"
She could see the completely clueless looks on their faces. Sighing, she continued, "Just give me a sec, okay?"
The others nodded, still looking confused. Ignoring them, Yi Lin concentrated hard. She knew that her father had said one time that the greatest of the Air Nomads had been able to control sound, manipulating the air to confuse and mislead their enemies. If she just took the idea of a rapidly vibrating string, and applied it to a tiny patch of air...
Everyone jumped as the small space formed by Yi Lin's hands suddenly rang with a loud, clear tone.
"Holy..." Tseng muttered, peering at Yi Lin's hands, as though he could see her secret if he looked hard enough.
"...KYOSHI!" Hayoda shrieked, leaping into the air. "That was TOTALLY AWESOME! Do it again!"
Yi Lin, face screwed up in concentration, twitched her right hand slightly. The tone rang out again, clear and loud.
"Can...can you make it go higher or lower?" Yue asked softly.
"Hmm..." Yi Lin pondered this. She tried moving her left hand further away from her right, and was able to produce a lower tone. Once there was more than a foot between her two hands, however, she couldn't make any noise.
Panting heavily, she confessed, "I think that's the lowest it can go, you guys."
"Well, that is amazing..." Tseng conceded. "Unfortunately, we're going to need more than Yi Lin making noise up there. Maybe if someone else could figure out how to make a noise like that..."
"Hey. Hey guys..." Irah said suddenly, attracting everyone's attention. "You know what makes a really deep noise?" She smiled in the face of their blank stares. "Thunder."
Electricity crackled at her fingertips as she made a slow circling motion with her arms, finally having them come to rest in imitation of Yi Lin's pose, one at her waist, elbow out, the other at chest hight, elbow tucked in and hand curved around the invisible neck of an instrument. Electricity danced in long lines between her hands. Still smiling to herself, she twitched both hands.
A long, low note rumbled forth, deep enough that those watching felt it in their chests more than heard it. Hayoda's jaw dropped. Irah tossed back her head and laughed, moving her hands so that more notes growled forth.
"O...okay. Well then. I think we have our instruments..." Tseng said, speaking loudly to be heard over the sub basso tones of whatever Irah was doing. "Now, I guess we should have someone singing..."
"Oh! Oh!" Hayoda jumped up and down, one hand in the air. "Pick me! Pick me!"
Pinching the bridge of his nose again, Tseng muttered, "I guess Hayoda should be the singer..."
"YESSSSSSS!" Hayoda yelled, pumping his fist into the air, then holding it out. Yue timidly punched it in return, smiling at how overjoyed her brother was.
It quickly became clear after only a few moments of practice, however, that while Hayoda, Irah, and Yi Lin had great senses of rhythm and melody, none of them seemed to coincide with any of the others'.
"Oh, for Yangchen's sake..." Tseng muttered, one hand covering his face, not wanting to watch as Hayoda pranced around singing, almost crashing into Yi Lin, who was testing to see just how fast she could make the notes ring out. On the other side of their little practice, Irah had her head down in concentration, seemingly ignoring the other two in favor of creating an unusual melody of popped notes, smooth notes, and strange sudden silences, one that unfortunately had nothing to do with what Yi Lin was playing or Hayoda was singing.
Sighing, Tseng turned to Yue, who jumped. "Yue, I have only one thing to ask of you. Please, please, PLEASE, can you do something to make these guys play together? They're never going to listen to me."
"I....I don't know..." Yue whispered, looking terrified at the very thought.
"Please, Yue," Tseng begged. He sounded desperate. "You don't even have to look at anybody else or anything. You could hide behind a giant boulder or something. These guys just really need something to keep them together."
"Maybe...I can think of something...." Yue whispered. She carefully walked around where the current disaster was playing out, trying to avoid getting in anyone's way. Once she was behind where Yi Lin, Irah, and Hayoda were standing, she looked at Tseng desperately. He smiled at her and gave a quick thumbs-up.
Well, that didn't help. Concentrating, Yue, could only think of one thing that was louder than the noises the other three were making, and the one thing that scared her almost as much as strangers or losing Hayoda: earthbending.
Flinching slightly at the thought, Yue tried to remember everything Aunt Toph had drilled into her head. She spread her legs and bent her knees into the wide stance needed, then, closing her eyes and summoning the thought of Aunt Toph bellowing into her ear, spread her stance even farther. With all of her willpower, she reached down, feeling into the earth and quickly finding a good-sized boulder beneath her. Concentrating until the sweat ran into her eyes, she yanked as hard as she could.
With a loud CRACK the boulder burst through the surface, coming to rest at shoulder-height. The three teens in front of her jumped, and Hayoda yelled, "Awesome earthbending, sis! I'm proud of ya!" before turning back to his imaginary crowd and resuming his song.
Blushing at the praise, Yue looked at the boulder in front of her. Well, it had gotten their attention, but just for a second, and she couldn't just toss it around every time she wanted to keep the beat. No, she needed something more. She sunk into her stance again, and with a deep breath, punched the boulder in front of her, breaking off a small piece. She punched it again, breaking off another small piece.
Almost perfect...She just needed one more thing. Ignoring Tseng's yell, asking her where she was going, she ran back to where their "ship" was docked, searching for the one thing she needed the most right now...Aha!
A small sheet of metal lay against the wall of a house, obviously left over from when the roof had been fixed. She snagged the piece, praying it wouldn't be missed, and ran back to her friends.
Everything was exactly like she had left it. Tseng looked confused at her hasty departure, and even more confused at her sudden return. She didn't want to explain to him before she had actually tried what she was about to do.
Yue ran back to her boulders and quickly summoned a simple pillar of dirt, which she shoved the scrap of metal halfway into. Then she grabbed a small rock off the ground in each hand. Perfect. Now, to get the others' attention...
Irah stopped what she had been doing as a steady rhythm, thudding like a heartbeat, echoed around the small clearing. She glanced over at Yue, almost hidden behind a large rock. The little earthbender appeared to be kicking at the ground behind her boulder, which was producing that steady thump. As Irah watched, Yue, rocks in both hands, began to bang against two smaller rocks, supplementing the rhythm. As she reached a certain point in the music, she slammed against a piece of metal, creating a loud, tinny smash. It was a perfect way to keep the beat.
There was a moment of confusion as everyone involved adjusted themselves to Yue's steady rhythm. Then, once Irah joined in, playing the beat but with her own embellishments, Yi Lin was free to wander all around the melody as Hayoda belted out his song, randomly choosing whatever words sprang into his head.
Tseng nodded to himself happily. It wasn't perfect by any means, but give them some time, and maybe some advice as to exactly what song they were supposed to be singing, and things might not turn out as badly as he'd feared.
-
Two days and a lot of practice later, the teens stood nervously in the shadows offstage, watching in reluctant admiration as the Flamey-O's danced and spun across the stage, fire bursting from their fists and feet as they whirled through the air.
"Guys," Yi Lin whispered loudly. "Guys, they're really good."
"Shut up," Irah hissed, but she looked extremely nervous.
Hayoda leaned close to the others, but whisper-yelled loudly enough that the people in the third row of the audience could probably hear him. "Don't worry, we're gonna totally blow them away with how awesome we are!"
Tseng rolled his eyes, but grinned nervously. Yue was trembling with fear, eyes wide enough that the whites were showing all around.
Finally, the Flamey-O's were finished. As they trooped offstage, the leader turned and grinned smugly at Hayoda, making a subtle rude gesture.
All of the teen's fear turned instantly to anger. Hayoda quickly gestured back, Irah growled under her breath, and even Yi Lin looked offended. Yue merely trembled harder.
"Alright, next up we have a band of newcomers," the announcer yelled, swaggering onto the stage. "They don't hail from around here, but they're happy to be here tonight. Their music isn't ordinary, but it does have rocks in it...please welcome.....The Sea Wolves!"
The audience waited, slightly impatiently. Nobody was walking on stage. Finally, just as someone coughed, a fine mist began to spread over the stage, spilling off into the first few rows. As the mist thickened onstage, there were a few unidentifiable thumps. Then, the fog drifted clear to reveal a large silhouette at the back of the stage, and several crouched figures standing in front of it. Hayoda stepped to the edge of the stage, scanning the crowd.
"Can you hear me?!" he screamed, making the people in the first row jump. A few kids in the back, getting into the spirit of things, cheered loudly. Everyone else looked around confusedly. "I said....CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" The adults in the audience, wanting to stop this strange boy with the weird face paint, yelled affirmations, but were drowned out by the teenagers in the audience, who screamed back.
"ALRIGHT!" Hayoda yelled, really getting into the swing of things. "HIT IT!"
Yue, realizing this was her cue, began the thudding, heavy rhythm. After a few measures, Yi Lin joined in, her air instrument screaming down the octaves. On the backbeat, Irah had her growling, rumbling accompaniment, vibrating in the chests of everyone in the audience. Finally, Hayoda stepped to the edge of the stage, took a deep breath, and began to sing.
"TWO LOVERS! FORBIDDEN FROM ONE ANOTHER!"
-
Offstage, Tseng smiled grimly. The announcer had screwed up their intro, but his effects had gone over perfectly, and everything seemed to be going well. It seemed like an odd song to have chosen, but it had been the only song that all four of them knew. Anyway, it didn't matter how strange the selection was, all that mattered was the expressions on the faces of the audience. They were frozen in awe, eyes wide. And the music was loud enough that even the people in the back could hear...
Wait...
He peered closely at the people sitting in the back row...they looked extremely familiar...
-
Sokka leaned close to Zuko, yelling over the sound of the music. "IS THAT MY SON?!"
Zuko just nodded, frozen in shock. There was his little Irah, up on stage in her once-fancy Fire Nation royal outfit, now dirty, ragged, and ripped. What was she DOING?
Next to him, Aang was laughing happily, clapping in time to the beat. "ISN'T THIS GREAT?" he yelled to no one in particular.
Katara looked stricken. "ARE YOU KIDDING?" she shrieked. "WHAT IS THIS NOISE? IT'S HORRIBLE!"
"OH, LIGHTEN UP!" Suki yelled, leaning around Sokka, Zuko and Mai to scream in Katara's face. "I LIKE IT!"
Mai just grinned and tapped her feet to the music.
-
Tseng sat stricken in a rictus of absolute terror. Were those their PARENTS out there? What were they going to do when the show was over? And for Kuruk's sake, why hadn't the others noticed yet?
-
Hayoda pranced around the stage, singing his lungs out. Everything was going so well! Yue was keeping the rhythm perfectly, Irah was rumbling along to the beat, Yi Lin was shredding the air and making it wail, the audience was transfixed, and oh spirits there was his father in the back row.
It was only years of putting on a show for everyone around him that enabled Hayoda to avoid faltering. The song was almost over, and with any luck, they could flee before their parents had time to storm over and take them home...
-
The song was winding down, and Zuko nodded to the others. Together, they stood and began to circle around the square, heading for the side of the stage. As soon as the teens got off the stage, glancing nervously around them, they ran directly into their parents.
"Hayoda."
Sokka's voice rumbled deep in his chest, anger and disappointment clear from his tone. The teen glanced up at his father nervously, then looked at the ground. "Yes, sir?" he whispered.
"I-" Sokka began, but he was cut off by Zuko.
"We're all very disappointed in you children. Running away like that? What were you thinking?" The teens were all looking at the ground ashamedly, shifting from foot to foot. "I've been hearing reports from all over the place about how much trouble you've gotten into." Hayoda winced; most of that trouble was undoubtedly his fault. "Now, you're coming home with us, and that's final."
"D-dad?" Irah asked, glancing nervously at him, then looking away. "C-can we just say goodbye?" Her voice cracked with unshed tears.
Zuko glowered for a moment, then reluctantly nodded. "Alright. Say your goodbyes. But then, we're leaving."
The teens huddled together. Irah grabbed Hayoda around the shoulders, pulling him into a deep hug. She whispered in his ear, "Do you think we can get away?"
Hayoda froze for a second, then muttered back, "Yeah, I'll get Tseng to throw up a cover. Just hold on a sec."
Grabbing Tseng around the waist, Hayoda pulled the protesting teen against him. "GIve us some cover," he muttered in Tseng's ear.
"Alright, but I need something to distract the parents. They'll see me bending," Tseng whispered reluctantly.
Hayoda pulled Irah back into a hug. She rolled her eyes as he whispered to her, "Can you distract the parents while Tseng bends us a cover?"
She nodded once, then backed away. Pulling Yue into a hug, she muttered to the little earthbender, "Yue, Tseng's going to give us some cover while we run away, but we can't let our parents see. Can you start crying?"
Yue nodded. It wasn't that hard, really; She was tired and being up on stage in front of all those people had been too scary and now their parents were mad at them and they were all going to have to go home and Hayoda had gotten three hugs but she only got one and Yi Lin was giving Irah that look that she always gave her if she thought Irah was leaving her for a long time, like a kicked puppy-wolf, and she was a little homesick and nobody had noticed how great her earthbending was even though she had tried real hard...
-
Sokka jumped as Yue threw her head back and began to wail, like a child that had gotten lost in the marketplace, big fat tears running down her cheeks and dripping off her chin. The other children clustered around her.
"Oh, look at that," Mai said, hitting Zuko on the arm. "You made her cry, you big fat meanie."
"I did not!" Zuko protested hotly, but deep down, he knew he had been way too harsh, and it was all his fault that Sokka and Suki's cute little girl now totally hated him. "Anyway, I'm not being mean, I'm enforcing the rules."
Mai made a noise of disbelief. "What rules?"
"Fire Nation royalty shouldn't be galavanting around with a bunch of kids," Zuko said, knowing as he was speaking that he was handing everyone ammunition.
Katara seized on his statement instantly. "What, like you weren't doing the exact same thing when you were her age? I was running around like an idiot at that age too! We all were! That's how we MET!"
"That's not what I meant!" Zuko said, knowing he was losing the argument. "I just...don't want her to get hurt, is all." When Mai and the others looked at him, slightly surprised, he asked hesitantly, "Do...Do you think I was too harsh on them? Really?"
Sharing glances with Sokka, Aang spoke up. "Yeah, you totally were."
"Ugh." Zuko buried his face in his hands. "I know. And I'm not fat," he added, looking up and glaring at Mai, who laughed gently.
"But you are a meanie," she said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"Aw, just leave him alo-" Suki began, but Aang cut her off.
"What is Tseng doing?" he asked, peering forward. A heavy mist was filling the air as he spoke, whiting out everything. With one shared glance at their parents, the teens backed into the fog.
"Oh no they DID NOT!" Sokka yelled, crowing in triumph. "Ha HA! Our kids are total geniuses!"
"Sokka, this isn't funny!" Katara yelled, stomping forward. "We need to stop them before theyAAAAAAA"
Katara shrieked as she suddenly fell backwards, crashing into Suki, who had been behind her. Suki yelled as she, too, fell backwards, grabbing Aang's arm as she fell. Aang, taken by surprise, pitched forward, slamming headfirst into Sokka, who flailed around ridiculously for a second before grabbing desperately at Mai, who was laughing so hard she could barely stand already. Mai clutched at Zuko, still laughing, as all three of them hit the ground.
-
Tseng glanced back through the fog, wondering exactly who it was who had helped them out. Suddenly, a figure seemed to materialize out of the fog at his side. Toph, grinning like a lunatic, held a finger to her lips. "Hurry," she mouthed.
Grinning back, Tseng signaled the others. Yi Lin scooped Yue up in her arms and ran for the gate, with the others following behind.
'We're gonna make it, we're gonna make it, we're totally gonna oh no,'
Two people were standing in front of the gate, blocking the way. "Aunt Azula!" Irah hissed, skidding to a halt so fast she almost fell over backwards.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" said the former princess, smiling cruelly. "I can only assume that you five are responsible for this?" She barged on without waiting for an answer. "I knew it was odd when I got a letter from Toph's ship, telling us to be here in two days' time, but I didn't expect something this...entertaining," she said, waving a hand at the fogged-over square.
At the teen's guilty looks, her grin widened. "Well, Ty Lee," she continued, waving a hand at the woman lounging against the wall, "I guess it really was too bad that we got here too late to stop those crazy kids."
"But Azula," Ty Lee said, confused. "They're standing right-"
"I SAID," Azula cut her off. "It's really TOO BAD we got here TOO LATE to stop them."
"Ooooohhhh..." Ty Lee said, realization dawning. "Yeah, we got here, like, way too late to stop you." She winked hugely at the kids, grinning like an idiot.
"Come now, Ty Lee. Let's go add some fuel to the flames," Azula said. The set of her grin sailed right through 'mischievous,' splashed happily past the realm of 'cruel,' and dipped its toes in the waters of 'maniacal.' She headed into the misty square, towards where loud, angry shouts, hysterical laughter, and the general sounds of mass confusion indicated that Toph was still helping their cover. Ty Lee bounced along after her, pausing only to wink happily at the teens again.
There was a long, thoughtful pause, which stretched until Tseng finally broke it with, "Aunt Ty Lee's totally going to blow it, isn't she."
Irah nodded. "Yup."
There was a shorter pause. "We should totally run now, shouldn't we."
This time, Yi Lin answered. "Yeah, pretty much."
Not bothering to look back, the waterbender set off towards where they were docked at a dead run. He could hear the others following behind. There was Yi Lin's bright, happy laugh, Hayoda's loud guffaw, Irah's steady chuckle, and Yue's tearful giggles. They were still running, still heading out to the open sea, still free. And there was nothing, not pirates, not school, and not even their angry parents, that could take their freedom away.