parallel lines

chapter ix

"No, but it's familiar." Natsuko took the blue dragon head from the display and was still trying her best to remember were it came from. She remembered years ago in a small secluded village near the island they were just in a few days ago and their dedication to the play, "This was about dragons falling in love with mortals?"

She wasn't sure but he nodded and let the mask back on the display, ignoring the man who tried to talk more about selling them in a hefty price, and walked around more to see what they were able to snatch from wherever.

"I had a friend, who loved that play. She played the empress, I think, which was her first and last."

She remembered her friend and how passionate her friend was about the importance of the play was in her life, losing her fiancé and family that day and she wasn't able to perform as the empress. Leaving her there to spend her time living life how she wanted was a hard process and choice to deal with at first but she managed.

They had a lot of stops looking at stolen goods even from Air Temples and the, what she gathered, tall impenetrable city covered by a wall, as well as the waters from the North which was were Aang and the others were headed.

"Do you see anything you like, Prince Zuko?" if she'd asked him again he wasn't sure if he would be able to contain the blush he managed to hide from her when she asked him that question, not that he was thinking about something else that could possibly encapsulate the word "like" in another matter but that was exactly what happened. He shook his head as an answer and they came across many stores that not even one had Natsuko's interest except for the masks. After what was like a maze, they were able to see their ship in front of them.

"I've checked all the shops of this pier. Not a lotus tile in the entire marketplace."

"It's good to know this trip was a complete waste of time for everyone!"

Prince Zuko's real nature always showed up when another person was around, not that she didn't think that his kindness was just a way to pass the time, maybe he was just trying to ease the awkwardness surrounding the atmosphere or maybe he wasn't just comfortable with Natsuko being around.

"You bought a tsungi horn?"

"For music night on the ship."

Iroh had bought a lot more than what resembled the Pai Sho tile he was looking for as it differed from the tile to other items in what looked like bowls for each soldier to hold onto, a total of three men and mountains of bargained goods with the last one carrying the said tsungi horn. He began walking towards the direction of the three, Zuko and Natsuko following behind and looked at each other when Iroh spotted a large sailing ship opened by the docks knowing it was another sign from Iroh about his compulsive behavior to keep on finding a White Lotus tile and evidently more than just the tile.

They went inside and what Natsuko's eyes first saw was a hair comb with a fire lily on it. It's been so long since she

"That has been passed on from generation to generation, ever since the beginning of the nations." a man suddenly spoke behind her which startled her and Zuko never felt his head turn so fast in his entire life at the flinch and squeak of the girl behind him while Iroh was goofing along the dozen of artifacts his eyes were attached to, "They said that the owner of the hair comb disappeared after she placed it on her brother's dying body."

"It sounds fake." Zuko was nudged by Natsuko, seeing that she really liked the story. He imagined how it would look on her hair that was unkempt as of the moment and just how soft her hair must be. He blinked once, twice, three times before shaking off the thoughts in his head, he sounded creepy, to him anyways, but he didn't want Natsuko to know. When will he stop rambling?