The Twin (HEAVY RE-WRITE AS OF 2022)

consequences

Admittedly, the crew members were much nicer and welcoming to me than expected. After some initial awkwardness and a lot of drinks later, they warmed up enough to me to start joking and telling me their stories. A lot of the crew were from our Earth Kingdom colonies and had enlisted in the military to provide for their families. 

"So, Princess, what do you do for fun?" one of the soldiers asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. 

"Well, right now I'm spending most of my time looking for the Avatar." I said, taking a drink out of my glass. It was a type of spiced fermented tea that the Earth Kingdom colonists had made and the more I drank, the warmer I felt. The soldiers started laughing and I could feel my face heating up even more than it already was. 

"We know what you're doing here, I asked what you like to do for fun." I paused and thought for a second, I didn't ever really do anything for fun or my own pleasure, except for my short time in the Water Tribe, but I wasn't about to admit that to them.

"Well, I like to read when I'm not training." I finally settled on. The man looked at me incredulously. 

"That's all you do? Man, the life of a princess sounds boring." The men laughed and I couldn't help but giggle with them. Maybe it was the drink they had given me, or just the laughter of the crew piercing through the calm of the ocean that allowed me to let my guard down. I laughed with them and nodded my head while sipping on my tea. I looked down at my cup and thought of Iroh. I sighed and leaned back into my chair, looking up at the moon. It reminded me of Kesuk which brought my mood even lower and I could feel my eyes filling with tears. 

Excusing myself from the table to get some air, I walked back to the back of our ship and stared up into the sky. If Kesuk saw me now, would he still see me as the same person he knew? I thought of myself and how ridiculous I looked in this formal dress. Who was I trying to impress? The crew members? No, it wasn't that, I wanted to feel how I did. Before Kesuk and the Water Tribe. The tears were flowing full force off of my face and landing in the ocean before getting whisked away by it. 

"I wish we could do that with our problems." Someone said from behind me. I immediately stood up and wiped the tears away. "Excuse me?" I said before turning around. I was a crew member, one of the ones that had been laughing with me earlier. 

"It just that I wish the ocean could take my problems and wash them away." I felt what I thought was all of the blood in my body go to my face, realizing that I had been caught crying. "It's okay princess, I won't tell anyone. Being on the ocean away from family can be hard, we've all been in your position." I paused, thinking about what to do carefully before taking action. My father would want me to dispose of him because he had seen me weak, and I knew that's what I should do. But one thought kept coming back to me "What would Kesuk want me to do?" I coughed and nodded politely at the crew member. 

"Thank you for your kindness, what is your name and story?" The crew member took another step forward and I could see his face. His name was Luhor and he had enlisted in the Fire Nation army when they took over his small Earth Kingdom village. He had a wife and two young kids back home and was waiting until we got to our destination before going back home to see them, and then leaving for his next assignment. Had the tea not begin to wear off, I would have begun crying uncontrollably at his story. He was away from his family because of something that my father and I likely did and here he was being nice to me and comforting me in my lowest point. Instead, I took his hands into mine. 

"Luhor, get off of this boat at our next port and I personally will have a ship there to take you home, as well as permitting you to have six months of paid leave." Luhor looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Are you sure princess?" I nodded and this time, his eyes were the ones full of tears. He began to get on his knees but I helped him up. 

"Please Luhor, go see your family and speak of this no more." I smiled and turned to go to my room, his thank you's following me the entire way there. 

Once I was in my room, I carefully took off my dress and placed it for the maids to clean it. It felt so nice to finally be out of that hot long dress I would need someone to design new formal clothes for me that I could stand to have on for longer. After throwing on some more appropriate clothes, I tried to go to sleep. Despite being extremely tired, I could not go to sleep. All I could think of was Luhor's face when I told him to go see his family. Did the other crew members have similar stories? While planning which Earth Kingdom villages to add as colonies into the Fire Nation, never had the people who lived in those villages ever been considered. Was what I was doing wrong? For some reason, I couldn't help but remember Kesuk's face when he found out who I was. I didn't sleep that night.