Miyuki raised her arm and waited for her messenger bird, who had been circling overhead for a handful of minutes, to land. In a few moments, claws meant for hunting prey dug into the arm chap she'd strapped onto her forearm and she collected the scroll attached to its back. She fed it as she skimmed through the contents of the letter.
Master Pakku glanced at the papers from behind her shoulder. "This is complete gibberish! Some of these are just squiggles!"
"That's the point." She tried not to roll her eyes at the man as she sighed and produced a fresh sheet of paper to send her response. "Each of my informants were provided a different code to use in their correspondence with me, making it nearly impossible to gain any intel should my messages fall into someone else's hands," she explained as she transferred the bird onto a perch and started to write. When she was done, she rolled the paper up, slid it into the holder, and sent the bird back on his way.
Miyuki glanced at the waterbending master. "Furthermore, there's no signature. I identify them through the code being used."
She tore up the message regarding Zuko and his uncle's whereabouts before tossing it into the cooking fire. She hoped that they were okay drifting about on the sea as they were. Then again, there wasn't much she could do at the moment even if they weren't doing okay.
The elderly man sighed. "The more I interact with you, the more I feel that I've underestimated you all this time."
She shrugged. "Better late than never, I suppose."
Something about her blasé attitude in response to what she normally would have considered to be a jab must have tipped him off because he sighed and asked, "What's troubling you, Miyuki?"
She smiled wryly. "I know that we're working together now, but it doesn't make it any less off-putting being on the receiving end of your concern for a change." He cast her a stern look and she added, "It's nothing that you can help me with, and therefore, nothing that you should concern yourself with."
"I am old, but not so old that I no longer have my hearing. At the very least, I can listen to your worries."
"I'm alright." She sighed when she realized how one-sided their newfound level of courtesy was. She added quietly, "But thank you. Really. I...appreciate it."
·:*¨༺ ★ ༻¨*:·.
After a day filled with too many tasks and then not enough tasks, Miyuki found herself with far more free time on her hands than she would prefer. She needed a moment to relax and unwind, and the most calming thing she could think of in the moment was going up to the lookout's post and watch as their ship was lulled by the ocean's waves, so she did just that.
Scaling up to the lookout's post was no walk in the park, but it was well worth it once she settled herself into the crow's nest. Miyuki squinted at the horizon as she tried to enjoy the breeze. After her parents passed away, she had stared out into the distance of this ocean, hoping to one day travel through it again in a safe world and learn about all the things that she was unfamiliar with. All things considered, she supposed that she was halfway there. She was indeed traveling and learning a variety of things, but it was by no means safe. Nor was it as pure as she would have imagined it to be even just a handful of years ago. She sighed deeply. The world was far more complicated than she had ever imagined as a child too.
"Oh..." a vaguely familiar voice began.
She turned around to find the Avatar's head peeking out just over the confines of the post.
His tone was far more timid than she had expected from the child that so many had described as 'bursting with youthful energy' as he asked, "Did you come here to be alone?"
"Not necessarily," she replied. "Please, feel free to join me. I only came to stargaze and reflect on the last few days. I wouldn't mind the company if you'll have me."
He seemed to fly for a moment as he used his bending to hop over the railing and take a seat next to her. Ah, the maneuvers she could pull off if she had control over the air. What could have been.
When he was all settled, he turned to her with eyes that sparkled with a sort of childish delight and asked, "You're Miyuki, right? I was impressed when you spoke up before the invasion." The idea of it was a little surprising. The all-powerful Avatar was truly still a child bursting with energy and life despite everything that he had been through and the weight of the responsibility that he bore.
"Oh, that?" She waved her hand dismissively. "It was nothing to be impressed with, I can assure you. Just stirring the pot and causing problems as usual."
"But you spoke with so much self-confidence, and, well-" He paused and rubbed the back of his head. "The thing is, I didn't think that you were wrong. To speak up, that is."
"I'm used to all of it, is all. The disapproving stares, the people who shout back, everything." She smiled wryly. "When it comes to the Tribe, I've been saying and doing things that no one wants to agree with since I was a child, after all."
"Why's that?"
"Oh, you hadn't heard?" she asked with a self-deprecating laugh. "I've got a pretty bad reputation because I secretly learned combative waterbending even though I'm a girl. To make things worse, after rejecting all my marriage proposals, and getting caught for learning waterbending, I left the Tribe half a about a year ago to travel on my own. If you're looking for the person they use as a cautionary tale in the Northern Tribe, you've found her."
"Even though it meant leaving your friends and family?" His expression was awed when he asked, but not in the way that she had expected. He almost looked as though he admired her.
Miyuki wasn't sure what she was expecting to hear in response, but evidently, she wasn't expecting to hear that. She took a moment to figure out how she wanted to reply. "My parents were killed when I was young, and my older brother encouraged me to go when I told him," she began, her eyes flickering back to the horizon as she spoke. "As for friends—" She sighed. "I had one. I have one. He was the one who helped me learn combative waterbending at the risk of punishment."
"Sounds like a good friend."
"He was-" She caught herself and corrected, "Is. Which is why I couldn't let him get taken down with me when a guy that proposed to me threatened to expose both of us for our crime if I refused to become his finance."
The boy's eyes widened then. "So what happened?"
Miyuki shrugged. "I told him to try me, was summoned to the Council, and convinced them that I learned everything on my own. And then I left."
"Just like that?"
She nodded. "Just like that."
"Why did that person go as far as threatening you to get you to marry them?"
She hummed. He posed a good question. "I'm not sure. My brother has a pretty good standing, and I guess by association I did too. It probably didn't help that my brother had devoted two hours daily to review the proposals I was getting."
"So you got a lot of them?"
"I did."
"Was there one that you would have accepted?"
Her thoughts flickered to Kyo. "There was one person whose proposal I might have accepted back then, but he never asked me."
His shoulders sank and he hung his head as he sighed quietly as he pulled his knees closer to his chest. "So love is difficult even for someone as pretty and talented as you."
She couldn't help the soft laugh that bubbled up past her lips in response. "I think most people see me in a very different light, but I'm flattered that you think of me that way."
"Even so, leaving your home like that sounds really difficult. You wouldn't think so since you seem so put together though."
She granted him some breathed laughter in response. "Thanks, but I'm only human. I've got my fair share of problems too. I'm just better at hiding them now." She leaned back on the mast. "I'm not one to speak though. You're the Avatar, after all. Although, I'm sure that you kind of resent that role in a way too."
"How can you tell?" he exclaimed suddenly, his eyes wide. He lowered his head after a moment and pulled his knees close to his chest as murmured, "It's kind of complicated." He refused to meet her eyes.
Seeing him like this, more so than seeing the energy that he still held, it became evident that she really was speaking to a child. True, he was only a few years younger than her, but the gap between twelve and sixteen was large. It was practically a different stage of life, and yet, he held the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was a burden he held alone, and she was certain no one else in the world would ever fully relate to that.
"I'm sure that it is. To begin with, it's a lot of responsibility for a single person to bear. Especially at such a young age."
"Yeah..." He hung his head.
"But I think the fact that you feel this way about being the Avatar is a sign that you're a good one," she replied softly. "Someone who would get drunk off power would be unfitting for the role, but you're hesitant about it all, and judging by your expression, you feel the true weight of the power that you wield. You know your role and the grave importance of it, and despite being so young, you conduct yourself accordingly when it counts. I'm sure that it doesn't mean much coming from someone as insignificant on the grand scale of things as myself, but that already makes you a proper Avatar in my eyes."
"I really appreciate hearing that from you, thank you." He smiled at her. "And you're not insignificant. Everyone has a role to play in this world, and I truly believe that."
"I'm just stating my opinion, but if it's eased your mind in any way, then I'm glad to have helped, Avatar."
"Aang. Just Aang is alright."
Sensing the impending end to their current topic, she decided to prompt a new one in an attempt to change the mood. "I heard that you fell into a sort of deep sleep before the war started, Aang. It was always my dream to travel the world when it was peaceful. Did you...?"
The monk perked up in an instant before nodding and smiling enthusiastically. "I used to go to the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom all the time! Do you wanna hear about it?"
"Yeah, I'd like that a lot."