"Unalaq is so infuriating!" I vent at Iroh as we're walking through the colorfully lit passageway of the festival. Mako, Bolin, and Korra are a few steps forward, talking to each other. We'd usually walk at the same pace as them, but I'm angry, and Iroh is the only one that understands me at all lately. "So snooty, so condescending, so annoying."
"Not to mention his weird hero complex." Iroh adds, agreeing with my words as he nods his head. "It's very annoying and I've known the guy for, like, less than a day."
"Exactly! Thank you!" I exclaim as I feel some weight lifted off my chest. "I can't believe Korra wants him to be her teacher instead of Tenzin."
Iroh sighs as he watches the snow we walk on. "Maybe you should talk to her about it? Give her some guidance?"
I shake my head. "She's so stubborn. It'd probably end with us fighting."
"Aren't you already kind of fighting, though?" He presses. "At least, to me, it's clear that you're upset with her."
"I'll think about it." I say, but only to drop the subject. It's obvious that he's right, as he usually is, but I don't feel like dealing with us when I already have plenty of family drama on my plate.
We continue walking in silence, and my complete attention is on the snow. Whenever I'm not feeling my best emotionally, it always calms me down and helps me think. I'm so engrossed in it that I completely tune out all the noise around me, it's only the white fluffy snow and my complex thoughts.
Until I crash into someone and fall on my butt.
I groan in pain as I look to see that Mako is on the ground next to me, indicating that he's the person that I bumped into.
"Hey, watch where—" Mako begins but halts as soon as his eyes land on mine. "Oh, Luna, it's you."
"Sorry." I immediately say as I scramble to stand up and reach my hand out for him to grab. He does so, and I feel a tingle at the touch of his skin that I haven't felt in weeks. It feels foreign yet familiar.
He offers me a small smile. "Back at it again with the clumsiness, huh, ice girl?" He teases with a slight smirk. Korra immediately grabs his hand and looks lovingly at her boyfriend, then back to me.
"You good?" She queries, an unreadable expression plastered on her face.
"Fine." I answer almost immediately, avoiding meeting her eyes.
At my snap response, she eyes me weirdly, then turns her attention to Iroh who is standing on my right. "General Iroh, it's so nice to see you again. Especially since we're finally in a friendly, non-war threatening environment. Did Luna invite you?"
He chuckles. "The honor is all mine, Avatar Korra. And yes, yes she did."
"That's nice." She comments, then makes direct eye-contact with me. "She hadn't told me."
"We haven't really talked since you left." I comment pointedly, which results in Iroh nudging me.
Korra looks at me sternly but doesn't reply, leaving the four of us in a few moments of awkward silence. I know that it's wrong of me to just snap at her when I could have a mature conversation with her about how much it hurt me that she just left when I needed her, but I'm so pissed off that I honestly don't feel like it. She'll just have to wait for me to be less angry at the subject matter. And I'm not even sure myself of when that'll be.
"Why don't we play some carnival games?" Mako suddenly suggests, breaking the tension. "They look like fun."
Iroh clears his throat. "I agree. Luna?"
I nod at him, stating that I'm okay with the idea, and interlock my arm with his.
As I walk side by side with Iroh, I see Mako grab Korra's hand and begin to lead her in the direction of the water-guns stand. They have wooden cutouts of my granddad with flying lemurs that rise when the water hits them for the longest and most stable amount of time. The flying lemur that gets to the top first, wins. It seems weird to see such an important historical figure like my grandfather used as a prop for the festival, but since it's the holidays, I guess people get over-excited.
The four of us take a seat and begin pressing down the water-gun when the buzzer goes off.
"Unalaq offered to train me." Korra suddenly says – mostly to Mako, but since we're all in the same stand, Iroh and I can both manage to hear. "He says he can teach me about the spirits and my connection to them."
Iroh looks at me pointedly, as if suggesting that now would be a good time to say something about the manner. I shake my head at him and purse my lips, leaving myself out of the conversation.
"Sounds good." Mako pipes in. "What does Tenzin think?"
I turn to look at Korra, awaiting her answer, as curiosity gets the best of me. "Tenzin thinks I'm his prisoner." She remarks sassily, making me furrow my eyebrows. "Or one of his kids. I'll never finish training with him in charge."
Frustration getting the best of the Avatar, her water-gun suddenly starts shooting water at double the rate, indicating that she's bending it as a method of emotional release. Her lemur shoots up and finishes before either of the rest of ours reach the middle of the pole. I sigh at the sight of Korra's emotional outburst.
"And we have a winner!" Korra receives a big flying bison plushie that honestly looks very adorable. We leave the stand to head to another, with the couple barely paying any attention to Iroh and I.
With them walking ahead of us, I see her lift her plushie in admiration. "I mean, you heard what Unalaq said. The South is spiritually unbalanced, and it's the Avatar's job to fix it. But, my dad won't even let me think about Unalaq teaching me."
"Maybe he has a point." I snap, getting frustrated at how easily manipulated she can be. "Your uncle doesn't live here; he doesn't know a thing about us Southerners or our spirituality. Your dad is Chief. Have you even stopped to consider that he knows what he's doing?"
She sighs furiously and meets her eyes with mine. "Oh, now you want to talk?" She spats. I roll my eyes; she's angry when I don't talk to her and she's angry when I do. I never should've said anything. When I only stare at her in silence, she turns to her boyfriend. "Well?"
"Well, what?" Mako queries innocently. He's pretty clueless about Korra, now that I think of it. If I know Korra, she just wants someone to tell her that she's making the right choice right now.
"What do you think I should do? Who do you think is right?" She asks him.
He smiles softly at her. "I guess you should do what you think is right!" Mako replies with glee. "And, maybe Luna has a point, you should talk to your dad and try to understand why he's so hesitant about your uncle teaching you. But, I support whatever decision you make."
Korra is looking at her boyfriend with an unamused face. "So, you're just going to take her side? That's no help."
"I thought you wanted me to be supportive, I'm just seeing the good in both sides." Mako retorts while raising an eyebrow. "Now, you want me to tell you what I think? I think you just make up your mind!"
Then, his girlfriend slams the plushie in his chest and storms away. I sigh and step forward next to Mako and turn to look at him. "Next time just tell her what she wants to hear, flame boy. She's going to do it anyways."
He smiles a bit sadly at me, then begins walking back to the huts, following in his pissed off girlfriend's experience.
☾ ☾ ☾
I toss and turn in my bed at least about a thousand times. My head is reeling with all of the things that have been bothering me lately – fighting with Korra, fighting with my mom, Korra and Mako dating, and my feelings about Iroh. Ever since he's been the only one around for me, and ever since I notice that he's the only one that can manage to brighten my day lately, I've been second guessing what I told him when he kissed me. Did I like Mako truly because of what I felt? Or just because he was there for me?
Have my feelings changed now that he's with Korra? Now that he's treating me kind of differently?
Do I even want to be in a relationship right now? Iroh is a great guy and I'm sure he'd be a great partner; but, his career is unstable, and it would probably make any possible relationship a really complicated one.
And I don't even know why I'm thinking any of this since it's clear that I've ruined any possible chance with either of them.
Needless to say, sleep isn't coming to me anytime soon. I arrive to the conclusion that it's futile to keep trying to get some rest when my mind won't shut up, and stand up from my bed. I reach out for my signature Southern Water Tribe coat and step out of mom and I's hut.
I'm greeted by the cold evening air and smile. I take a few steps forward and sit down on the snow. I feel like this type of weather and surroundings so purifying. I may be obscenely biased considering I grew up here, but I love it wholeheartedly.
"Couldn't sleep either?" A familiar voice queries, making me jump as I didn't expect to find anyone else out here. I turn around and see Mako shivering, looking out at the Tribe below.
I shake my head. "Not really."
He takes a few steps forward and then halts. "Can I, um, sit with you?"
"Sure." I assure him.
We spend a few moments in silence, admiring the view and feeling the cold air around us. Suddenly, he clears his throat, gaining my attention. I turn to meet his amber eyes and feel nothing but my stomach sinking, in a bad way.
"Are you like mad at us or something?" Mako asks, rubbing the palm of his hands together.
I take a few moments to compose an answer, then turn to look up at the sky. I lie down on the snow and breathe in deeply. "I've just been going through some really rough things, and none of you were there for me. I needed to stay here, and I needed someone with me. Especially Korra. And I understand that you all had your own personal things to deal with, but it still hurt."
"That's understandable." He says with a sigh. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize how much you needed us. Is that why Iroh is here?"
I furrow my eyebrows and turn to look at him. "I invited Iroh before any of my problems began. He's not some sort of replacement, Mako. He's my friend, and the only one that has really been there for me lately."
"Are you two dating or something?"
"What's that got to do with anything?" I ask him, sitting up and looking at him with confusion. Why is everyone so obsessed with Iroh and I dating?
"You just look really close and stuff." He defends with a shrug. "I just assumed."
I shake my head and roll my eyes at him, then turn to look intently at his eyes. What's his angle? "Why do you even care, Mako? It's my life."
"Because we're friends, aren't we?" Mako presses, looking a little bit hurt.
"Yeah, we're friends, Mako." I assure him. "This conversation is just, you know, kinda awkward."
He chuckles. "Fine, I'll stop prying on your love life. Can I ask you one more thing, though?"
"Just one more thing." I affirm. "And if it's uncomfortable or creepy, I'm leaving."
"It's not." He laughs. "I'm just curious about how you two met."
"Iroh and I?" I query, to which he nods. "We met when Lord Zuko invited my family to his 14th birthday party in the Fire Nation."
Mako is silent for a few moments, probably connecting the dots of what happened during our stay there. "Is that where your accident happened?"
I nod. "Yep."
"I know it's not right to ask, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Mako begins, and I immediately know where this is going. "Can I ask what exactly happened?"
I breathe in deeply and ponder if this is a story that I want to tell right now, if these are memories that I'm willing to relive in this moment. I look over to Mako and analyze his chiseled face, thinking of all the times that he's been there for me. He relentlessly helped me get over my fear of fire without asking for anything in return, I guess it's fair for him to be curious about what happened.
"When I arrived at the Fire Nation, I felt like I was in a foreign planet." I begin, which makes him laugh and makes me smile. "It was the first time I realized that there are places on the planet that aren't completely covered in snow. So, naturally, I was completely mesmerized by every aspect of it. Gran-Gran had described it, but it blew my mind further than I actually thought it could."
"You seriously thought everywhere was covered with snow?" He asks with a chuckle.
I smack his arm and laugh along with him. "Of course I did, Mako. I was twelve. Anyways, that's beside the point. I remember holding unto Gran-Gran's hand tightly as we entered the palace – which was huge and really overwhelming. And, I remember seeing this tall, powerful figure that I later learned was Lord Zuko, the one from my grandma's tales. It felt so weird to see him standing in front of me. There was also a smaller figure hidden behind him, which piqued my curiosity.
"It was then when Iroh and I were introduced. Gran-Gran and Lord Zuko had this very heart-felt reunion whilst this kid I didn't know and I just stared at each other awkwardly. It's funny to think about now, but I was really uncomfortable at the time. It took them a while to actually notice that we weren't talking and then they insisted that we go play or something. Iroh got really offended because he was officially a teenager and said he didn't 'play' but of course as soon as they left us alone, he took me to play with his friends."
Mako chuckles and smiles in my direction. "That's very typical boy behavior."
"It is." I agree with a small smile. I start fiddling with my thumbs. "So, we played with his friends all day throughout his birthday party, except during the formal Fire Nation-y parts that I don't remember very well since I kind of zoned out. Just when I was about to go to bed, he told me that I should meet him outside the eastern gate of the palace and gave me specific directions so to not get noticed by any guards. He said that he was going to show me around the Fire Nation, just the two of us, and then we'd meet up with his friends to play some more. I was so thrilled by the entire experience that I said yes immediately.
"I followed all of his specific directions and I arrived at the eastern gate. Iroh was waiting there for me with a big smile and I remember feeling so excited about exploring. He gave me such a big sense of comfort and warmth and I was feeling really happy. Just as we were about to go, he said he forgot to get his friend's ball because he left it in the palace by mistake and should return it now since we were meeting up with him later in the night. He told me to wait and that he wouldn't be long.
"So, I waited for him. Since he had to scurry in and out again past guards, its understandable that I had to wait a while. And I wouldn't have minded at all. But, just as I was waiting, some figures appeared from down the road. They were coming towards me, and I remember feeling so scared and praying that they were just passing by. However, it turns out that them being there was no coincidence. Someone tipped them off that Gran-Gran and I were at the Fire Nation."
"Who the hell were they?" Mako queries, looking intently into my eyes, his forehead creased.
"They're known as 'The New Ozai Society,' it's this organization that hated my grandfather for removing Fire Lord Ozai from power and wanted him reinstated. After Ozai died, the organization continued and moved their plan to revenge for their leader. Part of their revenge was killing me and Gran-Gran since we were the ones at the Fire Nation, but I'm sure that they'd hurt anyone from my family without hesitation." I answer.
Mako looks at me with complete and utter worry. "You mean they're still out there?"
I shake my head. "Not the ones that specifically attacked me, Lord Zuko had them sent to prison. It's just that there's always the possibility of them having more hidden members."
"So, how come they only burned you? And how come they didn't get to your grandmother?"
"Iroh arrived minutes after they burned me, but they didn't see him. He was smart and quick and immediately informed the guards. I don't remember much from what happened after, I just get nightmares and flashbacks about it at times. But, apparently Iroh fought them until Lord Zuko and reinforcements arrived. He saved my life, but he always argues that he could've done more. That it was his fault, but I don't think it was." I inform him. "Well, that's all you're getting for now. I don't want to dive into anymore details."
"I completely understand." Mako says, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Thanks for trusting me and telling me, ice girl. It meant a lot."
I smile softly at him and look back across the horizon. Then, Naga suddenly bursts out of Korra's hut, howling at the distance. Korra follows her out and Mako and I immediately run towards her.
"Quiet, Naga!" Korra scolds. "You'll wake everyone up!"
Naga dismisses her and keeps howling furiously.
"What's going on?" Bolin queries with a yawn as he steps out of his tent.
Then, my eyes widen as I see an enormous purple spirit burst out of the snow, running towards us.
———————
word count: 3179
status: unedited
it's friday!! :) happy update day!
hope u all enjoy today's chapter! thank u for all the love on this story, it truly makes me so happy to read all of ur comments!
please tell me ur opinions on luna's accident! did u expect that to be what happened?
take care everyone!!
-a