attackfish | Entries tagged with drabble

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #16, Mad.

Summary: Everything changes after the war.

What Can’t Change

They both went, but they never went together. When they walked the road to the hospital, they were always alone, even when it was full of people. And they always walked. Zuko and Mai couldn’t be Firelord and Fire Lady, not for Azula.

They never went together, but Zuko knew the look Mai got, deep in the back of her eyes when she had been there. They always held each other afterwards. They always needed to be held. Mai held Zuko while he tried not to cry, her face still and stuck, masklike and hard. Zuko held Mai while she couldn’t cry, and he wished he could cry for her, and that it would somehow make her stop hurting.

They never went together; they couldn’t be together, not for Azula. But they had to be together afterwards, for Zuko and Mai.

They never went together, but sometimes Azula still saw them together, and those were the hardest days of all. On those days, Azula cried.

They never went together, and Mai sometimes forgot they were. She remembered when she had first met Azula, and they had been so scared, and unable to show it. Azula couldn’t stop showing it anymore.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #15, Defeat.

Summary: Ba Sing Se keeps falling.

The Dust and the Silence

The water sloshed over the edge of the bucket as Jin drew it carefully out of the public well. High apartment walls rose up around her, hemming her in. The well stood in a patch of sunlight between the shadows, and the summer heat beat down, bringing sweat up to bead on her forehead and under her robe. The cloth stuck to her body and her hair sank low and wet into her eyes.

An arm dropped itself around over her shoulders. The fingers attached to it swept down across her breasts. She dropped the bucket. “Hey, baby, come with...”

Jin couldn’t even hear the words. The water splashed over her arms and stomach. The cold only made the arm around her burn more. She flinched away from both.

She lowered her bucket on its rope back into the well, ducking the Fire Nation Soldier’s arm.

She had to say yes.

There were still Dai Li hiding just behind the roof beams.

She never would have thought that defeat would taste the same as peace.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #14, Supernatural.

Summary: They are different.

Someone Else

Zuko knew how to wield dual swords, even if he didn’t let anyone else know.

The Blue Spirit didn’t wield swords. The swords were part of his body and being. Sometimes the spirit sheathed them and took his hands off of them, but they were always part of him.

Even when they hung on Zuko’s wall.

Zuko could breathe life into fire. He was the prince of Fire. Fire was life, and strength, hope and pride. It was his.

The Blue Spirit couldn’t bend. He was a being of shadows. Fire dispelled him. Fire was death, and weakness, fear and shame. It doesn’t belong to him.

The Blue Spirit never spoke. He didn’t need to. He had swords, and skills to speak instead. He could go anywhere, and then disappear again.

The Blue Spirit had serenity and patience instead of Zuko’s endless frustration.

While Zuko never smiled, the spirit’s face was always grinning.

The Blue Spirit wore Zuko’s clothes, held his swords, and walked his floors.

But the Blue Spirit was not Zuko.

Zuko held the mask and gazed back into its empty eyeholes. He turned the mask over in his hands and replaced its hollow eyes with his own.

Written for

avatar_500 , prompt #13, Memory.

Summary: There are so many ways for someone to get hurt.

So Many Ways

After the birth, while her thighs were still bloody, the royal physician lay the baby in Mai’s shaking arms. She slumped against the pillows and tried not to clench her hands and press her new daughter to her, to keep her safe from everything else.

Because she knew that would leave bruises all over her new, red skin.

She clenched her jaw instead, and felt something clench deep inside.

Zuko, face yellow-gray with worry, lowered himself down to perch tentatively beside her on the bed. Mai’s hand clutched his so hard her nails sank into his flesh and raised up little drops of blood. She stared at him in desperation. Her voice was neutral. Her voice was always neutral. “Do you want to hold her?”

When he shook his head, he trembled so hard, the movements looked like spasms. “No.” She had seen him scared. She had seen him scared so many times, but not like he was when he looked at the tiny human in her arms, not the wrenching, freezing terror and guilt radiating off him as he tried to tear his eyes away from their daughter.

He wanted to shove her away, send her away. Far away so that he couldn’t hurt her. His scar ached, and he felt the air around him crushing in on him.

All they could do was look at each other. Neither one of them could speak. They looked at each other instead of their child and tried not to remember anything.

Written for

avatar_500 , prompt #12, Devour.

Summary: Neither girl really knows what to do after the fighting stops.

Normal People

The others trickled out of the teashop in twos and threes until Mai sat alone at the table with her bowl of noodles. Even Zuko. She heaved a bored sigh.

“You gonna eat that?”

Mai started in surprise. The Avatar’s earthbender put her feet up on the table and leaned back in her chair until it almost touched Mai’s, pointing behind her to Mai’s bowl of noodles without looking.

Not that there was any point to her looking, Mai reasoned. She lifted up the bowl absently before her eyes fell on the table in front of the girl. Sitting back down, Mai pulled one of the noodles out of the bowl with her lips and drew it into her mouth with a long, careful slurp. Mai didn’t slurp. “You already have two bowls of noodles in front of you.”

The earthbender girl smirked and picked up one of the bowls. “Yeah, not like I don’t want more after I’m done.” She packed her mouth full and burped, dropping the bowl nonchalantly onto a letter in front of her on the table.

Mai glanced down at it. “Want me to read that for you?”

“No,” Toph sneered down at it.

Mai shrugged.

“Parents suck.” The earthbender’s voice cut through the stretching silence.

Mai shrugged again and slurped down another noodle.

“I didn’t think you made noise when you ate.”

“No.”

She smiled widely, leaning back in her chair far enough to rest her head on Mai’s shoulder. “Your parents as bad as mine?”

Mai glanced at the ceiling.

The earthbender elbowed her in the back. “Come on, put your feet up here like a normal person.”

Written for the

atlaland and

avatar_500 joint challenge, prompt #11, Teach.

Summary: After the war, Iroh talks to Ozai about their father.

Merit

The guards left as soon as Iroh waved them away. When Iroh had been on the other side of the bars, the guards had stayed.

Iroh sank to the floor and folded his legs. “I thought you should know Azula’s doing better.”

“Not screaming for her mother anymore?” Ozai sneered.

“She never screamed for Ursa. She screamed at Ursa. She screamed for you.”

Ozai turned to face the wall.

“Her doctors could bring her to visit if you promised to be nice. She would like that.”

Ozai flinched.

Iroh pushed the teacup he brought through the bars. “You know, I would have thought you would have learned something from our father, but you treated your children the same way he treated us.”

Throwing himself at the bars, Ozai kicked the teacup into his brother’s face, hands clenching on the iron. “I did everything different!” he howled. “I swore I’d never treat any my children differently just because one was born first! They’d have to earn-”

Iroh thought about his nephew waiting for him by the turtle-duck pond and the niece he’d just visited, and wondered how the man could choose.

Before his brother could say anything else, Iroh was gone.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #10, Monk.

Summary: Xiangzhi loves funerals.

The Name Collector

He always arrived during funerals.

The girl’s family sobbed, and moaned, and carried on, calling out her name to themselves as he stepped into the village square, head bowed. One old man grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the open grave.

“You must be a gift from the spirits,” the man exclaimed, “To come when you did. My poor brother and his wife, could you say a blessing over my niece’s grave?”

Xiangzhi nodded and smoothed down his yellow and orange robes. When he began to chant, everyone stopped crying to look at him. An Air Nomad monk at the poor girl’s funeral. She just died in her sleep, isn’t that sad?

She’d gone easily. Her pillow pressed down on her face, over her nose and mouth, and she couldn’t even raise the air to scream.

Xiangzhi hid his smile.

The funeral was such a big deal. He always picked the biggest house in town, the one where the daughters were bound to have their own rooms, and he could be alone. It was so easy to get away when he didn’t have to leave footprints. They made it so easy.

And it was so easy to wait in the woods until the wailing started and the grave was dug.

The girl’s spirit squirmed under his hands as he pinned her between them and forced her into her grave, and her mother moaned her daughter’s name again and again. Xiangzhi let the name fall into his mind, satisfied.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #9, Honor.

Summary: Living in hiding takes its toll.

The Scariest Day

The scariest day of his life was the day he told his wife what he was. She was six months pregnant, and he should have told her on their wedding night, but he was a coward. He knew he was a coward. He came from a family of cowards.

That day, she screamed and raged and he waited for the soldiers to come to their door to kill him. But she didn’t tell.

Sometimes, after she let her hair down in the evenings, and before she braided it back up for bed, he bent a breeze to play with it as he ran his fingers through, and she would laugh at him.

They had children together. Ty Hei was only the first. There was honor in keeping his family safe.

The scariest day of his life was the day he told his wife what he was until the scariest day became the day he sent Ty Lee off to school.

The rest of his children he could tutor, but Ty Lee was only a year older than Princess Azula, and people would be suspicious if he didn’t send her hoping they’d become friends and win their family favor. No one could ever be suspicious of them.

It should have been Ty Un, who liked to liked to collect dolls and crack jokes, and could keep her feet on the ground. She would have bored the Princess. Boring was good. Boring was safe, and kept the family safe.

Ty Lee bent like she breathed, and her feet never touched the ground.

But Ty Lee turned out to be the best of anyone at hiding it. She bent and fought at the Princess’ side and no one ever noticed, because she was Ty Lee.

They taught all of their children to fight. Ty Yan even joined the navy. The day she did, he and his wife heaved a sigh of relief. No one would expect to find an airbender in the Fire Navy, any more than they expected to find them among the Fire Nation nobility.

He taught all of his children to hide as he had been taught to hide. He taught them to smile, and laugh, and play stupid, and keep the conversation on everybody else. It kept them safe. It kept them all alive. And he knew how much they must hate it.

His mother’s father’s mother had passed down what she could to her children, who passed it down to theirs. Surrounded by people who wanted them dead, the only way to keep a little bit of their history alive was to keep it secret and teach their children. There was honor in keeping their people alive.

When the war ended, it was hard to remember there was honor in speaking.

The scariest day of his life was the day he sent Ty Lee off to school until the scariest day became the day he told the world what he was and watched his children learn to fly.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #8, Token.

Summary: Iroh comes to a realization.

Never to Relinquish

The streets of Ba Sing Se twist around and around, and back on themselves, like coils of knotted rope. Kuei’s feet follow them through the upper ring gardens, as he trudges beside Bosco, a three day beard on his face, hair springing out of his braid. He sticks to the shadows as a pair of city guards passed, his hand on Bosco’s head. Once they’re out of sight, he steps back onto the street and slips through the back door of the teashop he has been told to find.

“I don’t have any stale ca-”

Kuei shake his head, glancing pointedly at the piles of reports lying on a table in the corner. “General Iroh. I was told this is where I would find the real government of the city.”

Setting the teapot in his hands down onto the counter, Iroh narrows his eyes. “Who are you?”

~*~

Iroh pours the tea into the teacup in front of Kuei before pouring his own. “The Dai Li and my niece once tricked my nephew and I into coming to the palace by claiming we were going to serve you tea.”

Kuei lifts the cup to his mouth. The steam stings against the freshly shaved skin, the sleeve of Iroh’s borrowed robe trailing behind his arm. “I wanted to thank you for taking care of Ba Sing Se for me while I was absent.”

As the Earth King speaks, Iroh drinks his tea and wonders if this is what the Dai Li felt.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #7, Neglect.

Summary: When wars end, there's always someone lost in the shuffle.

Asunder

Wangji’s mother is Earth. Her mama is strong and steady, and steadfast as stone.

Wangji’s brothers and sisters are Earth. They have green eyes, and slow tempers, and they grew up with dirt on their hands.

Wangji’s stepfather is Earth. He has big hands and wide shoulders that Wangji and all of her siblings rode around on in turn.

Wangji threw sparks around her crib as a baby. When he was feeling cruel, her big brother Keqin would tell her all about how that made her mother cry, and rage, about how Wangji wasn’t her stepfather’s but that Fire soldier who had-

Everybody was so happy when the war ended and the Fire Nation soldiers left and the Earth Kingdom ones came back. Wangji too. She’s not happy anymore.

When they came back, they put Wangji in a wagon. They wouldn’t let her family come, so her mama, and papa, and all her brothers and sisters followed along side and held her hands until the soldiers drove them away. There were other mothers fathers, stepfathers, stepmothers, brothers, and sisters following too, for the other kids, until the soldiers drove them away.

When they put her on the wagon, she was wearing green, a jeogori and chima her mama sewed her. They made her change into something red, but she didn’t own anything red. She still doesn’t. The scratchy thing they gave her is the brown color of dry blood.

She’s the oldest kid in the cart from her town; they keep handing her the babies, but she’s the baby of her family, and she’s never been near any other kind of baby before. But the Fire Nation colonists in the cart with them won’t have anything to do with them; they say the kids are Earth Kingdom, and they won’t admit they lost the war, and Haizi’s crying and she can’t do anything.

She’s thirteen. Everybody says that’s the same age as the Avatar. She hates him.

Tomorrow she’s going to get on a big metal ship, and everything left of what she knows will be gone.

She doesn’t think anyone in the Fire Nation will want anything to do with them any more than the Fire Nation colonists do.

There won’t be anyone waiting for her.

She doesn’t bend anymore. It aches and aches, and calls to her, but she won’t bend like they bend.

Wangji knows she’s Earth.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #6, Outdo. Once again, I tilt my hat to my pet theory that Ty Lee's ancestors were Air Nomads.

Summary: It's hard to keep a secret when you don't know you have one.

Disappearing Act

She wears white, red, and black facepaint, like one of the wooden dolls Ty Un used to keep in Ty Lee’s room, before she left with Azula.

Ty Un probably still keeps her dolls there. They probably reach all the way to the ceiling by now.

Every time she touches her face, her skin shows through under the paint, and she has to fix it.

Airbender tatoos don’t smear.

Ty Lee pulls the fan back the way the other Kyoshi warriors showed her, but she doesn’t thrust it forward. She sweeps it out, up, and back, feeling the eddies of air it moves.

Why would Earth Kingdom warriors fight with fans anyway? It makes no sense.

How was Ty Lee supposed to know most people couldn’t send people flying across the room without their fans even touching them, no matter how hard they trained? How was she supposed to know the air didn’t help other people when they jumped?

Suki’s probably already finished talking to Sokka. She’s probably already writing a letter to Aang.

This isn’t...

For the first time in her life, Ty Lee just wants to fit in. For the first time in her life, Ty Lee can’t.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #5, Tyrant.

Summary: The strain takes its toll on the new Firelord.

Leaving and Gone

“What! Which one of you just said that?” Through the flames around her throne, she could barely see the twins pointing their gnarled fingers at each other. The flames first turned blue, she remembered, when Zu-zu left. Everybody was always leaving.

“What a shame.” Her eyes were bright. “There’s only one way to resolve this. You two must duel each other. I order you to fight an Agni Kai.”

It didn’t matter which twin started the answer. “But…”

“We’re not firebenders.” Because they finished it together.

“Alright, fine. Lo, you’re banished.” it didn’t matter which of the twins she was pointing to. “Li, you can stay.” They were both going to be leaving.

~*~

“But what choice do I have?” Azula howled. No! She wasn’t going to think about Mai and Ty Lee. She refused to think about the ones who’d already left. “Trust is for fools. Fear is the only reliable way. Even you fear me!”

“No. I love you, Azula.” Her mother’s reflection gave her the saddest look. Why did she have to look at her like that? “I do.”

Her hand latched onto the brush. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t crying! The tears splashed on the top of her table. Her mother was talking to her, and she was already gone.

Azula roared. Her hand opened. The brush slammed into the glass. The air broke apart, and from the ruined pieces on the floor, her mother blinked back at her. Why wasn’t she leaving? Wasn’t she already gone?

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #4, Obstacle.

Summary: The Day of Black Sun is hard on them both.

Eclipse

Yue dragged herself across the sky. She clutched her moon disk hard enough in her hands to leave marks on her spirit-flesh, because she had to reassure herself that it was there, that it was real, because it was the new moon, and even she didn’t get to see it. It was heavy. The climb sapped her strength and the air clung to her, pulling her down.

She could let go of her moon disk. It would hang in the air, invisible. No one would notice it.

But she couldn’t let it go, because she was still trying to reassure herself it was there.

“Agni,” she mumbled, waving her hand weakly.

He smiled at her with a sort of brittle stoicism. As he caught her hand, her lips twitched up to match. “I’ve done this before you know,” he assured her, squeezing his hand.

“Yes.” She pinned the moon disk under her arm. “Don’t worry, I know.” Glancing down at the people below, her people and others, preparing to fight his, she swallowed, and stepped between them and her brother.

He closed his eyes. The weight fell off him as black bled onto her moon disk and her dress. For eight minutes, her hair would be black for the first time since she was born. His round, comfortable form shrank, the skin hanging off him. His hair hung limp. He stumbled.

She caught him. “I wouldn’t have fallen,” he remarked.

“I know.” She clung to him. He clung to her. She was used to this. It came every month. But for him, the sun was always shining somewhere. If it was winter somewhere, it was summer somewhere else. And she felt better than he looked like he did anyway. “Do you want to lean on me until the eclipse passes?” She wondered if Tui felt like he did when she died. He looked like he was about to die.

He sank against her side, and she let herself lean against him, too. She could see her moon disk vanishing again as she glided past him, and as he looked more like himself again, she turned away and slunk the rest of the way through the sky.

She wondered how the battle went. She should look.

Written for

avatar_500 prompt #3, Undying.

Summary: The first new moon.

Uncharted

Yue rose early, pale and lusterless in the morning sky. “Hello Agni,” she greeted, bowing her head.

Beaming, he waved to her as she climbed higher. Her hands trailed though the air, pulling the ocean waters after them, and La reached his hand up to her, but she didn’t take it.

He wanted Tui. She couldn’t be Tui.

When she came close enough, Agni took her hands and pulled her into an embrace. “You feel so thin,” he whispered.

She leaned against him, letting his short, round body bear her weight for a while, her head against his pudgy arm. “Is something wrong with me?”

He shook his head and tucked her braids behind her ears. His eyes took on a faraway look. “Tui always had a hard time just before the new moon too.”

Yue let go abruptly. “I’m sorry,” she wanted to say.

She hadn’t realized she had spoken it aloud until Agni laid his hand over hers. “What for?”

“You must miss your sister terribly,” she murmured.

Agni rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “Your sister too.” Smiling sadly, Yue shook her head, and let him keep holding her hand. After a moment, he let go and stood back, dangling in the air in front of her. “Do you want me to help you through the sky?”

She felt horribly weak nodding, but her head bobbed without her permission. He lifted her and her sliver of moon into his arms and carried her through the sky, letting the sun disk drift along behind them. “Was-” she stopped talking, and looked away. “Was Tui your real sister, or was she your sister like I’m your sister?”

His brow furrowed, puzzled. “You’re my real sister.”

“No, I mean, did you have the same parents?”

“We don’t have parents.” He closed his eyes as she looked back to him. “But I’m the Sun, and she was the Moon, so she was my sister.”

Yue wished he would smile. His round face was made for it. She wished she could make him smile.

“I’ve never missed anyone before. She’s the first of us to die. I...” He closed his eyes again and fought back tears. “I didn’t even know we could.”

A piece of Yue was circling La in the pool at the spirit oasis, frail, and living, and vulnerable. She brushed her hand against her brother’s cheek.

Written for

avatar_500 for prompt #2: Doubt.

Summary: Toph's doing great.

Keep Talking

“You’re doing great!” Sokka called to her. “Just- follow- the- sound- of- my- voice!”

Toph slid across the ice. There was nothing around her, nothing that she could feel. she couldn’t feel the ice ahead of her, just trust that it would be there. It had to be there.

She couldn’t feel the ice in front of her, but she could feel the ice under her, and how slick it was with water, and how her feet skidded, and how her stomach dropped out of her. The water lapped against the bridge. The water was so close.

Out on the ice, her parents were right. she was tiny, and blind, and helpless and-

Please keep talking, she barely kept herself from screaming. I don’t care what you say, just pleasepleaseplease Keep talking, keep talking, keeptalking, keeptalkingkeeptalkingkeeptalking KEEP TALKING!

“It’s hard to ignore,” she snapped back instead.

Then the ice broke.

Written for

avatar_500 for prompt #1: element.

Summary: People cross into and out of their elements all the time.

Ten Thousand Things

Playing another note on his reed flute, Aang grinned around the mouthpiece as another prairie dog popped out of its hole and echoed the note. “I’m putting an orchestra together!” He looked up at his friends.

“Orchestra, huh?” Sokka muttered. “Well la dee da.” But it didn’t matter, because Aang was in his element.

Toph crossed her arms. “I say you guys go ahead without me.”

Katara rounded on her. “You got something against libraries?”

“I’ve held books before, and I gotta tell you, they don’t exactly do it for me,” she sneered. She didn’t like being out of her element.

~*~

“So, you like flyin’?” Toph drawled. Appa scratched his ear. Toph was out of her element anyway.

~*~

“I have an authentic waterbending scroll.” Katara smiled eagerly.

“Oh…” Wan Shi Tong murmured covetously. “These illustrations are quite stylish.” As he swept his wing over the scroll and it vanished into his collection, Katara bowed to him, still smiling. She was in her element.

~*~

The water tribe boy dangled from the rope. “Professor, let’s go!”

Zei picked his head up from the scroll in his hands, disregarding the sand pouring down around him. He was in his element.

~*~

“Your waterbending won’t do you much good here,” the knowledge spirit sneered. “I’ve studied Northern Water Style, Southern Water Style, even Foggy Swamp Style.” He raised his head and opened his beak.

Sokka waited to let go of Aang and the glider until he was right above Wan Shi Tong. The book in his fist crashed hard into the knowledge spirit’s head. “That’s called Sokka style,” he crowed, beating the air with his fist. “Learn it!” As he ran, he was in his element.

~*~

Wan Shi Tong drifted out of consciousness, his knowledge flitting away from him. He was out of his element.

I almost forgot about these! They take place in the same universe as Quiet Shadowed Places. I wrote these to tide

floranna over and to test out what she liked.

Adrift

The air in front of him burned.

Zuko reached up and swatted the fire blast away, circling his arm back to shield himself. He kept his body tight as he twisted though the air and only wobbled a little when he landed. A smile tried its best to yank his lips up. “So?”

“Do it again.”

“What!” he slammed his hands down on his uncle’s table. “But I detected every fire blast!”

“And your form was still weak, Prince Zuko. Do it again.”

“Teach me the next form!”

Iroh put his hand over Zuko’s and squeezed, proud. “Do it again.”

Alone

When his own ship had rolled under his feet, he hadn’t needed the cane. He’d been trapped there with every corridor and every room for years and years and years, and they never changed.

The road didn’t roll, and he didn’t know where it went.

But there was boy holding his hand. His hand shifted against the boy’s uneasily and he longed to grab for his cane.

“No one can sneak up on us.”

Zuko snickered. “No kidding.”

He let the boy lead him to his parents and didn’t yank his hand away.

It would be rude.

He felt helpless.

Aloft

“I hate it too.”

When Zuko didn’t answer, Toph poked him hard between the ribs. “What?”

“Flying.” With every little jolt, his stomach bounced up into his mouth. “First time I was up here and couldn’t see anything...”

“I’m fine.”

He wanted to tell her to shut up; he couldn’t see on the ground either. She should stop- “Oh.” He flushed.

He tried not to remember the air whistling past his ears as he missed Azula’s airship. “It’s worse when I don’t know where the ground stops.” She punched him in the arm, but it quickly turned into a hug.

The Will of a God

“I thought I told you if you ever slept with a man who could not beat you in fair combat you would suffer my wrath!” the war god thundered his bloody gaze falling on the scrawny form of the man beside her. The flames from the god’s sword miraculously didn’t set the pillows on fire, but she could feel them burn where the blade touched her neck.

Her new boyfriend stared wide eyed at the shining terror standing at the foot of the bed.

She didn’t even bother pulling up the sheet and winked. “Our Scrabble matches are very combative.”

Author's Note: So it's a stupid, misogynistic, melodramatic trope, so I feel compelled to spoof.

I actually feel kind of sorry for Ginny.

Drabble: Family

Ron let his sister stay there with her face against his shoulder and didn't push her away.

"It's just hard, you know?" she mumbled. "He's in love with the family, not me."

His ears burned red, and he had no idea what to do, so he hugged her.

He held her until the shadows in the room changed direction. "I have to get home," she hiccuped.

He let her go. "Yuck, you got snot on my sleeve."

"What? No I didn't!"

"Yes you did," he jabbed his finger at a trail of wet, "right there!"

Ginny cracked a wan grin.

Stop. Don’t.

Ty Lee’s father’s feet were as light as hers, and when she was little, she watched him hesitate, and draw them down, and keep his steps even, but didn’t know why.

Stop. Don’t.

Around her, her sisters followed his lead, and gazed at the sky with wistful smiles, and never left the ground, at least not where anyone could see.

Stop. Don’t.

Her mother always gave her father a puzzled look when he said that.

Stop. Don’t.

But Ty Lee dreamed she could fly and woke up sure she could. The air would never have let her fall.

Author's Note: So I've seen some fics lately where Zuko's the Avatar, and this is my take on that. I suppose background is just that Aang froze to death instead of just freezing (sorry Aang), the Water Avatar was born in the foggy swamp and never knew what she was, and the Earth Avatar died in childhood. Still, as far as anyone knows, the Avatar disappeared a hundred years ago, and Zuko is scarred and banished as in canon. This takes place at the same time as in canon, Aang would have been getting out of the ice.

Banner

The ship bucked and groaned with the storm. His blanket curled up around his neck, Zuko dozed fitfully.

With a great lurch, the ship bounced off an iceberg, and Zuko toppled off his bed. In that half-second before he hit, he exhaled, and the air hit the floor like a jet. Before he even had time to think, he found himself rolling safely back onto his bed.

Zuko stared at the insignia on the far wall, momentarily transfixed, and experimentally twisted towards it. A great gust sent it flapping against the wall, and Zuko closed his eyes in misery.

Author's Note: So the other day, I gave Iroh a really silly drabble. This counterbalences that. Poor Iroh; a Dragon's work is never done.

Harmless Old Man

The tea streamed into the porcelain cup, but the man sitting behind wasn’t really there for the tea. Iroh could always tell which ones were there to gawk at the Dragon of the West, to see their old nightmare gentled and humble and safe.

But that was alright, because he wasn’t really there for the tea either.

The Dai Li trickled back into the city with the multitudes, and the Earth King’s new power crouched unsteadily on his shoulders, restlessly waiting for someone to pluck it away, but no one tried. No one dared rouse the Dragon of the West.

Teabending

Bumi’s bending was really getting out of hand.

The table lurched between Iroh and Pakku, hurling their tea out of their cups and their pai sho tiles onto the quaking ground. Desperately, Iroh shoved all of his weight onto it to steady it, but the damage was already done. “Awww.”

Rolling his eyes, Pakku bent the tea back into the cups.

“You bend tea?”

“I’m a master waterbender; of course I can bend tea!”

“I know, I just never put it together before!” Suddenly, firebending wasn’t... He wished he was a waterbender.

Until Pakku froze his tea in its cup.

Time Flies

“I learned to bend water in vines at the side of my mother and father,” the young woman held her head high, hands balled into determined fists, “I mastered earthbending when I was seventeen. The Fire Lord herself taught me. I am twenty years old, and one element away from becoming a fully realized avatar. I’m ready.”

The temple elder cocked her head and stared at her sideways, pulling her wizened, scrawny, shriveled body up to cartwheel and flip down to her. “But do you think you can fly?”

All of her bravado spilled away behind a little girl’s grin.

Author's Note: Oh come on, we all know the next Avatar's going to be from the swamp. Yes, that temple elder is Ty-Lee, and in my head, the current fire lord for this is Zuko's granddaughter.

Shipper on Deck

“Zuko!” Toph exclaimed, “You should date Katara!”

Suddenly all of the ways the waterbender could kill him flashed through his mind. “No!”

“Awww.”

~*~

“Teo, you should date Katara.”

He rolled his wheels backwards quickly. “Ummm... I don’t think...”

“Coward.”

~*~

“Haru, you have to date Katara.”

“Toph!” He jumped and whirled around in surprise. “But there’s this Kyoshi warrior girl-”

She hit him. “Why!”

~*~

“That’s it!” Toph yelled, and dragged Aang to her, planting a solid kiss squarely on his lips.

“I’m with Katara!” he sprang out of her reach.

“Ugh,” she growled, pounding the wall and shattering it. “I know!”

Author's note: In which Katara is an unlikely Katherine in Toph's production of The Taming of the Shrew.

This is another one of those drabbles I wrote in the gift exchange at

atlaland, this time fore

suzukiblu. Her fanfic is seriously brilliant, and you can find it at

white_knuckle. Check it out.

Push and Pull

Yue stood thin and insubstantial in the grim half-light of the spirit world. “I am the moon for my people.”

La’s arms hung limp at his sides. “But you aren’t Tui. You can’t be Tui.”

The ocean spirit was crying, she realized, like a person, and she was the moon spirit, and every thing hurt and itched, and didn’t feel right. “I’m sorry,” she said the words falling flat.

His hand rested on her cheek, face slack with desperation. “I barely know you.”

She kissed him on the forehead and pulled away. “We don’t have to love each other yet.”

A Thousand Faces

“Show no fear,” the Avatar warned, “show no emotion at all, but especially not fear.” She nodded, her face still as stone, and folded herself on roots of the tree by the turtle duck pond as the sun went down.

Slowly, slowly she slipped into the spirit world, Iroh and Aang’s descriptions walking beside her.

At Koh’s tree, she waited, and when he came, he was smiling, but though her face was heavy, it did not crack.

With the sunrise, Mai walked out of the spirit world with every face Koh had ever stolen, and Zuko’s cradled in her hands.

Author's Note: At first, I didn't know why Mai was in the spirit world facing Koh, but I grew up listening to those stories like Tam Lin where the heroine rescues her lover from the faery queen and I guess I absorbed some of it. All of a sudden, this went from a very silly drabble about how Mai would own Koh's sorry ass with her stony expression, to something a lot more serious and I hope, kind of sweet. I like giving post-war Fire Lady Mai moments of heroic badassness. Keeps her life from being boring.

Author's Note: After all that running around after and then with the avatar and his brave companions, I can just see Zuko coming home and being really genre savy. This is item number one on the evil overlord list, actually... I don't know, it feels like he's channeling Gen from Megan Whalen Turner's books here, playing innocent and stupid most of the time, and then WHAM, oh yeah, that's why he's Fire Lord.

Form Over Function

“Tell me,” Zuko asked, “Why do Fire Nation troops wear face masks or helmets with visors?”

“They protect their faces and intimidate our enemies,” one of his generals replied, suppressing a sigh.

The new Fire Lord’s eyes flicked over the tax reports on the table and then narrowed on the general. “Really? Because I always thought they just made it easy for people to infiltrate our armed forces.”

The general flinched, finding himself missing Princess Azula. No one ever forgot she was terrifying. “My lord, I don’t...”

“It was really useful during the war," he deadpanned. “Thanks, by the way.”

Walls

The steps were cold under her hands as she walked upwards, and at the top, she bent backwards until her feet touched the landing and bounced up to stand on them instead. “Hi Azula!”

Azula shifted her heavy robes and glared at the blank wall beside her. “Leave.”

Up there, it was cold even in the summer, and her armor felt like ice, pressing in on her. “Sorry.” The heat from Azula’s flames licked at her as they scorched past. “I won’t tell the guards if you don’t do that again.”

Azula had stone and metal pressing in on her.

Coming and Going

Azula dressed in robes, and when she was angry, her nails bit into and cut the silk. “You’re never here when I want you, and you’re always here when I don’t!” Flames gathered, but she squashed them. She didn’t want the guards to come.

“I didn’t think you ever wanted me here.”

“Don’t be stupid, Zuzu.” Him there without her... That would have been nice.

The door didn’t open or close, but all that was there with her was empty room. Not being able to tell him when to leave and when to stay was the worst thing about it.

Hush

When Azula opened her eyes, her mother hovered against the stone wall like a smear of bright blood. Azula’s hands clung to her arms so hard rivulets of blood joined her mother on the stone. “NO!” She howled, “You’re not supposed to be here; you’re not real!”

“Azula,” she whispered, moving close and running her fingers through her daughter’s mangled hair, “It’s alright now. I’m really-”

“No you’re not; I know you’re not!” Her eyes slammed shut and she clutched her arms tighter.

Unwillingly, Ursa slipped out and locked the door behind her, her footfalls echoing dully on the stairs.

Author's Note: I really like the thought of Ty Lee being an airbender and not knowing it. It's an idea I plan to play with in the future. It's not supposed to be Aang/Ty Lee, but I guess it kind of gives that vibe.

Pointing the Way

The hair had finally started to grow back in a soft fuzz. Every morning, she shaved all the way back to the middle of her skull, displaying her still healing arrow gracefully.

She rested her chin on her arms innocently as the needles bit into the skin over her spine, leaving their ink behind.

“It’s all your fault, you know,” and he remembered the way she had flinched and clenched her teeth when those same needles moved over her skull and between her eyes. “No one’s impressed with my acrobatics anymore.”

“I’m still impressed,” Aang told her, re-inking his needles.

Author's Note: This came out more incoherent than I was hoping for. In case you can't tell what's going on, Azula broke out, snuck into thee palace, and confronted Mai and Ty Lee. In the ensuing fight, Azula killed Mai, and Ty Lee killed Azula.

Smoke

“I didn’t betray Azula for you,” she said, hunched over her tea, not looking like herself at all. “Mai did, but I didn’t. I did it for Mai.”

Zuko’s hand was tight around his daughter’s as she pointed to the body on the pyre, black lightening burns still visible on its flesh before the fire consumed it. “That’s not Mommy,” she insisted, “that can’t be Mommy.” He pulled her close.

Hidden away was another pyre where Azula burned with a snapped neck courtesy of Ty Lee.

“Which time?”

She tried to giggle.

“Thank you for coming.” he mumbled.

“Which time?”

I wrote this for

himhilien in the gift exchange at

atlaland because I'm accustomed to giving other people gifts on my birthday. Yes, that is an intentional Star Wars quote as the title.

More Powerful Than You Could Possibly Imagine

“Stop pacing, some of us are trying to feel better.”

“You wouldn’t feel sick in the first place if you hadn’t eaten all those cakes, Sokka.”

“Katara!”

But Katara didn’t even slow down. “I just don’t understand why Toph would want to go home right away. It’s so... sudden.”

“Maybe she thinks that now that she helped Aang win, her parents will realize she’s not weak and fragile,” Zuko muttered.

Meanwhile, trapped in the carriage that would take him to the family of his new body, the Melon Lord stared out of her sightless eyes and planned his ultimate victory.

So this is my entrance into the Avatar the Last Airbender fandom as a writer, and therefore there are now two fandoms I'm active in. I wrote this for

beckyh2112 in the gift exchange at

atlaland where, we the proud Fire Nation are getting our asses handed to us by everyone.

Children’s Stories

“And then the brave Fire Lady Mai turned on the wicked Princess Azula, high above the Boiling Rock...” The storyteller paused for a moment for the gasps of the children around him.

Inside her palanquin, Mai closed her ears to it as she passed, something stinging at the corners of her eyes. She thought about the way it felt up there.

And she thought about the Fire Nation Royal Academy for Girls and about the magnetic, frightened, awkward girl she met her second year in. She signaled her bearers to take her back to the palace as quickly as possible.

Disclaimer: JKR doesn't mind fanfiction writers I hear.

A Matter of Appearances

Black Sentenced to Azkaban The newspaper headline proclaimed, and Walburga scanned the first line, chest fluttering. Notorious mass murderer Sirius Black was sentenced to life in the Wizarding prison yesterday evening...

Her firstborn was a credit to the family after all.

She pulled out a peace of parchment and wrote the letter needed to re-inherit her son.

With both her sons disgraced, for the right reasons, she could bear her own disgrace and wile away her remaining years knowing she raised them well.

And even if Sirius couldn't touch a knut of it in Azkaban, it was the appearances that mattered.

Author's note: This 200 word drabble is part of the Parchment Underground universe and makes no sense unless you have read the other stories in that universe, Blurring and Spectacles.

Disclaimer: In case you were wondering, JKR was never this horrible to everybody.

Safe

James' knees bent and he slid the binder onto the bottom shelf. A shadow fell across his back, and he froze, his hand trapped in the air. "So Potter, what are you doing at Hogwarts in the middle of the Holiday?"

James pushed himself to his feet. "More than you, Avery."

The Death Eater smiled painfully. "Where's your master? I have paperwork for him."

"It's Christmas, where do you think?" James snapped, "He's home with his son."

"And yet you're here." Avery raised his wand and flicked away a piece of lint before pointing it at James.

James backed up quickly, slamming into the bookcase. "I'll take him the paperwork; just leave it."

"I'd love to know how you smuggled out that ledger." The wand flicked up and the air around James' throat and chest hardened. He opened his mouth to suck in breath, but nothing would get past it pressing against him.

"I couldn't have! he gasped, "Bloody hell, how would I have?"

"Keep hoping I won't find out."

The air tightened around him, and he thought he was imagining it when he heard his name from the earring.

As he vanished, he kept his eyes on Avery. Safe.

Author's Note: While taking my Central American Politics class, I wanted to write something set in a world based on Guatemala at the height of the political oppression, but I never managed to get my plot to grow into anything longer than a 250 word drabble. Guatemalan society for more than a hundred years was run by the coffee growing elite, who controlled the government and enforced a form of debt slavery on the rest of the country's population. The military was almost entirely deployed internally, as an arm of political control to keep the peasents working on the coffee plantations.

Coffee Bean Ghosts

The first time Gnat stole something, it was a soldier's coat, into the belly of her dress. She had been pregnant then, so it just looked like more bump. After that, she pilfered a soldier's trousers from the laundry and a box of ammunition from the bed closest to the barracks door. That night, a bayonet hung from a string around her leg. She heard the whispers as she walked past the guards. She's just Alvero's lover, no danger.

As soon as she made her way home, she kissed her husband and he dressed in the soldier's uniform. He hefted the soldier's pack onto his shoulders, and at the rustling inside, Gnat hushed her daughter. The jungle rose thick around them as they crept away, Javier's hand around her waist. "Just looking for a little privacy," he called to the guards at the gate and they looked down at his uniform and the brown faced woman, and waved him through with a laugh.

Out of sight, Gnat pulled a handful of Coffee beans Alvero had given her to show her what she was growing out of her pocket and she tossed them to the ground behind her. "Natalia Calderon y Ortega," she said to them, and as soon as she did, they rose up and followed where She walked. In the darkness, the beans wore the face of her grandmother and stopped them each time they grew too close to soldiers. They slipped into the pack to distract her granddaughter.

I have made these bits of silliness and froth, one each, for the ladies at Smart Bitches Trashy Books, the wonders who managed to get me to read romance and enjoy it (but only the good stuff) as a congratulations for their successful google bombing of Amazon rank and for the release of their book Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels. Excuse the purple prose, the anachronisms, and the fact that for the most part, bodice rippers went out in the mid 80's...

( For Smart Bitch Candy, Bodice Ripper: In which the lady and lord find a way to liven up the loving )

( For Smart Bitch Sarah, Secret Cabin Boy: In which I'm sad to say, the captain isn't wearing a dress or played by Robert DiNero )

Disclaimer: Sweet Nameless Creator(s) I'm glad this isn't canon!

Author's Note: Once again I decry responsibility and lay it squarely at the feet of the lovely ladies at Potions and Snitches, excepting my own self, with a side inclusion of the terrible Cat. Upon viewing one of my challenges, one lady remarked, "why can't you write any happy challenges, Fish, why must it always end in tears?" Cat, who I forced to read this, replied, "or gay marriage..." and another lady at Potions and Snitches, not privy to that verbal insertion responded, "I don't know, you could use love potions..." I said, "but that would take out all the lovely angst!" to which the second lady responded (quite rightly, I must interject) , "The angst comes when the potion wears off and they're locked away in St. Mungos."

Only End in Tears

The tumblers clinked together in mutual misery as their respective possessors brought them to their lips to sip.

"I never notished how lovely your eyes were," James slurred, almost sliding off his stool.

Severus Snape leaned forward to kiss him, the whiskey jumping away as his elbow almost sent it careening over the table edge. A tiny fist formed, pinched from the rest of the glass and shook itself at him.

When the potion wore off some hours later, the alcohol dispersing with it, through their hangovers, both men started to gibber.

They have their own ward at St. Mungos.

Disclaimer: You know this can't be canon because Snape doesn't *ehem* well you know, in canon.

Author's Note: Hey Tabitha, I hope this makes up for my Bellatrix/Fenrir drabble.

A Vision So Terrifying

Professor Snape's scowl bored into Harry's back as he sauntered past, pointedly ignoring the git. His feet shuffled him right into a puddle of spilled ink. They slid out from under him, sending him careening to the ground. "Uhn," the air rushed out of him when his bottom hit the stone.

"You alright?" Ron asked, holding out a hand.

Harry glanced at the ink soaking into his trousers, and then up at the students clustered around, his face flushing. "Just embarrassed."

Snape stalked away with a wide sneering grin stretching across his ugly face.

"That's scary, yeah?" Ron whispered, "Scary."

Author's Note: I blame Rose, who told me today that every time she hears Fenrir/Bellatrix, she mentally adds in mpreg, because "everything's funnier with mpreg", and I blame the ladies and gentlemen at Potions and Snitches, for getting me started on Fenrir/Bellatrix in the first place, and for giving me the title for this drabble.

Disclaimer: Even if I tried to market this, I'd never make any money.

Psycho Death Eating Were-Cubs

Fenrir's heart pounded as he jolted awake. Bellatrix's knife stood poised just beneath his ribs, a drip of his blood welling up. "Are you out of your bloody mind?"

She giggled at his stupid question. "You got me pregnant," she sang, voice high, "And I'm not carrying your mixed breed filth." He panted, his fetid breath, hitting her in the face. When he tried to throw her off, she drove her wand into his throat. "But you can!"

"I don't think you understand how this works," he howled, scrambling to get away.

"I'm going to put our baby inside you!"

Disclaimer: I'm dripping drabbles because it's midterms. JKR doesn't have midterms.

Head of House

"If your work continues at its current quality, you will never even pass your O.W.L., much less actually qualify for N.E.W.T. level potions," first year professor Snape snapped at the Slytherin girl. He never humiliated students in his house in front of others, but in detention...

Her face fell, but then she pasted on a coy smile. "Would private tutoring help?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I do not-"

"Perhaps I can convince you... Sevvikins?" Her hand started to stroke his thigh. He yelped and jumped away, resolving to buy robes, and soon.

It was very satisfying to sign her expulsion order.

Disclaimer: JKR is really friendly to fanfiction writers, actually, so long as we make no money from it.

In which Severus considers the relative intelligence of Professor Trelawney and Sirius Black, and finds his colleague wanting.

The Truth about Bats and Dogs

"Ah, Severus, my inner eye tells me you have been avoiding me." He ignored her. "Is it because you're afraid of what I'll see?" he rammed his mashed potato covered fork into his peas so they stuck like sprinkles to ice cream. "Have you, oh, no, have you seen a large black dog? Have you seen a Grim?"

He choked. "Many times, and I'm not dead yet. Now if you don't mind shutting up-"

But Trelawney was used to that. "It hasn't approached you has it?" she asked, eyes particularly insect-like behind her huge glasses.

"He knows better," he snapped.

Author's Note: Something about having papers due makes me spawn drabbles.

Sirius watched Snape watching Lily Evans, his feelings for her evident in his face, even if Evans never seemed to realize. Sirius sneered as Snape glanced his way for a moment, his expression deepening into a glower. Sirius' eyes made their way back to James, and a flash of something like disapointment shot through him that James wasn't looking back, and he felt sick to his stomach with the knowledge that his own love was just as hopeless and just as pathetic as Snape's. James smiled at Evans, and Snape caught Sirius' eyes again, a cold smirk on his face.

Summary (or an excuse to explain what was in the thirty words I had to cut): In which the Weasley twins find out that Remus and Sirius are Moony and Padfoot.

Idle Worship

The Weasley twins passed Snape, standing at the kitchen door, "Hey Snape, have you seen Sirius and Remus?" He glowered at them until they moved away. A door nearby clicked and he looked up in time to see Lupin ducking inside. The twins grinned at each other and hammered on it. Lupin's voice came through muffled, "No, I will not tell you about all the pranks I played. Stop asking!"

"Fred, George, stop hounding them and help me with these curtains," their mother yelled. The two sulked up the stairs. The pantry door creaked open. "Are they gone?" Sirius asked.

Author's Note: well this YA fantasy novel won't get written...

Cats had only one expression, Carlos found, disdain. He plopped the shelter tabby down on his comforter and turned his head, looking at it from every angle. Flexing its claws, the cat padded across the green and yellow quilt squares, leaving brown, orange, and cream hairs all over them. "Hola, como se llama usted?" it meowed.

Carlos staggered backwards as quickly as his legs would carry him. The cat... The cat... "No hablo Espanol," he babbled, exhausting what little Spanish he had learned from movies and kids at school.

The cat licked its paw, eying him contemplatively, "No hablo Ingles."

This is a is a response to a challenge on

thematic_hp

Disclaimer: Nope, still not JKR...

Prompt: #93 (round 11) Computer/Wizard Interface: Welcome to Computer/Wizard Interface (or some other snazzy name). We update your computer to work with magic and your wizading needs. Bonus - some pureblood that would normally be out of their depth with Muggle technology.
Summary: In which Draco runs afoul of former professors and Muggle wire boxes.

Author's Note: Astoria is Astoria Greengrass, a character not mentioned in the books that JKR said marries Draco. She is Daphne Greengrass' (a Slytherin girl in Draco's year mentioned in book five) younger sister.

( Telephone Trees )

Disclaimer: I am not Stephen Sondheim, I am not JKR. When I do have a published story, I will make money from writing all the time, but sadly, not before.

Care for a Shave?

The man with the white streak in his hair and the absurd Victorian vest smiled terrifyingly at Severus, who backed up. “Sir,” he said, words clipped, “I don’t know who this ‘Judge Turpin’ is, but I suggest you dispose of that razor before I hex you.”

He brandished his wand as the man swallowed sourly. “Perhaps later, your honor.”

Severus backed down the street, so unnerved by the overly insistant barber that he didn’t dare take his eyes off him. He turned around alarmed when he bumped into something, and looked down to see a boy offering him a pie.

This is a plot bunny of Laume's that slunk in on its belly, camouflage paint in its fur. It's apparently what her brain did with No Difference.

April Fools

"Ah Severus, I'm glad you came," the headmaster's voice was grim.

"Is there something wrong, headmaster?"

"No, not wrong, precisely," he replied, standing. "Professor Trelawney had an... accident with Miss Granger's Time Turner."

Severus nodded. "What do you need?"

"Nothing like that, Severus, it's only that she spent nearly a year in the past only shortly after her own birth, and before she left, she and Hagrid had become involved..." Severus stared at him nonplussed. "She bore a child, and he was adopted by your parents."

There was a loud thump.

"Dear dear, Severus. You should pay more attention to dates."

This drabble is a somewhat belated birthday present to Cat devout fan of Neil Gaiman and American Gods especially, who desperately needs to write me some fanfiction from the very obscure Chronicles of the Cheysuli. If she does, I will write her another drabble.

Rotate on This

“I have decided in the interests of security, that as our spy, Severus needs a code word should we need to speak about him outside of the confines of this meeting,” Albus Dumbledore told the Order briskly, “so from now on, he is to be referred to as Wednesday.”

The aforementioned Severus sneered, missing the allusion entirely. “Why, pray tell, am I to be known by the name of a day of the week?”

On the other side of the table, Sirius Black lounged indolently in his chair. “It’s very Low Key,” he smirked.

Remus kicked him under the table.

Hey, I can actually blame these on somebody! This post by

lothy gave me the idea for the first drabble, and the first gave me the idea for the second.

I made no attempt what so ever to use Old English, Latin, or any of the numerous Scottish dialects that founders of Hogwarts might have spoken, partly because I'm lazy, partly because I don't know enough, and partly because the drabble is not at all serious.

Disclaimer: If Harry Potter were mine, the books would have a lot more wine, women, and song.

( Parselscript: In which Salazar Slytherin gets drunk )

( Half-Bloods: In which Harry bonds with a blanket )