Looking up from the scroll he was reading, Shin narrows his eyes, trying to put a name to the face. His concentration blurred by the patrons of the tavern. Rowdy and drunk. He shakes his head; an attempt to avoid the others excessive state of inebriation in an effort to concentrate on the woman standing next his booth.
Fire Nation, for sure. Nothing uncommon in the Earth Kingdom since old colonials still resided here. But there was an uncanny familiarity. Gold eyes as fierce and fiery as he always remembered. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Once, maybe twice, had he come across this face. It made his stomach sink and roll; still, his expression remained stoic and unmoved.
Shin opens his mouth, prepared with reply, then closes it. Taking a second to rethink his remark. He leans back in his chair with a scoff. The spirits must be laughing at him right now.
“This doesn’t feel like a coincidence.” He tells the former princess. Unable to look directly at her any longer. “You ask who I am? After all this time, does it really matter? Or are you not satisfied with the punishment your brother bestowed on me for trying to plot his dethronement? I don’t know what you’re doing here, but I’ve managed to avoid trouble.”
Shiko’s feet rushed around the house. She didn’t know this one, never been here before, and she’d been brought without her nanny, so it was like a dream come true. She ran down yet another hallway, ricocheting from one wall to the other one. Her hands trailed over the wallpaper, she felt it move, and twirl under her fingers. She opened a few doors, the ones that were not locked, and peered inside. There were a lot of rooms in this house.
She took a turn to the right, and halted at once. She’d found her grandpa and her aunt, talking on a desk. Luckily, she remained undiscovered. Slowly, she tiptoed backwards, until she was out of sight. Shiko frowned and looked around, confused as to where she’d turned wrong that made her return to the starting point. The hallways seemed similar enough, she’d have to pay attention.
Oh well, she shrugged, and sprinted back from where she came from. One turn, two turns, th- oh! A staircase! She hopped up the stairs. Careful Shiko, you don’t want to trip and fall. You’d have to go to the hospital then. Her mother’s voice chided in her head. She shuddered. She never wanted to go back to the stupid hospital. She gasped, and took a hand to her mouth, worried she could somehow be discovered for having thought of that word. She looked around, and up and down the staircase, it seemed she was safe.
Iroh said that word, she’d heard him. And he said other ones too. Worse ones, because Joanne always told Shiko not to repeat any of them, but the word with F never, never. If her mom heard her- goodness, said Joanne. She giggled when Joanne said goodness, it was a cute word. But Shiko liked stupid. Because it sounded funny, and you could play with it a lot.
Stupid. Stuuupid. stUpid. S. T. U. P. I. D. S-tupiT.
She stopped at the top of the stairs, and realized she hadn’t counted, so she went back down and then back up. Sixteen steps. It was a lot, but she had twenty four in her house, so it wasn’t that much. The hospital had twenty, and then sixteen, and twenty two, and another twenty two, and then you turned, and then twenty, and then another turn, and then Dr. Turner was there! Shiko never got to walk all those stairs, or hop them. They took the elevator. But sometimes when her mom wanted to walk, and talk on the phone, Joanne would take her up. And she counted the steps anyway.
The top of the stairs looked nice. Like grandpa’s house, that had lots of carpets and all the gold stuff. She skipped down the new hallway. This one had three doors only, and they all looked super fancy. The first one was locked, she pouted. The second one had a bed, and bedroom stuff. So boring. She skipped to the third one. It was the coolest room ever!
Shiko looked around the hall, and peered into the room to see no-one was watching, and entered, carefully clicking the door behind her. She was amazed, this room was filled with books! So many of them! And there were a couch, and another couch, and a desk- the desk had a computer! She ran to it, and inspected the screen. It looked like her mom’s. She couldn’t touch that one. Iroh’s either, until he put on some secret code thing. He had secrets in it. She liked playing in the Penguin Club, she didn’t care of Iroh’s secrets.
Her finger moved over the pad, she’d found music, so she put it to play. Play was the button with the sleepy triangle, Iroh taught her that. Shiko bounced around the room to the music, looking at the books, and caressing them. There was one that had the letters all in sparkly blue, and another one all in gold. A lot had letters in gold. There were some tiny ones. Baby books! She picked up one and hugged it, and took it to bounce with her.
The music stopped. “What do you think you’re doing up here, little pest?” Shiko froze on the spot, and turned around scared, she’d been caught.
There was a man there, tall, with yellow hair and gray eyes, and he was looking funny at her. She squinted at him, head cocked to the side.
“Hey!” She pointed at the man, she knew him. “I know you!”
“Do you now?” He crossed his arms, Shiko left the baby book on a little table with a kiss, and imitated him.
“Yes, you’re aunt Zula’s boyfriend, Dwaco! You’re in a picture with me.” She rocked on her feet, excitedly to meet someone that knew her. “I am a baby on the picture, Joanne said it was me though, do you remember me?”
“I do remember you, as a matter of fact.” He laughed.
“You talk funny. I like it.” She commented with a grin.
“Dear God, you’re just as insufferable as your aunt, aren’t you?” Draco walked away and sat on one of the sofas. She followed him, sitting on the end of it, cross legged. Watching him.
“Insufferable.” She repeated, trying to imitate his accent. “Insufferable. Ins- Insufferable. This is a hard word.” He rolled his eyes. “Hey, what does pest mean?”
“It means you’re like a bunch of little mice.” He smiled. She smiled back at him.
“I like that. Mice are cute. Like Minnie, and Mickey. I have a Minnie doll. She has a polka dress.” Shiko played with one of her pigtails.
“What? No, silly. A polka dress has lots of dots in it!” She giggled.
“Right, silly me. I just never had a Minnie in a polka dress.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll lend you mine!” She was quick to offer her doll. She had other dolls to play anyways.
“So how come you’re here alone, little pest?” He raised an eyebrow at her, and Shiko blushed a little.
“It’s ‘cause I came without a nanny today. Did you know I have a nanny? Her name is Joanne, and she makes the best cookies. Sometimes she lets me cook them with her, and I get to put the chocolate chips in it, and she brushes my hair, and she always goes with me everywhere, but today she couldn’t, and grandpa said, you can come with me, and I said for real, and he said for real, and then we came, and then aunt Zula said don’t break anything, and I didn’t.” She grinned up at him.
“Dear lord, what have you created?” He shook his head. Shiko repeated the phrase, working hard on that accent, and mimicking his movements. He sighed. She did too. He snorted. She did something similar. And then he was laughing. And she was laughing with him too.
“What did he create?” She asked serious, when they stopped laughing.
“He created you!” He poked at her ribs, and she laughed once more. “You, little pest, that comes here to my office and touches my stuff.” He kept on poking at her sides, and tickling her.
“No! Stop it! Stop it Dwaco!” She squirmed in his arms, and almost falls from the couch.
He caught her right before she reached the floor, her eyes were big with fear, and they both stayed very still for the longest time. Her doctor said she was okay now, that she could play and do stuff now, kids’ stuff. But still- when she hit herself he mom got a little crazy, and her dad too. And even Iroh got worried.
“Did you hit yourself?” Draco asked, worried. He had that crazy voice too. He inspected her arms and legs. “Does something hurt, Shiko?”
“No.” She looked over her body, frowning a bit. “No, it doesn’t hurt. I don’t want to go, please. I promise I didn’t hurt myself, let’s have the secret to us. I don’t want to go to the hospital. It’s stupit.” She marked the final T with a click of her tongue to her teeth.
He was thinking about it, she knew that grown up face. She didn’t like it. They always said awful things when they did that face. Finally he looked at her, grinned, and then laughed. “So the hospital is stupit, huh?” He asked amused.
“It is.” Her lips stretched to a smile. “It so stupit. I don’t ever, ever want to go back to the stupit hospital.” She was determined. She’d never go back to it.
“Come little pest.” Draco stood and extended a hand towards her. “Let’s go give your grandpa and aunt a fright for leaving you alone.”
“Where are we going?” She asked, hopping off the couch, and taking his hand in hers.
“We’re going out, to Mcdonalds, what do you think?” He looked down at her mischievously, and Shiko couldn’t possibly nod any quicker without loosing her head in the process.
“And then ice cream?” Her eyes widened in a plea.
“Yes, and then ice cream.” He pulled one of her pigtails, and she laughed.
He raises a brow, standing on his feet. This was not a face he had recognized since making residence in the palace. Only recently becoming promoted. Her features give off familiarity but none Shin could pinpoint.
“I am General Shin.” He answers with a traditional Fire Nation bow. He straightens his back, showing off his signature smirk. “Forgive me. If I may ask who I have the pleasure of meeting today?”
Yes, Yue is a biiig daydreamer, especially in the original timeline. Dreaming of the adventures had by others, the freedom benefited the people, but not her, Even play acting being better at waterbending. As a spirit she mostly daydreams of being mortal again.
When bored Yue likes practicing her bending. As princess she was never really allowed to learn it properly. So she enjoys trying to learn in her free time, what little of it there is.
She likes the idea of exploring dangerous places, the thrill and adventure to be had. But actually doing it would probably take some prodding.
