The reason I'm allowed to live on my own is that I'm already a master. Otherwise I would be forced to live with some of my cousins or other family until I reached the status of an adult.
I'm glad it never came to that. My remaining relatives and I don't speak much.
...
I find Hahn still out cold. The drunkard. I wave my hand lazily and bend some water to splash in his face. Katara gasps, Hahn splutters, Sokka gapes and Aang laughs.
"Wakey wakey, rise and shine!" I sing at a horrible volume. Hahn covers his ears and moans miserably.
I laugh, but then I take pity on him. Curing hangovers is a skill I will forever be grateful to Yugoda for. Hahn, too, it seems.
"You-! You can heal! Why- How!" Katara demands, suddenly in my face, even though I'm head and shoulders above her in height. Impressive, that.
I imagine it becomes less impressive with time.
"I sat in on a few lessons a couple years ago. Pakku wasn't too happy, but I figured I had better know, what with Fire Nation about. Less people die on patrol that way."
That gets her to back off. Aang steps up with the questioning. "Pakku was your teacher?"
"Yeah," I admit, then haul Hahn up on his feet. He staggers, then rights himself with a baleful look in my direction.
"And you're friends now?" Sokka sounds dubious. I'm surprised he managed to surface from his haze of 'Yue, so beautiful'. Teachers aren't just embodied voices telling you things. They're people, and often enough, decent ones.
"We are," I confirm without voicing my thoughts. Instead, I move on to introductions. "This is Hahn. Hahn, this is Sokka, Katara and Aang."
Hahn nods at each of them. They nod back. He goes to wash his face.
"Do you live together?" Aang asks, curious. Ah, youth. Untainted by social stigma and prejudice. Mostly. At least, Aang is innocent.
"Nah," I say, watching Hahn emerge from the bathroom, "I live alone. Hahn just crashes here sometimes." That he does this most nights, and has his own toothbrush here doesn't need to be voiced.
They all follow me back outside.
"Where are your parents?" Aang asks and Hahn stiffens. They all catch that, except for Aang who continues to look at me patiently awaiting his answer.
"Gone," I tell him. Could've said 'dead' and made the Avatar cry. Does he cry easily? I don't think he teared up much in the series. I think the one to shed tears most often was Sokka. But those were manly tears of joy, I'm sure.
"Oh."
"Mmh," I hum and continue to lead the way. Market place, here I come.
Hahn changes the subject. "Have you seen Yue? She was preoccupied yesterday."
"Nah." This is his way of prompting me to tell him what that commotion about her dragging me all over the palace was about.
"Why?" Sokka asks suspiciously.
I chuckle, "Hahn and the princess are engaged. You've seen the necklace, right?"
Hahn smiles like the lovesick idiot he is, not noticing Sokka gaping or Katara cocking her head. He won't be smiling like that for much longer, I think and keep my gaze well away from his face. Thankfully, he is too oblivious to notice, and the others will not think it odd that my attention rests primarily on them.
"Necklace?" Katara asks.
"Yeah. Don't you know?" I thought someone else told her in canon. Things are a bit murky, but didn't someone tell her about her grandmother's engagement with Pakku? Yugoda?
"No, obviously not."
I shrug, "Ah, well, I figured with you wearing one…"
"Huh?" This comes from Aang. Oh, right. He's been crushing on Katara since she and Sokka pulled him from the ice. I've got to hand it to him, he's devoted once he falls in love.
"This was my Gran's," she explains, touching it with an expression that is both tender and confused. I can understand. Why give that necklace to a young girl when her grandmother isn't even married to the man who gave it to her? A means of telling the northerners 'hands off' if she ever goes for a visit? If so, it's working. Mostly, because she's a bit too much of a wildcard for most people's delicate sensibilities around these parts, even when it's clear that she's not of age yet.
She challenges, and we're all too comfortable where we are.
Hahn explains: "Well, here, once a woman turns sixteen, she is eligible for marriage. When she's betrothed to someone she wears a necklace the man gives her."
Katara blushes to her roots, Aang just nods along and Sokka sends Hahn the death glare. Very canon. "She can refuse, of course," I say, and it's meant as both a warning for Hahn and cautioning for Sokka.
We've arrived at the market. "So, dinner?" I prompt and Team Avatar looks around curiously.
Despite the tension between Sokka and Hahn, is a fun affair, with the Avatar flitting about, trying anything and everything. Sokka, Hahn and I are only too happy to eat what he doesn't like.
The people figure giving the Avatar something for free can only be good for spiritual relations. Not, that we've been all that remiss in keeping up the odd little traditions.
Even the trinkets hanging from the stalls are to welcome friendly spirits into our midst. Not, that I've ever seen one. I tried. Tried all sorts of things children think up, and got all the other kids to try as well, because that was what we did then. These days, most of us are either patrolling, working, or chasing skirts. It's not a hard life. If you're adept at ignoring social expectations of you, that is.
Hahn leaves us and I bring the Avatar and his friends back to their lodgings. "Night."
"Good night!" Aang shouts, and I get two more subdued ones from the siblings.
Hahn goes to the barracks to see about patrol schedule and what duties his father has delegated to his son.
As I lay down to sleep, I wonder what those three will do about their respective dilemmas. Sokka will probably not give up on Yue, Katara certainly won't give up on Pakku teaching her, and Aang, well, the kid will get himself into trouble somehow.
I hope Yue speaks to him about her true feelings soon. Or I will have to, and I really don't want to.
...
It's not Aang who knocks on my door late at night.
Hahn stumbles over the doorstep, nose bloody, eye already swollen and balance lasting only as far as my hands that I stretch out to catch him.
I'm silent as I patch him up. He can see my anger. Knows it well. Knows that he could always just come live with me. Does that, for a week. Feels guilty. Goes back. Gets hit.
Rinse and repeat.
I don't want to think about how many bandages of mine have been drenched in Hahn's blood.
With a cursory search of other injuries, because he will never just show me, the self-flagellating idiot, I find bruised ribs. It's getting steadily worse. At some point, I might have to mend a broken bone. And I don't know how to do that very well. Not without complications. Perhaps another visit to the old woman is in order.
There is no need for words when he curls up on the pile of furs that are, for all intents and purposes, his. In silence, I clean up, make him drink some water, and go sit by the fire.
I used to feel furious on his behalf.
Now, I need the fire to thaw at the icy block that settles beneath my skin each time he comes home like this. There is always the thought of just murdering his father.
But his father punishes Hahn for being a child, and needing the help of his mother, only for her to die in the process of saving her son. And Hahn, were the man gone, dead by my hand, would turn to other means of punishing himself. He, too, believes himself to be at fault.
Bare feet close enough to feel like the flames are licking at my skin, I lean back until I lie flat, staring at the ceiling.
It's got to end, soon. Hahn's been a warrior close to a year now, and it's getting embarrassing for him to be still living at home. I would pressure him, but he'd… run.
How I hate that even growing out of that cursed child's body I am powerless even now.
I used to think, so long as I could run, could go wherever I want, I would do whatever I like. I'd forgotten that even though you might have the power, it is not your right, nor your place to decide and interfere for another person.
Sometimes I wish I thought of Hahn as my child. He could be, for our mental age.
He's not.
I'm his friend, his safe haven, the place he won't be judged.
But that's all I am.
We're not friends in the sense that I could tell him who I really am. Along the same vein, I am not his confidant.
He just knows to come here when he's hurting and feeling small.
I'm sort of relieved I didn't tell him about Yue yet, or this could've been far worse. He might not have come for help.
...
Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
...
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