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Is all anybody ever does in this city just spill their life stories? That’s all Katara’s done since I’ve been showing her around the third level. Her Gran, her “seal-brained” brother, how she met the Avatar, all about their travels with the sky bison… The way she talks about him, looks at her feet when she mentions his name, it’s obvious she’s head over heels for the kid. I don’t care! I have real-people problems like paying rent and eating enough to get through the day- stop talking!

Toph huffed next to me and crossed her arms while we walked. She hadn’t chucked anything at me yet, but her disposition towards me still hadn’t changed much. Katara asked about spas, if I knew where a good one was. I’m assuming by “good”, she meant “most expensive”. Toph didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would want to go to one of those things, and she didn’t look happy about it either. But Katara, ignorant of Toph’s sighing and kicking the ground in frustration, babbled on about how she’s never really been to one before but she’s heard they’re great, and she wonders how she’ll get her hair done, what colour to paint her nails… “Ugh,” Toph groaned, then punched me rather hard in my arm as if to relieve stress. “I don’t really want to do this. As long as they don’t touch my feet, I guess it’s alright.”

I didn’t comment, just continued leading them there while they argued. “It’s around that corner there, to the right and two shops down. I’m gonna head back.” I glared at the undersized earthbender, who just smirked in my direction, and waved to Katara before turning left into the crowd. Whew. Good riddance. I can’t imagine having to deal with that 24/7. Maybe that’s why Toph’s the way she is. If that’s the case, I can’t blame her.

“Iwa!”

I jumped at the sound of my name so close. The Prince stood right behind me, so that our heads hit when I turned around. He backed away and laughed nervously. “Sorry about that,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. His eyes glanced at the ground, then at me, then away again. I made sure to keep mine focused downward, again a little uneasy knowing I was talking face to face with the Fire Lord’s son. And we almost ran into each other while I was with Katara and Toph- which would have ended badly. “So, um… The other day you said you were up for… for hanging out sometime, so I was thinking today would be a good day for it, you know? It looks like it might rain later, but we could start now and do something before it happens, right? I still don’t know my way around very well yet, but I figured you might know someplace good to go-“

He sort of faded out at the end and we just stood there for a moment awkwardly. He wants to just “hang out”? Maybe his uncle is forcing him. He was always very nice to me before… Whatever the reason, I might as well be nice back. “Um…” So what do we do? “Well, what kind of…” It was my turn to pause to think. “What did you have in mind?” Does he want to go to a restaurant? I hope not, I don’t need to spend any more money right now.

An old woman and what appeared to be her seven grandchildren nearly knocked him over on their way through the crowd. “You young troublemakers get out of the street!” she growled, looking at the Prince.

“Yes, Mrs. Naka,” I interjected, smiling at her youngest grandchild, Muro. He grinned back, flashing a new hole in his front teeth. “You finally got that one out, huh?” I asked, ruffling his hair.

He giggled and shook his head. “Tanaka knocked it out while we were wrestling yesterday,” he said with a lisp.

“Oh, Iwa! I didn’t realize it was you!” Mrs. Naka’s wrinkled frown turned into a soft smile- then back to a scowl when she glanced at the Prince. “Make sure you keep this young man out of trouble. He looks like the type to get sucked in!” With one last suspicious once-over in his direction, she gathered her herd of children and disappeared in the throng of people.

“You sure know a lot of people around here,” he commented.

I shrugged. “You do a lot of odd jobs, you get around, you know?” I glanced around the street at the different vendors. This is still the second level, so anything up here will be a little more expensive than the lower level. I still had to work sometime today as well, out on the farm. Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone… “Are you alright with leaving the city? Because we could get a picnic basket for a silver piece, and I have a farm I need to work on today. It’s got a pretty good view up on the roof. If that was something you wanted to do.”

He seemed rather relieved that I made the decision. “That sounds great. I could help with the work if you want.”

“No, that’s alright. It’s not too bad.” I think a former Prince of the Fire Nation would actually make it worse.

We got a basket, which he insisted on paying for, then walked to the far right of the outer wall where I normally left. He held a flame for light while I bended us through the rock. “They’ve stopped the drill the other day,” I said into the silence. My voice sounded so small in our 4-foot rock cave. “A couple houses were destroyed, but other than that not much damage was done. They didn’t find anyone in the thing.”

“They definitely would have had an escape plan,” he said behind me. “It could have been any number of generals in charge of the operation, but it sounds like something my sister would have cooked up. ‘Just knock on the front door’, kind of thing. It’s so expected that it isn’t, which is exactly the kind of stuff she likes to do.”

We pondered the information for a moment in quiet. My muscles started to burn a little bit. I know I’ve trained well and effectively so that I don’t get tired as quickly as others, so this tells me I’m not eating right. I guess with the extra money I’ve been getting, I should probably try to get some more meat and vegetables in my diet.

“You bend like a water bender.”

“…Thanks?” What am I supposed to say to that?

“No, I mean…” We breached the other side, and I closed the cave behind us. He extinguished his light, blinking at the sudden brightness of the sun. I led him to the enclosed farm and bended us through the wall. He looked around the yard at the vegetables growing, setting his basket down. “It’s unique. My uncle’s mentioned something about sharing the methods of each type of bending a couple times before, but never in detail. What does it help you with?”

I slipped my shirt off, throwing it to the side by the shed with my shoes, and pulled my pants up to my knees. I bended the shed open and took out the tools, leaning on them while I thought about my answer. “Well… It’s hard for me to do the heavy lifting that earth bending requires. So water bending helps me redirect the earth using natural gravitational forces rather than my own strength. Being fluid and working with the rock is both better defense and offense than using pure force against it.” The sweat started at the top of my brow, the back of my neck. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail to get it off my back. “You might actually be able to get a lot more done that way, most of the time. That’s how they should’ve taken care of the drill. Just shift the earth beneath, don’t hit it head-on.”

Absentmindedly I bended an overhang to create some shade for him. Then I got to work, pulling up the carrots that were ready and tilling the fresh land. He set up the food in the shade and leaned against the wall. “What’s the tattoo?” he asked, starting a fire for the small tea set. His yellow eyes strayed ever-so-often to me while he lit the fire. “If I’m allowed to ask.”

I stopped for a moment to pull my hair away from the skin. His eyes widened in recognition. “I don’t know if it’s still the custom, but all servants of the Fire Lord’s household are marked with the Imperial Firecrown. It’s not a tattoo, it’s a brand. Got it when I was taken in by your father and your cousin.” My attention went back to the earth, which I bended while I worked at it with the hoe.

“…Wow. I’m sorry.” His voice was quiet, only the clinking of the teapot attacking the silent environment.

“No hard feelings. It’s not like you did it, and a bunch of other people’ve gone through it too. It wasn’t that bad anyways.” He probably feels bad about it only because he’s never really thought about it before. But no worries, it’s just part of the business.

He asked questions about what I’d been doing since then, and we struck up a conversation while I worked. I told him about my family, my life before the attack. Then about traveling to Ba-Sing-Se alone, working doing whatever I could to get by each day. He told me about the duel with his father, the memories of his mother, his “stupid, perfect little sister”, and his amazing uncle. He also briefly mentioned Lu-Ten, but apparently they didn’t know each other very well. By the time I finished, the sun was low in the sky and covered with dark storm clouds. I welcomed the rain that started to drizzle, cooling my overheated body. Once the tools were safely in the shed, I plopped down by the Prince in the shade and put my shoes and shirt back on. Man, my legs ache so bad. He offered me a plate of food just as my stomach erupted in a deep growl. Mm, fried rice and vegetables, jasmine tea, and giant mochi. Yum. When was the last time I had mochi? I should save some of it for later…

“Was this ok? For hanging out, I mean?” I took another long sip of tea and a huge bite of mochi. “You pretty much just watched me work all day-“

“No, I had a good time. It was fun just talking.” He caught the last of his rice in his chopsticks and set his empty plate in the basket. His breath stopped short for a minute and he fiddled with his sleeve. I felt his heartbeat quicken. “You know, my uncle talks about you a lot. I think he feels better knowing you’re safe and doing well. He’s said he would love if you worked at the tea shop. We have an extra room upstairs, or there are nice apartments a couple of streets away.”

I smiled, but shook my head. “Tell him thank you for the offer, but I’m fine. I just got a good job up in the third ring, and I might be able to get a better apartment in the second ring if I want. But I’ve got friends in the lower ring that I don’t want to leave behind.” Ms. Hachiko wouldn’t be able to take care of herself if I left her.

The Prince jumped at the sound of thunder rolling through the sky, and the rain seemed to intensify with it. I stuffed down a laugh and turned the other direction so he couldn’t see me smile. He frowned and crossed his arms, huffing out a sigh that reminded me quite a bit of Toph. “I’m not scared of thunder,” he said. “It just surprised me, that’s all.”

“I believe you,” I chuckled, stowing my dishes in the basket and tying it closed. “Is there anywhere else you wanted to go today?” I almost forgot that I was talking to a prince and not a good friend. “There’s a nice garden tour in the third level, but like everything nice and everything on the third level, it’s pretty expensive.”

“Maybe we can go another time, after the shop’s all set up and some money starts coming in.” He shrugged his shoulders and stood, helping me up by my arm. Realizing he was touching me skin-to-skin, he released me a bit sheepishly, nervously glancing around through the rain. “Maybe from now on, we can hang out as a little more than friends?”

He wouldn’t meet my eyes. Just stared at the ground.

…Wait, what?

The Prince of the Fire Nation, the son of the Firelord, the heir to the throne, and he’s standing in the rain in a sorry excuse for a farm asking to be “a little more than friends” with a used-to-be servant of the Fire Nation and now-poor-worker living in a hovel in Ba-Sing-Se?

“…Woah,” I broke the awkward tension. In pure shock. Just wow.

He hurried as if to fix a mistake. “I mean, we don’t have to. I’m just… just feeling things, thinking things, and I thought maybe I should… say something, you know?”

I never thought anyone would want to approach me like this, or that I would have the time to partake in this kind of stuff anyways. I think with Chouko she’s only testing the waters. We’re just close friends. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t marry me. She’s suited to marry someone rich, someone in power. Someone who can support her family. But now it’s happening to me. Am I “feeling things” too? Maybe. I wasn’t really feeling things with Chouko, although I love her very much. Whatever I’m feeling for the Prince is… different. Something new. “I think that sounds like a good idea,” I answered slowly. “I don’t want to lead you on, so I’m going to tell you straight out that I know next to nothing about this stuff. This may end up not working out. You know that, right? I don’t want it to make things difficult if that happens.”

“Sure!” He nodded solemnly. “I’ll get it if you say it’s not working. I promise.”

“Great.”

We stood again in awkward silence for a minute. He fumbled with the basket handle, eyes downward. On a spontaneous burst of confidence, I gripped him with one hand by his upper arm and kissed him. Short and sweet, our chapped lips pressing together for several seconds. But when I pulled back and opened my eyes, he looked like I’d just told him he owned a goldmine. Something indeed stirred in the pit of my stomach, a flurry of butterflies just as a streak of blinding white lightning illuminated his scarred face.

“I…” He stopped short, searching for words.

“We can do more of that later, if you want.” I bended a hole through the wall and pushed the overhang back into the surface. “But right now I want to get out of this rain.”

He followed me quietly back through the tunnel. The pounding of his heart resonated in the small cavern, his fire casting eerie shadows on the walls. We breached the other side, just barely missing the inside of a house. Wouldn’t that have been awkward? I closed the hole behind us and turned to face him. “Should I walk you home? I know you can handle yourself, but there are a lot of not-nice people in the lower ring.”

He shook his head, seemingly out of his trance, and extinguished his fire. “No, I’ll be good. I don’t want you walking all the way back in the rain. Maybe come over for tea sometime this week? Then we can head to the garden you were talking about.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, subtly bending earth particles around my legs to help support myself. They were feeling pretty weak from working the farm. “See you then?”

He leaned in and pecked my lips for a little longer than I had, confidence restored. His golden eyes gleamed in the dark. “See you then.”