Chapter 4

Kyohsi woke up to a pounding in her head, she rolled over to see Rangi doing her hair in the mirror. “Good morning” Rangi called as soon as she saw Kyoshi in the reflection. “Morning”

“Is Jinpa here?” Kyoshi asked, sitting up. “Yeah he came by about an hour ago, he said he would check in later” Rangi explained calmly.

“Why didn’t you wake me up, I am so late!” She said frantically trying to get ready. “Cause we cleared your schedule today” Rangi replied. Kyohsi narrowed her eyes. “You cleared my schedule?”

“You currently aren’t in the condition to do anything remotely diplomatic.” Rangi almost laughed as she spoke.

“So what am I supposed to do all day?” Kyoshi groaned. “Now that I have two schedule masters, who have cleared my schedule”

“You could come with me if you’d like,” Rangi offered. “Today should be one of my last sessions anyway.”

Kyoshi’s brain froze at the thought of the healing hut, a certain part of the previous night came back to her head. Did Rangi really go through with that? She so desperately wanted to ask her but something about this moment just didn’t fit. But was there really a good time to ask your partner if they had another relationship while you were apart from one another?

They walked out of the hut together, their steps synchronizing. Without even thinking about it Kyishi reached out to take the firebenders hand. Only to have Rangi pull away immediately. Kyosh’s face flushed. It was moments like this that she wished she was wearing her makeup.

They glanced towards each other only to look away the following second. Right, Kyoshi thought to herself, not in public. Never in public.

“You know starring doesn’t make it go any faster” Rangi commented once she was in the healing tub. Kyoshi looked away, glancing to the floor, then back to the ceiling. She bent some water out of a cup nearby around her head in an attempt to cure her headache. Was now a good time to ask? She thought. But then something else, a new thought entered her mind.

Could she have stopped this? If she was stronger. If she was faster. If she was more decisive. If she was better Rangi’s mother wouldn’t have gotten hurt, then she never would have had to make the trip up here, and then this wouldn’t even be a potential issue. If only she was stronger, she had to get stronger. Suddenly the levitating water came splashing down as her focus broke.

“Do you need someone to come in?”

“No,” Kyoshi replied, trying to refocus. “I need to be able to do this on my own”

She bent the water out of her tunic and back into the air. If she had to get stronger, she might as well start here.
As they sat there in silence, Kyoshi tried again and again, only making slow progress. But her mind kept drifting, she tried to recall the name the guy had mentioned the night before. But she was drawing a blank.

She finally bent the water back into the cup, turning to look at Rangi who looked like she was bored out of her mind.

“So how many more sessions do you have left exactly?” Kyoshi asked. “Just one or two, why do you ask? Is there something you want to do in mind?” She replied, raising her eyebrows.

“I have to go to the air temple to replace a clay duck,” Kyoshi responded flatly, her response baffling the fire bender. “I’m sorry did you say replace a clay duck?”

“Yeah, I have to go and replace a clay duck, care to join me?”

“Hmmfff, you really think I’d let you go anywhere without me. Rocks for brains.” Her laugh was so light, like a feather drifting through the sky, Kyoshi thought.

“Of course not, I wouldn’t want if any other way”

Some time passed before Atuat walked into the room, Rangi studied the woman’s face carefully. This wasn’t good. “Kyoshi, can you go find some lunch?” Rangi asked before Atuat could speak.

“Sure got anything in mind?” Kyoshi asked, getting up. “Nope, anything is fine” Rangi said, encouraging her to leave.

As soon as she left Rangi’s focus fell back on Atuat. “You’re very good at reading people, just like your mother” She said walking deeper into the room. “So on with it then” Rangi said impatiently.

Atuat started to explain what was really going on, each sentence crushing Rangi’s spirit a bit more. “So I won’t be out of here as soon as we thought then.” She said flatly. “I’m afraid not”

“Well, is there anything I can do to speed this up?” Rangi asked, slightly desperate. “You were honestly lucky to make it here alive…” Atuat explained. “The fact that no vital organs were punctured is astounding.” She almost sounded excited.

“Then why am I still here?”

“Just because you didn’t puncture any vital organs doesn’t mean that there is any damage”

Rangi began to take slow breaths, it wouldn’t help anyone if she threw a fit. She had to stay calm.

“Thank you” Rangi finally said. Atuat gave her a smile. “I’ll be back in a bit to check in”

Her thoughts immediately fell to Kyohsi, she was planning on leaving to go to the air temples, and she was going to be there right by her side. And now she couldn’t.

She didn’t want to have to pause Kyoshi’s travels, they had spent enough time here as is thanks to her.

“Hey,” Kyoshi called, walking back into the room with two bowls of what Rangi assumed was soup. “What did Atuat say?”

“Oh nothing much, she was just checking in” Rangi responded, biting her lower lip. “Okay, well I didn’t really know what to get so I hope you like this. I’m really not sure what soup this is though” Kyoshi said, placing one of the bowls on the table next to the tub. “Kyoshi, this is fine.” Rangi reassured her.

As time passed Kyoshi tried to figure out a way to distract herself from the question that was eating her from the inside. “Do you think Atuat is busy today?”

“Not sure, is something wrong?” Rangi responded. “No, I was thinking about talking to her about some potential training time.” Kyoshi answered. Rangi’s brain became flustered, if Kyoshi talks to Atuat then she might tell her about her condition, and how it’s not really where she had led her to believe it is.

“Really right now, I mean she could be busy now that I think about it” She tried to cover. “I guess”

Suddenly someone knocked at the door, “Hello, I was told I could find Avatar Kyoshi in here” A man called. Kyoshi walked over, opening the door slightly. “Is there something I could help you with?” She asked.

“We were hoping for your presence at this meeting being held at the town hall.”

“Of course I’ll be there shortly.” Kyishi responded by closing the door, finding Rangi’s eyes staring back at her. “I’ll be fine” She tried to reassure her.

“Have you eaten?”

“Yes you were there.”

“Do you still have a headache”

“No”

They both stared into each other’s eyes. “Thank you for your concern but I’ll be fine” Kyoshi responded, planting a kiss on Rangi’s forehead. “If you come back drunk again I swear-“

“I’m dead?” She laughed lightly opening the door.

Kyoshi bit the inside of cheek as she entered the town hall. After the last time, well she was hoping she wouldn’t be seeing certain faces again. “Avatar Kyoshi,” One of the men called when they entered the room. Once again all eyes were on her.

So it began, what seemed to be an endless loop of questions. To her surprise some of them actually weren’t entirely about Yun. Some people were concerned about dark spirits, and whether they were entering the human realm. Kyoshi tried her best to reassure them, but like last time this crowd didn’t listen right away.

“Okay so here’s how things are going to go” She began. “I know you all each have your own concerns about Yun, and evil spirits” Whispers filled the room as she spoke.

“However I want to reassure you that the reason why Yun took such a dark turn wasn’t solely related to the dark spirit. It was him.” These words hurt Kyoshi as she spoke, it wasn’t just the father glowworm’s doing, “Yun had made his decisions for himself.”

“That being said, I will try to limit interaction between dark spirits and our world.” The room suddenly grew silent.

That went a little too smoothly, Kyoshi thought as she started her walk back to the hut. But in her thoughts she forgot to look up as she was walking. “Kyoshi” Atuat called as they both regained their balance.

“I was actually hoping I would run into you, not literally but…” Kyoshi rambled. “Let me guess, training?” She asked with a smile. Kyoshi nodded as Atuat led her to what looked like a classroom.

“How are your healing techniques coming along?” She asked as they sat down. “Okay I guess, I just never really feel like I’m doing that good a job. Like it could always be better” Kyoshi admitted.

“I believe that if we can work on fine tuning your skills a bit then you may see some of the results you hope for.”

They spent  the next hours training in the small room, running the tedious drills over and over again, until Kyoshi’s arms started to hurt.

“If you’d like, we can work more on these skills over the next couple of weeks.” Atuat offered. “Thank you for the offer, but Rangi, Jinpa and I are leaving for the Southern Air Temples in a couple of days” Atuat gave her a confused look. “A couple of days?” She asked. “Yeah we were planning to leave after Rangi got the all clear.” Kyoshi explained. “And you guys have all talked about this?”

Kyoshi looked puzzled by Atuat’s question. “I think you need to talk to Rangi”

Just what Kyoshi needed another question to ask Rangi. And she didn’t even know what exactly she was trying to find out after her talk with Atuat.

“Is Rangi here?” Kyoshi asked, walking into the healing hut. “The healer looked down at her chart scanning through the names. “Hmmmm, no it looks like she left a little bit ago.”

“Thank you” Kyoshi gave the healer a smile as she turned to leave.

As Kyoshi entered their hut she could already tell by the temperature that Rangi was there. “How’d it go?” Rangi asked, appearing beside her startling Kyoshi. “God you’re jumpy”

“Sorry,” Kyoshi said, rubbing the back of her neck. “So, destroy any more tables?” Rangi asked, draping her arms around Kyoshi’s neck. “What, how did you?”

“Find out? I have my ways” She flashed a smile. “You always do.” Kyoshi replied, pulling the fire bender closer, laying a kiss on her soft lips.

When suddenly the fire bender pulled away, locking eyes with Avatar. She gave her an almost sad look as Rangi tried to find her words. “Are you hiding something?”

Kyoshi had beaten her to the punch, hoping she might get at least one of two of her questions answered. “I guess kinda? Yes? I do have to tell you something but…” Rangi bit her lip. “I can’t leave here in a couple of days. Atuat hasn’t cleared me to leave yet she says there’s more damage or something, and I probably won’t be cleared for a couple of weeks but I don’t want to stop you from going to where you need to be.”

Kyoshi thought it was a bit funny how the once oh so confident fire bender now seemed so embarrassed over something this small. “We can leave whenever you are ready”

She couldn’t ask her tonight, it could wait. She needed her tonight, she could wait.

Thank you for reading❤️ If you have any suggestions or anything in particular you would like to see please feel free to let me know. Have a good night/morning❤️