Chapter 27

Rangi glanced out of the window as she was stirred by Kyoshi moving in her sleep. Even though the room was quite dim, Rangi was still able to make out Kyoshi’s face as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Kyoshi started to thrash again, like she always did when she had nightmares. Rangi’s theory was confirmed when she heard Kyoshi’s mumbling in her sleep.

“-knew you would be mad” She mumbled.

“Kyoshi…” Rangi called softly trying to wake her.

“I’m sorry” It sounded like she was going to start crying at any moment. “Kyoshi, you’re okay” Rangi called.

But Kyoshi just kept repeating those two phases, again and again. “Kyoshi, you’re okay. You just need to wake up” Rangi called again, this time reaching over her to shake her shoulders as hard as she dared.

Suddenly Kyoshi bolted upright causing them to hit each other’s foreheads in the process. When Rangi went to look up at Kyoshi she had hardly even left the state she was sleeping in. The only reason why Rangi actually knew she had to have been awake was that her eyes were open, and darting around the room frantically.

She quickly returned to mumbling apologies over and over again. “Kyoshi…” Rangi began as she made her way next to Kyoshi on the bed.

“Kyoshi, can you hear me?” She called out softly. Reaching up to wipe a tear from Kyoshi’s face. Finally Kyoshi made eye contact with her. She’s back now.

“I’m sorry” Kyoshi huffed once more, her breathing suddenly picking up. “Hey you’re okay, do you know where you are?”

She looked around a second, the room was barely lit up by the amount of light from above the horizon. “The hospital,” She replied faintly.

“Do you know how you got here?” Rangi asked, trying to say anything that might distract her.

“You brought me here”

“I did, we came here yesterday with the Flying Opera company. Kirima and I were the ones to bring you inside though.” She continued to explain as she felt Kyoshi rest her head on hers.

“We met Kenna, she’s the one who wrapped you up”

Kyoshi went quiet again, even though her head stayed resting on Rangi’s she could tell something was still bothering her.

“Do you wanna talk about it? Your dream” Rangi asks, trying to move closer to her. She didn’t see any point in asking if she was having a nightmare, she knew well enough what was going on. There was no need to dance around the idea.

“They were so mad at me” Suddenly Kyoshi jerked her head away, and started pulling on her hair, hard. Rangi had hardly ever seen her do this, maybe once or twice at the most. She normally has her hair pulled back, maybe it helped with any temptations to pull it. She contemplated, before snapping out of her train of thought and refocusing on Kyoshi.

“Hey don’t do that” Rangi said, pulling Kyoshi’s hands away, resting them in her lap.

“Who was mad at you?” She asked, keeping her hands on top of Kyoshi’s.

“Everyone!”

She looked down, “Everyone was mad at me.” Kyoshi admitted, her hands tightening into fists. 

“Well I’m not mad at you” Rangi tried to argue, still not aware of what Kyoshi was so set on people being so mad at her about. 

“You probably will be,” Kyoshi looked back at Rangi, with a sad look. Rangi didn’t know what to say. “So will my past lives, and the air nomads, and everyone else. Once they find out it was me…”

“No one is mad at you right now.” Rangi argued once more.

“They will be”

Rangi frowned, she was getting nowhere. They could probably keep going like this all day. “Kyoshi” Rangi called, pulling Kyoshi’s  hands down once more from her hair. She hadn’t even noticed when she had started pulling at her hair again. “That’s enough of that for now okay?”

“Sorry”

Rangi sighed, “It’s okay, I’m not mad, remember?” She got up walking across the room to grab something Kyoshi couldn’t quite make out. When she returned she showed Kyoshi the hair ribbon.

“Mind moving forward a bit?” She asked, as she moved behind the avatar.

“I’m just going to braid your hair really quick, is that okay?” She asked. If she couldn’t get anywhere with their conversation then the very least she could do was help limit the harmful fidget. Rangi watched as Kyoshi nodded, and started sectioning the hair. It was decently knotted, but she didn’t have any use at creating more things for Kyoshi to worry about. Instead she slowly pulled the sections apart, trying not to pull on any tangles. “So what happened?”

She felt Kyoshi tense up. “I’m not mad, I just wanna know what happened. You were gone for quite some time… and well you haven’t had nightmares this bad in a while-“

“I failed.” Kyoshi said shortly.

“Just let me be the judge of that for now okay?” Rangi offered, as she started twisting hair strands together.

And just like that Kyoshi started from the beginning. She told her of the first couple of meetings she had with the group, and then that they wanted to make her an official member. That’s when she was able to get them to come to what was supposed to be the first meeting spot. “What did they want you to do exactly to become a member?” Rangi asked.

“Did they make you fight them all at once?” She continued, part of Rangi wished Kyoshi would just say yes. It would make everything a lot more simple.

“No… at first the deal was to take one of the members across to the spirit world, and that would prove myself to them. That’s also how I was able to have them meet at Yangchen’s meditation site.”

Rangi felt like she was hanging onto every word that came out of Kyoshi’s mouth. Because this, this may be why she’s so scared…I never want her to experience this type of fear if I can help it.

“But you weren’t there, we found the campfire. Then later I found your fan in the rocks” Rangi found herself questioning. “I don’t even really know why I put my fan in the rocks, it felt like a security measure of sorts. Because I know you would recognize it, and when I had to bring Wren across-“

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

“Wren she was this water bender I had to bring across to the spirit world. Which was fine, I was somehow able to get her across. But when I woke up… I guess I forgot that people can move your body while you’re over there” Kyoshi took a breath.

“Where did they take you?” Rangi felt her breathing hitch pushing the concerns of Wren to the back of her brain for later.

“They locked me in a cell and refused to let me go unless I did as they said” She explained. “The room was apparently made to combat all the elements, cold with oils coated walls to prevent firebending, everything was metal to stop me from bending earth. No water, and the heavy doors themselves took out the other two elements”

Rangi looked down to Kyoshi’s bandaged hands, “Did they have you shackled to the floor as well?”

All Kyoshi did was nod, “I tried to melt them but then- well something came up”

“What did they want to do? I assume you endured all this because you didn’t want to comply with their request” Rangi said as she moved back to Kyoshi’s side.

“What did they want?” Rangi asked again, even though she now had an idea of what could have happened. She needed to hear it for herself. Kyoshi suddenly buried her face in her hands as she began to cry, “A portal-“

She couldn’t even finish her sentence as she cried. Rangi pulled her into a hug, she held on tighter as she felt Kyoshi cling to her tunic, as if she were hanging on for dear life.

“I promise, I promise I wasn’t going to do it. I-I told them I didn’t care if they killed me. I wouldn’t do it, but…” She buried her face in Rangi’s chest.

They stayed like that for a couple minutes, before Rangi was brave enough to ask another question. “Kyoshi what happened?”

There was a pause, as Kyoshi let out an uneven breath. “Do-do you still have my clothes from yesterday?”

Rangi was caught off guard all of the sudden, one moment they’re talking about how she was being held hostage, and now she’s concerned about laundry?

“It’s in the corner-“

“Can you check one of the pockets for me?” Kyoshi asked, interrupting Rangi in the process.

The fire benders just nodded, as she untangled herself from Kyoshi’s arms and made her way to the pile of clothes that she had tossed aside yesterday. Now that she was thinking about it more, they were definitely a biohazard.

Rangi dug around in the pockets until she felt something, “You can just tell me Kyoshi I don’t-” She stopped mid sentence as she looked at objects she had retrieved from the clothing.

“Where did you find this?” She asked as she held out the pin Kyoshi had given her.  “They left it in the cell I was in-“

“I- I lost it, I mean someone took it, I mean- shit” Rangi found hot tears now rolling down her face, she had put the pieces together. The man who attacked her, who never seemed to want to hurt her but took her pin. The man she recognized from the palace attack. Had they really used this little pin to…

“They told me… they told me they would… if I didn’t create their portal then you…” Kyoshi’s words were detached as Rangi nearly flung herself into Kyoshi’s arms.

“I didn’t want to lose you,” Kyoshi nearly yelled, as if pleading for forgiveness.

They sat there for a while, Rangi refusing to lift her head from Kyoshi’s chest. When she finally did she noticed that the sun was nearly all the way above the horizon.

Rangi looked up to meet Kyoshi’s gaze, her eyes were still glossy. What do I even say to that? Rangi thought to herself. They used me as blackmail to get her to do something she would have died for otherwise, and she still chose me?

“Kyoshi…” She called softly as she tucked a loose strand of Kyoshi’s hair behind her ear. “Thank you”

Kyoshi’s face scrunched up, “For what, I didn’t find another way out. I ended up opening the portal anyway-“

Rangi grabbed Kyoshi’s chin, pulling it gently to meet her gaze so that they were at each other’s eye level. “You chose me, even when you weren’t even sure that I was really there” She paused for a second, taking a breath.

“Why wouldn’t I have chosen you?” Rangi’s eyes went wide at Kyoshi’s words, why wouldn’t I have chosen you?

Kyoshi suddenly frowned, “You look upset.”

Rangi just shook her head with a smile. “I’m not, it’s just… I can’t believe you did that. I mean…”

Before she could continue Kyoshi had pulled her into a gentle kiss that left Rangi’s head spinning.

Of course she felt bad for what happened to Kyoshi, had she wished that Kyoshi didn’t go? Of course, then they wouldn’t have been here in the hospital in the first place. But after hearing what she said, it filled her with hope, and maybe confidence. I’m so going to propose to her first.

“And when I thought I couldn’t love you anymore” Kyoshi gave her a smug smile. “I thought I drove you crazy” She finally found herself saying

“At times yes, but you’ll always be worth it”

Hehehehehe I love writing a bit of fluff here and there. I hope you’re enjoying this little fluff break because you know I feel like I put them through a lot, so they deserve it. Anyways hope enjoyed, also a wanted to create a playlist for this book so if you have any suggestions feel free to comment them down below 🙂

And Happy almost New Years!