"Well, come next time! And you too, Keiki," I tell the man who is watching with a sly smile. "Arnook's been wanting to meet the people who motivate me to show up to guard duty on time."
They both nod with smiles. Well, that's settled, then. The people need to know who it is that rules them. And Arnook needs to speak with people who aren't stuffy old men and women.
...
I move along the stands, and find some breakfast. In the line for fishcakes I spot Katsuo. Sidling up to him and ignoring the huff of the person behind him, I clap his shoulder. "Good morning!"
He shoots me a glare for my trouble. Probably the volume. And my presence.
"I haven't seen you around," I mention as we shuffle a step forward.
He grunts something unintelligible. It sounds vaguely like 'patrol duty' and 'lucky arsehole' in between mumbling. I smile. My former fellow student under Pakku has never been the friendliest early in the morning.
"So you're in the next couple of days?"
A nod, accompanied by a suspicious glare.
"I've got something I want to talk to you about. I'll come find you tomorrow," I tell him and order first. I can feel the absolute loathing he has for me as he sends it out in angry waves. Well. It's his problem for knowing me in the first place.
With fishcakes in one hand, and tea in the other, I am ready for the day.
...
Pakku's already there when I arrive.
"Good morning!" I greet cheerfully, starting him.
In retaliation he bends the ice beneath my feet to throw me off balance, and I bend myself to the side smoothly, gliding around him to look him in the face. "Sleep well?" I continue as I avoid his sneak attacks from below, lazily ice-skating.
His glare from above impressive eye-bags is answer enough.
"Got a bit of a headache there, Pakku?"
He scowls.
"Want me to do the thing?"
"Call it by its name, Kaito."
"The Thing, then?"
He sighs. Glances around, and gives me a nod. I'm quick about curing his hangover, and he already looks less irritable. While changing absolutely nothing about his sour expression. With an especially cheerful grin for counterbalance, I move to lounge on the steps leading up to the palace. From my pocket I fish a strip of dried and pickled seaweed to chew on.
He does his warm-ups in silence, and I watch the sun begin to cast bright light and glitter over the city.
Once I get bored, I take pleasure in breaking his concentration with well-timed splashes of water close to his feet. His eyebrow twitches comically every time I do it, but ever since I became a Master myself, he doesn't chastise me anymore, feeling it below both our dignities. But he should know by now that I have none. It's good training anyway.
"Excited to be teaching the Avatar?" I ask, slurping my hot tea. Coffee is strangely absent in this world. Which is a tragedy in its own right. But Yugoda has this herbal mixture that 'wakens the spirit' that I even brew myself on particularly bad days when I don't manage to stop by the market. It's the small things that comfort.
"No more than I was you," he says drily, but without the cutting edge he takes with others. Should I be worried about my position as his favourite?
To tease him back, I tug a bit on his elegantly bent water. It shifts, barely, and is back to perfection with a baleful look in my direction. He knows me too well by now not to keep his guard up.
Keeping him on his toes is still my job, with uselessly perfect students like his current ones. Then again, maybe I should pass on the torch soon. The Avatar and his friend are bound to be good examples.
I'm lounging on the steps to the palace when the Avatar and the girl arrive. They look far too chipper for the hour. Then again, they're not allowed to drink yet.
"Good morning Master Pakku!" The Avatar shouts and finally Pakku drops his bending act.
"No, please, march right in, I'm not concentrating or anything," Pakku says, snarky as ever. I'm sure he was only doing all that bending because he wanted to say that to the Avatar. He doesn't usually warm up with the kid-stuff. But then again, he's teaching a new set of students today, and you never know.
The Avatar introduces his friend Katara. She even bows. Pakku bends himself a seat. Ah, that doesn't bode well for the girl. Not interesting enough of a first impression perhaps? "I'm sorry. I think there's been a misunderstanding. You didn't tell me your friend is a girl. In our tribe, it is forbidden for women to learn waterbending."
Her temper rears its head.
"What do you mean you won't teach me?" She stomps towards him, all anger and red cheeks, "I didn't travel across the entire world, so you could tell me no!"
"No," Pakku deadpans. I smother my laughter. You can't pave the road for someone like that and expect them to take the high one.
"But there must be other female waterbenders in your tribe," she reasons, switching gears immediately. It would be impressive, were it not said in such an angry tone. Pakku likes cool and collected individuals. Never would he teach such a freely expressive person, unless he had another, personal reason to disregard his usual standards. That's probably why most of his students are great benders, but have some problems in the emotional capacity department.
Pakku replies with a smile, "Here the women learn from Yugoda to use their waterbending to heal. I'm sure she would be happy to take you as her student," he drops the smile, "Despite your bad attitude."
Oooh, classic Pakku. While he'll insult you as he pleases, he tells you to mind your manners. It works surprisingly well for him, when the other person isn't me.
… Or Katara.
"I don't want to heal! I want to fight!"
"I can see that," he says snidely. He's poking holes in her abysmal attempts at poise and appearing mature. Like any teenager, she doesn't take it well. "But our tribe has customs, rules."
"Well your rules stink!"
True, but it's not like that's going to impress Pakku. Katara could do well with some logical arguments that don't aggressively attack his culture, but it's not as if that's likely to happen any time soon.
Especially not if the Avatar backs up her run-against-the-brick-wall approach with "Yeah! They're not fair! If you won't teach Katara, then-"
"Then what?" Pakku provokes, finally.
Should've just let him lose the hot air for a few more moments if he was going with the watch-and-let-it-play-out method. But Pakku does so enjoy making brats feel like idiots.
"Then I won't learn from you," the Avatar blusters and walks off. Great loyalty, but what now? He is the Avatar, I suppose. There will be someone willing to teach him. But even the lowliest master, if there even is such a thing, has his pride, and if Katara is the condition for being the Avatar's teacher, he'd best settle for healing.
We're strangely backwards here. Social standing is everything. Everything. Going against Pakku means going against the ruling caste and that brings complications of a calibre that most people like to steer clear of. They might entail that your brother's chances at getting that apprenticeship he dreams of are null over night. Or perhaps your father's long-standing promotion turns into a demotion. He might even lose some well-paying customers. The works.
If I decided to help them out, I would lose Pakku's confidence. Trust. I grimace.
It was different when I went to learn from Yugoda and Buniq helped me understand some of the new bending methods I hadn't ever encountered before. In exchange I gave her a few pointers about my kind of bending, but that was all I could do.
She was angry at me for it, but thankfully she never said anything to Pakku about me helping her at all. I practised with her, but there was a limit to what I could reasonably disclose without someone taking notice.
"Well, have fun teaching yourself, I'm sure you'll do a great job," Pakku replies condescendingly. He doesn't even mention other benders, something I'm not sure the Avatar and his friend would consider, never having been to the city before as it is now. They might think that Pakku is the one who was assigned to them, and that others would not take up the mantle.
...
Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
...
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