Risho of the Black Snow (ATLA Fanfiction)

Operation Ember Island- Part Three

Finally. She was finally, finally alone! It wasn't something that Risho ever thought she'd think- but here she was, thanking the spirits for leaving her all by herself again. Away from those...people.

She wasn't sure where she was supposed to be staying- but Azar and Chanda's house was huge enough that she doubted they'd care where she unpacked. She didn't care if they cared. She'd go to the bathroom in here if she felt like it. It was no less than what they deserved.

Risho threw herself onto the bed and slipped her nightgown on upside down. White. Like her wrists and ankles. Like the moon.

Risho shivered. It was scary, she thought, how powerful the moon made waterbenders. It was a wonder the Fire Nation had managed to capture them at all! She wrapped her arms around her legs and wiped her tears on her knees.

There was a knock on the door.

"Go away!"

The knock came again. "Pssst!" She was going to throw something. "Pssst! It's me!"

"Not in the mood, Azzie," she snapped.

The door opened anyways. "Chanda's making tea," Azar started, anxiously looking down at his feet as he spoke. "He's really a big mama turtle-duck when he's allowed to be. It will be up soon."

"I don't want it."

Azar's eyes widened. "You need to keep warm so your water-burn doesn't-" She'd had enough of this. She'd had enough of him acting like everything where she came from was backwards and strange. Waterlord. Water-burn. And so much else.

Risho summoned a fire in her right hand and shoved her left through the blaze. "Warm." Her voice was flat and calm, but Azar gasped and sucked all the air in from the room. Didn't he know that she couldn't feel a thing? She couldn't even feel the heat. He batted her hand out of the flame.

"Don't do that, Risho!" She raised an eyebrow. "You never know when you'll hit your limit with these...abilities of yours." She hated it when he looked at her like that- hated his never ending sobriety that didn't match his face. There wasn't an ounce of childhood innocence in Azar's expression. He looked at her like she was the child in the room. Like he didn't still have baby teeth.

Risho tried to let herself breathe, but her exhale came out in a wheeze. She did it over and over again until the tears came back and she was forced to hide her face. "Did...Did you know?" she asked, adjusting the skirt of her nightgown to keep from flashing Azar. "Did you know they were...that they-" Embarrassingly, she started sobbing again.

Azar tried to touch her hand but she batted it away, grimacing as he hissed in pain. She nearly called him a baby- but then she realized the reason for it. She gasped. She'd burned him. She hadn't meant for it to go that far- she'd only meant to scare him off so he wouldn't get himself killed. If there was one thing she knew about Azar, it was that he always overestimated himself. "Nobody told me anything. I knew as much as you," He caught her staring at his palms through her fingers. "That hurt, by the way. A lot. Thanks for that."

Risho politely sucked the snot back into her nose. "There wasn't supposed to be fire; but you didn't let go with the heat. I thought you would."

"I told you, it will take more than that." There was a smile in his voice. Risho took that as a good sign. She heard the bed sheets move as he shifted. "So, that was pretty scary, huh?" He didn't know the half of it. Risho's entire body was still sore from being thrown around like she did Yating when she was angry back home. And she was so, so cold. She grumbled a response.

Azar didn't seem to pick up on the fact that that should have been the end of their conversation. "Those waterbenders are terrifying at night- powerful- and crazy, too. I thought my dad was exaggerating! It's really horrible that the one on the beach got away. That one deserves to be incarcerated even more than the elephant-rat-killer. But don't worry- we know some of his features now, and his voice, so-" He sighed. "Look. Risho, I know you're mad, but-"