Sunburn

33

"MAI?!" The girl hissed out angrily as she looked at her brother, her eyes narrowed into angry slits that almost seemed comical at her emotional trigger.

"You know her?" He asked with a goofy smile on his face.

She face-palmed and sank to her feet sliding against the wall with an annoyed expression on her face. She didn't even know where to begin when in regard to her ex-boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. The world was indeed a very, very small place.

"So- Mai is Zuko's ex-girlfriend from before he dated you who he rebounded with when he returned to the Mainland?" He repeated in disbelief.

"Yes," The other croaked beyond irritated.

"Great! Now she'll never go out with me!" The other threw his hands up in the air in momentary frustration and sighed as he also slid down the temple's wall to sit next to his sister. Both of their eyes focused on the night landscape before them.

"And him? Does the idiot know?" He looked at her seriously.

She was quiet for a moment. Her silence answering his question.

"And you're not going to tell him? That's not like you. What was that thing that grandpa would always say about plum blossoms?"

"Our lives, too, are fleeting," She quoted the phrase which was more than familiar to her. "I've got bigger things to worry about it," She responded after a moment biting on her thumb lightly her mind elsewhere.

"Like that?" He let out a little snort. "Cause everything you're going thru I'mgoing thru as well. You know? Mom, Dad, the colonies, defeating the Fire Lord and executing my vicious plans of vengeance-"

"God! Mecha!" She spoke sharply with a sudden snap. "You don't get it. I'm not like you. I'm a spirit now and I don't know what that means!"

Despite her frustrated tone he couldn't help but let out a humorous huff. It was hard for him to take his sister seriously after witnessing a lifetime of childish tantrums.

"Aren't spirits supposed to be kind, docile and selfless? Basically, everything that you're not?" He chuckled a little teasing her. She shot him a side glare in return and let out an exhausted sigh pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"I have a terrible feeling about this. About the comet. This ill feeling, it won't let me sleep." She confessed for the first time. "I saw things when I went to the Sun Warrior Island. The dragons showed me visions..."

She flashed back to the unspoken visions of the comet. The day in which the skies would turn the color of blood and ash would rain. It wasn't the astronomical event that made her feel uneasy. It was the frightful feeling that crawled into her stomach that came with the vision.

"Sozin's comet. It's a part of me." She said softly in a breath.

"But you're only human."

"Yes," she nodded he was correct. "But it's part of the otherpart of me. The Sun. I canfeelit."

Mecha gazed at his sister with genuine concern. He wished he knew what to say. That he had a joke or comment that would lighten her up or that could somehow ease her burden. He gave her shoulder a squeeze and a sympathetic smile. The two siblings stayed up talking all night. It's not like she planned on sleeping either way.

"I still have much to learn about spirituality..." She trailed off. "Mecha, I feel like I'm running out of time," she professed her voice breaking. The knots in her back further twisting due to stress.

Xxx

The sunrise came with the promise of a new day. Skies were clear and golden rays of light warmed the upper courtyard where the siblings of Yu Dao trained both their minds and bodies.