Sunburn

35

Presently, Toph, Katara sat on the edge of the beach house's inner courtyard watching the three firebenders practice their bending skills from the comfort of a refreshing shade.

Tsai had been complaining to everyone about how much she hated Ember Island but when asked why she would just grumble and seethe in her own anger and frankly it was getting on everybody's nerves. It's not something she liked to talk about in particular. Of course, this time things were a lot better than the last time she was here. Not wanting to spend another minute inside of the house that brought such terrible memories to her she spent the majority of the day meditating by the beach in an attempt to ease her terrible headache. She presently wore a set of maroon traditional Fire Nation clothes similar to the ones that Suki and Katara wore.

She was currently walking back to the courtyard to sit next to the girls that were watching the boys train.

She watched as the three benders moved in perfect synchronization in elaborate firebending movements. Blasting arcs of flames and fistfuls of fire. She really wished she could've been paying more attention to where she was going but was more distracted by a shirtless body. Her eyes were glued to the prince's toned torso. She looked at the way his perspired body seemed to glisten with the light as he moved swiftly. Had he always been that well-built? She knew he was strong from holding onto his arms so many times before, but his abdominals- Her mind went to an erubescent compartment of her imagination. Why had she never stopped to appreciate the royal sight before?

The three benders straightened and turned towards each other relaxing in their stances letting out a deep breath slowly.

Then it hit her. Literally. She groaned slightly when she ran face-first into one of the courtyard's pillars making Toph laugh loudly from where she was sitting. She stepped back and glared in embarrassment as she walked over to where Katara and Toph were sitting.

"You've got something on your face." Toph continued laughing.

The girl rubbed the red line that had formed across the bridge of her nose and prayed that hopefully it wouldn't bruise. "Yeah, I hope it doesn't bruise."

"I meant droll." Toph dead panned. Tsai swore she could've strangled her in the spot. Mortified that she had been caught in the act of checking out the Fire Nation's former prince in such an obvious matter.

"Doesn't it seem kinda weird that we're hiding from the Fire Lord in his own house?" Katara suddenly said absent mindedly. Thankfully Toph seemed to be the only one to have witnessed her embarrassing run in to the pole.

"Think of it as hiding in plain sight. Besides, you think the Fire Lord is going to come and hang out here?" The red head explained raising both of her arms up in a casual shrug.

"Yeah," Zuko agreed from where he was sitting at the foot of a concrete fountain, rubbing the sweat from his hair with a towel.
He said something. Tsai was certain she saw his mouth move when he was speaking but she wasn't listening. Her teenage hormones getting the best of her.

"You guys are not going to believe this!" Thankfully Sokka interrupted her daydream. She shook her head shoving those red thoughts into a cranny in the back of her brain.

Sokka and Suki stood at the entrance of the courtyard both with excited looks on their faces.

"We were just in town when we found this poster." Suki explained with both hands behind her back. She nudged Sokka, "Show them, Sokka."

"There's a play about us!" Sokka announced unraveling a parchment scroll he had been holding behind his back. He snapped it opened revealing a traditional drawing of Aang and the Southern Water Tribe siblings in fighting stances. Zuko's face in the background. An image of the Blue Spirit's mask hovering in between the two parties.