So our progress—at least so far—was nonexistent. But I hadn't expected quick results, much less instant ones. Worst-case scenario, we could simply consider this target practice for Toph against an extremely agile opponent. Yep, with none other than the Great and Terrible Fire Herald himself serving as the target. The prestige of this training session was simply off the charts! Aaah! Left, right, bridge! Pirouette! Roll away, dash forward, then a sharp leap backward. But...
"Oh... Pff— Achoo!" The bag didn't survive its encounter with my forehead and thoroughly dusted my face, filling my mouth and nose with sand. "Ptooey! Damn you..."
"Already a little better," the girl generously offered a scrap of praise, though we both understood perfectly well that there was nothing "better" about it. I still couldn't "see" a damn thing.
"Again." Still, the road is mastered by walking it, and I had absolutely nothing else to do until morning anyway.
Whooosh!
This sweet child never needed to be asked twice.
***
The new morning greeted me with Suki's suspicious squint and a silent question written in enormous letters across her makeup-free face. And while I seemed to grasp easily enough, and almost immediately, exactly what I was being accused of, I had absolutely no idea what had prompted the accusation in the first place. So, naturally, I decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach.
"Sweetheart?"
"You do realize that half my friends wouldn't mind getting into your pants, right?" the girl asked a very strange question, without the slightest hint of reproach.
"Um..." I looked around my cabin in confusion, but found nothing... well... like that. The door was closed, my clothes and armor were neatly folded, there were no signs of a struggle, no unexpected naked bodies wrapped in sheets beside me, and not even any compromising smells lingered in the air, since I'd taken a shower immediately after training with Toph...
"And Ty Lee likes you too. With her personality, it's not immediately obvious, but she does," the warrior girl continued without raising her voice, even sounding openly sympathetic, yet for some reason that only made me more afraid.
"I'm still not completely awake." Carefully keeping my face neutral and trying not to let any guilty, hunted notes creep into my voice, I attempted to clarify the tactical situation. "Could you please remind me why we're arguing?"
"We're not arguing." Suki shook her head. "But even Azula has started looking at you differently lately."
"Darling, this may sound a little cliche, but I have absolutely no idea what's going on. I feel guilty, but I can't remember doing anything that should make me feel that way. Could you explain everything to your stupid boyfriend from the beginning?" The subjects she was raising didn't frighten me in the slightest, but not knowing what had caused all this was making me distinctly nervous.
"You don't understand?" Surprise appeared in the girl's eyes.
"Love, you know me. I'm not exactly a shy person, and I'm rarely embarrassed by my actions, even when they're highly questionable. Sure, I like turning things into jokes, but lying to your face isn't something I make a habit of, and if I say I don't understand what's going on, then I really don't. So please, explain... what's wrong?"
"You've been secretly going somewhere at night for the past several days and coming back completely exhausted, but satisfied and freshly showered," the girl began calmly and peacefully laying out her suspicions, still looking somewhat surprised.
"And you're not going to any of us, or even to the rooms of... well, you know who I mean," the warrior's eyes flicked to the side, "you're going somewhere into the city... And you started doing it almost immediately after you and General Iroh were drooling over those dancers at the local earthbending academy!"
A trace of indignation finally broke through. A small one, and mostly concealing the girl's own insecurity, but it was there nonetheless.
"Oh..." Now that was a problem. I'd forgotten that I was constantly under observation by a whole collection of female eyes whose young owners needed only the slightest excuse to gossip about someone and swap rumors. "No. This is all Toph's fault... And we were not drooling!"
"You... and Toph?" The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors gaped at me in astonishment, as though I'd just shattered the very foundations of her worldview. Sure, by local standards, young Beifong was already almost at the age when people started looking for suitable matches for girls, but Suki knew my attitude toward such early marriages far too well not to be shocked.
"No!!!" I practically jumped. "What the hell are you thinking?! She's got at least another three years before anything like that! We're just training!"
"Training?" Suki breathed, a timid glimmer of hope appearing in her eyes, though it was obvious the shock still hadn't entirely worn off.
"Well, yeah. She's an incredibly strong earthbender, and I need the practice. It doesn't hurt her to get some either," I replied as truthfully as possible without providing unnecessary details. "But Suki! How?.. What even made you think something like that?!" It wasn't like I'd been neglecting my "marital duties," damn it! Quite the opposite, if anything!
"Well... I..." The girl grew embarrassed and hurriedly turned sideways to me.
"What?"
"I tried asking Toph what she knew about your nighttime disappearances, but she gave me a very vague answer." Suki bit her lip awkwardly. "And now I realize she did it deliberately..."
"And you?.."
"I wanted to hear everything directly from you!" the slightly pink-cheeked warrior said, turning toward me.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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