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sparklefiction2006-11-20 07:52 am
birdsarecalling.livejournal.com) wrote in sparklefiction2006-11-20 07:52 am
Entry tags:
TMC
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters: Kaguya (Sokka/Yue), Shaozu (Zuko/Mai), Ren (Ty Lee/?)
Warning: AU
Pairings: Kaguya/Shaozu, Ren/Kaguya?
I wrote this during the last thread thing, and then completely forgot about it, so now I'm posting? Feel free to beta the hell out of it.
”If we extend those two piers over there to fit Fire Nation ships then I buy the land alongside for a coupla warehouses,” Ren enthused, gesturing towards the area he was talking about – a ridge of ice bereft of development. A school of fishing boats clung to the coastline. It was white, and pastoral, and utterly boring. “Young tribesman have wives to feed out here an’ that’s gotta be a burden. I pay ‘em, solves you the problem of finding more jobs fer your non-benders. Betcha you could get the luxury trade from Ba Sing Se in too if you had the docking space.”
The Princess sipped her tea, impassively.
”You can see that land is occupied. I believe the salmon fishery has occupied that space since the time of Chief Atanjerat.”
”Then they move,” Ren leaned against the railing of the audience chamber balcony. He had to actively fight the urge to stand up straight and speak politely. Kaguya never slipped, never cracked, never gave him the opening he needed, and it was slowly driving him insane.
Worse, it made him want to be better. Sometimes it kind of amazed him that he was breathing in the same airspace as she was. It was a hell of a thing.
“C’mon. We’ve talked this deal up fer weeks. Gone through the specifics a dozen times. I even took ya out to examine the ships I got going fer me. And don’t say I ain’t made nice with your locals – I throw a helluva party,” Ren shifted. “What’s the real hold-up? This place’d be a damn sight less boring if you mixed it up a bit.”
There was a stinging pain in his cheek, and it took Ren a moment to realize that the Princess had slapped him.
“How dare you!”
”That woulda hurt more if ya took off your mitts.”
The Princess pulled one of her mittens off before slapping him again. Ren didn’t try to stop her. He was too amused.
”Better,” Ren felt a small rivulet of blood run down his cheek, from where one of the Princess’ nails had nicked him. “And ow.”
”I will not stand her and listen to you insult my people. I ask that you apologize for your rudeness. Now. ”
Ren tilted his head. The Princess’ cheeks were flushed and her brow was furrowed. Interesting.
”Why would I do that when you agree with me?”
This place, it didn’t give Ren a whole helluva lot to work with. Everything the people here did was couched in a thousand damn traditions, crystallized into ritual. If he moved at the pace of the Northern Water Tribe he’d be an incontinent old man before he accomplished anything. There was no way he was going to orchestrate his dealings by the path of Jupiter, coasting from House to House on a draw-out elliptical drag.
”Excuse me? If I have done anything to make you doubt my loyalty to my people then I assure you, that can be swiftly corrected,” Kaguya drew herself back, frostily. Her guards advanced from where they’d been waiting in the wings. Ren raised his hands to indicate that he wasn't about to make trouble.
”It wasn’t an insult, Princess,” Ren rocked back on the balls of his feet, still keeping his hands in the air. Wasn’t much he could do against a bender from a distance. What skill he had was in the dodge and weave, pissing his opponents off until they finally gave him the opening to strike. “Yer people are fine. Know what to do with some canoes an’ a bottle of malt liquor. But I just figured… you wouldn’t be in talks with me or the Crown Prince if you didn’t want change.”
This was a risk, Ren knew. Unlike the royals of the Fire Nation, Kaguya was a hard read – all cloudy ice with strange currents running beneath the current. Luckily for him, after years of working in the periphery all this blundering honesty was kind of a thrill.
”Agree to let the deal go through,” he coaxed, stepping up onto the railing, like he had the first time they met. “Come back with me to the Fire Nation to announce it. Might be fun.”
Baiting Kaguya with the chance to see Shaozu was maybe not fair. Not when Ren’d made sure what traffic did travel back and forth between their countries was very clear about how much time he’d been spending with the Princess, trying to get into her… coastal areas. Not after the fish trick and all the rumors that Shaozu’s puzzling lack of interest in a royal bride was down to a serious case of homosexuality. Not when Ren’d been methodically, untraceably working the prince up into a state.
Life wasn’t fair.
Kaguya sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose like she had a headache or something.
“Are you going to jump again?”
”You should try it,” Ren smiled. He didn’t need to hold out his arms in order to keep balance, but he did it anyway. “Hell on the back, but kind of a rush.”
“I can’t think only of myself,” Kaguya said. “If you’ve thought everything out so carefully then you should know that.”
”Then don’t think of yourself. Think of me.” Ren brushed his hair back. “Imma valuable natural resource.”
”No, no – you were right the first time,” Kaguya replied, all politeness. She looked placid. She had something up her sleeve? “I truly ought to think of myself. Thank you for your advice.”
Oh shit.
He barely had time to blink before Kaguya pushed him off the balcony.
Characters: Kaguya (Sokka/Yue), Shaozu (Zuko/Mai), Ren (Ty Lee/?)
Warning: AU
Pairings: Kaguya/Shaozu, Ren/Kaguya?
I wrote this during the last thread thing, and then completely forgot about it, so now I'm posting? Feel free to beta the hell out of it.
”If we extend those two piers over there to fit Fire Nation ships then I buy the land alongside for a coupla warehouses,” Ren enthused, gesturing towards the area he was talking about – a ridge of ice bereft of development. A school of fishing boats clung to the coastline. It was white, and pastoral, and utterly boring. “Young tribesman have wives to feed out here an’ that’s gotta be a burden. I pay ‘em, solves you the problem of finding more jobs fer your non-benders. Betcha you could get the luxury trade from Ba Sing Se in too if you had the docking space.”
The Princess sipped her tea, impassively.
”You can see that land is occupied. I believe the salmon fishery has occupied that space since the time of Chief Atanjerat.”
”Then they move,” Ren leaned against the railing of the audience chamber balcony. He had to actively fight the urge to stand up straight and speak politely. Kaguya never slipped, never cracked, never gave him the opening he needed, and it was slowly driving him insane.
Worse, it made him want to be better. Sometimes it kind of amazed him that he was breathing in the same airspace as she was. It was a hell of a thing.
“C’mon. We’ve talked this deal up fer weeks. Gone through the specifics a dozen times. I even took ya out to examine the ships I got going fer me. And don’t say I ain’t made nice with your locals – I throw a helluva party,” Ren shifted. “What’s the real hold-up? This place’d be a damn sight less boring if you mixed it up a bit.”
There was a stinging pain in his cheek, and it took Ren a moment to realize that the Princess had slapped him.
“How dare you!”
”That woulda hurt more if ya took off your mitts.”
The Princess pulled one of her mittens off before slapping him again. Ren didn’t try to stop her. He was too amused.
”Better,” Ren felt a small rivulet of blood run down his cheek, from where one of the Princess’ nails had nicked him. “And ow.”
”I will not stand her and listen to you insult my people. I ask that you apologize for your rudeness. Now. ”
Ren tilted his head. The Princess’ cheeks were flushed and her brow was furrowed. Interesting.
”Why would I do that when you agree with me?”
This place, it didn’t give Ren a whole helluva lot to work with. Everything the people here did was couched in a thousand damn traditions, crystallized into ritual. If he moved at the pace of the Northern Water Tribe he’d be an incontinent old man before he accomplished anything. There was no way he was going to orchestrate his dealings by the path of Jupiter, coasting from House to House on a draw-out elliptical drag.
”Excuse me? If I have done anything to make you doubt my loyalty to my people then I assure you, that can be swiftly corrected,” Kaguya drew herself back, frostily. Her guards advanced from where they’d been waiting in the wings. Ren raised his hands to indicate that he wasn't about to make trouble.
”It wasn’t an insult, Princess,” Ren rocked back on the balls of his feet, still keeping his hands in the air. Wasn’t much he could do against a bender from a distance. What skill he had was in the dodge and weave, pissing his opponents off until they finally gave him the opening to strike. “Yer people are fine. Know what to do with some canoes an’ a bottle of malt liquor. But I just figured… you wouldn’t be in talks with me or the Crown Prince if you didn’t want change.”
This was a risk, Ren knew. Unlike the royals of the Fire Nation, Kaguya was a hard read – all cloudy ice with strange currents running beneath the current. Luckily for him, after years of working in the periphery all this blundering honesty was kind of a thrill.
”Agree to let the deal go through,” he coaxed, stepping up onto the railing, like he had the first time they met. “Come back with me to the Fire Nation to announce it. Might be fun.”
Baiting Kaguya with the chance to see Shaozu was maybe not fair. Not when Ren’d made sure what traffic did travel back and forth between their countries was very clear about how much time he’d been spending with the Princess, trying to get into her… coastal areas. Not after the fish trick and all the rumors that Shaozu’s puzzling lack of interest in a royal bride was down to a serious case of homosexuality. Not when Ren’d been methodically, untraceably working the prince up into a state.
Life wasn’t fair.
Kaguya sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose like she had a headache or something.
“Are you going to jump again?”
”You should try it,” Ren smiled. He didn’t need to hold out his arms in order to keep balance, but he did it anyway. “Hell on the back, but kind of a rush.”
“I can’t think only of myself,” Kaguya said. “If you’ve thought everything out so carefully then you should know that.”
”Then don’t think of yourself. Think of me.” Ren brushed his hair back. “Imma valuable natural resource.”
”No, no – you were right the first time,” Kaguya replied, all politeness. She looked placid. She had something up her sleeve? “I truly ought to think of myself. Thank you for your advice.”
Oh shit.
He barely had time to blink before Kaguya pushed him off the balcony.
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Oh, Kaguya. :D
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Meep!
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My ideas were limited to: Toph's twins, Irana, Xi Feng, Li and Tingzhe. Srsly. Everything else is her doing, I just work here. XD
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It felt rather nice. She could see why those Fire Nation girls and her aunt made a regular occurence of it. Still, it wouldn't be responsible to do it often enough to allow people to notice.
With a quick, graceful sloping motion, she dissolved the hard ice beneath Ren into a nice, safe, deep pool of icy cold water, and then leaned over the balcony to peer down at the splashing baron without cracking a smile. "You'll want to get out of those damp furs before the chill sinks into your bones," she offered, tucking her fingers back into her mitten. "It doesn't say much for me as a hostess to let you lose any fingers or toes."
And then she swirled away from the balcony, loops of dark hair shining over her white, fluffy collar.
Ren wasn't really annoying, she decided. He was just- he reminded her of so many other boys, local boys, earnest, shrewd and utterly devoid of shame. Cute, but unfortunately Fire Nation and decidedly not Prince Shaozu, who was properly Fire Nation, pale skinned and gold eyed and disciplined to the point where she eagerly anticipated his growing a real beard so she could loop it around her finger and watch his cheeks go as red as his collar.
Why did he have to mention Prince Shaozu? She had been doing so well at not missing him. The fisheries could be moved, the fishers wouldn't like it, but they could hardly argue with Princess Kaguya.
She pressed her hand to her face and sighed heavily. Time for several hours of deep, uninterrupted commune with her lady mother at the Spirit Oasis, so that she could reason out whether she wanted to make this deal for her hormones or for her nation's trade.
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And that crack about not being properly Fire Nation gives me ideas about where this thing
PS: So did the deal happen or not? :P
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:D
Funny thing to add to your Kaguya, which is otherwise perfect: she always gives people their titles, and uses her own when she's acting in an official capacity. She's quirky like that. She always calls Shaozu Prince Shaozu, in her brain. I don't know why, it is a peculiarity.
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Using Shaozu's title? Good to know, and also very cute, XD.
Also, did I fuck up the tags in my last post? Oops.
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And, we don't know if it's hormones or not! Shaozu/Kaguya/Ren THEIR LUST IS SO INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT.
And somehow strangely reminiscent of Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra. o_O;
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Which may result in him having to flee the country again. I DUNNO. Issuuuuuuuues. Maybe he can go wreak havoc on Kyoshi Island or something.
Oh international conflict. Kaguya seems to lurve Shaozu very much, so I suppose how THAT goes comes down to where his fundamental level of crazy actually is. ;P Ren kind of has her on a pedestal but of course he's an extremely superstitious person.
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She also thinks Ren is cute.
Xi Feng thinks that Zuko and Mai are particularly brilliant as, while Ren likes to think of himself as being so completely outside the pale, he actually is rather eligible and, since he's gone and made himself such a huge fucking target, looping him in with a political marriage would be an excellent way to 1) STOMP ON HIS APPARENT AMBITION LIKE A NASTY INSECT and 2) take care of Zhi's need for incessant conflict
and someone socially acceptable to get horizontal with.He might in fact explain to his bosom friend that no, this is real and serious and then sit back munching fire flakes and drinking jasmine tea while Ren's head implodes.
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Then he comes home to find that Xi Feng systemataically worked against everything he tried to do with Shaozu.
So basically, he thinks the whole thing was a setup by Xi Feng in the first place. And he is PISSED.
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Fengsy doesn't feel that he's been interfering all that much with the Shaozu/Kaguya problem, he's just trying to keep Shaozu from exploding so publically that he fucks things up. His main concentration, in his own estimation, has been sweeping all the shit involving his beloved sisters under the rug so Mom and Dad don't have to worry about it affecting the court any more. He's all about damage control.
But unlike Ren, Xi Feng is socially inept and new to taking an active role in intrigue. He'll probably react to it IN A WAY REN WILL NOT EXPECT.
You make me itch to write them together again. Srsly. SO I PROMPTED YOU.
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Oooh, a way that WILL NOT BE EXPECTED. Intriguing! The projectsion I have made could be put off by Zhi doing something unexpected herself, of course.
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It is probably a good thing that Ren is friends with Mr Damage Control, since he's pretty good at plans, but it is become apparent that he's not so good at factoring post-plan ass-kickings (which he so richly deserves) into his life.
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Not to mention it would help him partially pin down the LOOSE CANNON that is TY LEE.
I TOLD YOU THE BOY WAS GETTING IDEAS.
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because Xi Feng had this to say: "You give me far too much credit. My parents are entirely capable of exacting painful revenge on you without my help."
AND HE WAS REALLY SMUG.
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Also, Ren says if Xi Feng's going to be that smug, the library-rearranging project can still be a go. :P
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