trans_9 | (no subject)

Entry tags:

leela bricker,
zuko

(no subject)

Anyone who had seen Zuko in the past few days had inevitably seen him stalking the halls of the ship without end, his swords strapped in their sheath on his back, his perpetual scowl affixed securely on his face.

Torn from the Western Air Temple to a ship flying through the stars, farther from home than he'd ever believed a person could go . . . so many miles away from everything he knew that, for all he DID know, it would take him the rest of his life to get back . . .

If he ever got back at all.

Some destiny.

The prince of the Fire Nation stalked the halls like it was his job, eyes peeled for anything more unusual than . . . well, the usual unusual of the ship.

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"I'm Leela. Hi." She held out her hand for shaking.

He looked at it.

". . . I don't have anything."

Well, except his swords. And you can't have those.

"Oh damn. You're from somewhere that don't have handshakes aren't you. It's a greeting. Some of the other people here might use it, 'cause I think they're from worlds like mine. You gotta hold out your empty hand, too."

"Why, to show that your hand is empty? What good does that do?" Zuko eyed her hand warily. Waaay too easy for her to put him in a throw if he puts his hand in hers.

"Actually yeah. They think it started so people could see that someone didn't have their hand on the pommel of their sword or something. It's a gesture to show 'look! No weapon of stabby death! I'm not here to make war.'"

Still holding it there.

"C'mon, don't leave me hanging."

His expression was skeptical.

"That doesn't prove anything. Just because your hand is empty doesn't mean you didn't come to make war. You don't even have to be a firebender - you could put me in a throw or a lock -" He snorts. "You really expect me to just put my hand in yours? I might as well position myself for the headlock ahead of time."

He rolled his eyes and picked up his pace. "Just because I've never been to the stars doesn't mean I'm an idiot. Don't insult me."

"It's a gesture," she said, following along. "Like a bow or...hell, I dunno what you do in your world. And aside from that, you could use it to throw me or put me in a headlock, too. That's the point. The two people are on even ground."

Angry Guy was funny.

"And you're only an idiot if you think I'm trying to insult you. A handshake's considered polite where I'm from. A gesture of respect. In other parts of the world, people bow instead. Some do a handshake and bow their heads slightly and combine both, 'cause there's been so much mixing of cultures."

"Bowing makes a lot more sense than holding hands." His stride is determined, purposeful, even though there's no such thing as a purpose for him on this ship. "It shows deference and respect and it actually does put you on equal ground. Non-combative equal ground."

She should have seen what his uncle could do with a good throw.

"Holding hands is for people you trust."

The 'And I don't trust you.' didn't have to be said.

"Okay, so maybe bowing makes more sense for you. Just 'cause we do it different don't mean we're doing it wrong."

A pause. "Although if you don't look at who you're bowing to when you're bowing, then that's just a bad--they could smack you upside the head and you're already half below your center of gravity."

"No."

Zuko held out his hand, and with a breath, wreathed it in fire.

"There's a reason we don't do that in my country."

The flames emanating from his hand disappeared with a whoosh and he put his hand back at his side. "If someone else is bowing, they're off their center as well. And a good enough fighter can get someone on the ground from the ground. Or not take the hit at all."

"Damn that's wicked-hot. Pun intended." Coool.

"See, but in my country, people can't set themselves on fire so a hand shake is all good. And I'd love to have greeted you in the proper way of your country, but aside from not being able to set myself on fire, I also can't read minds. And you kinda didn't tell me a bow was the way y'all do it until arguing about how it's so much better just now."

She was annoying. Really annoying. The-Avatar's-Travelling-Companions level annoying.

"Fine. In my world, we bow. But I don't see how it matters right now."

In other words, why are you still talking, crazy happy girl?

It was a talent.

And she wasn't happy, mostly just hard to phase. It had taken her a lot to get this far.

She skipped ahead of him, the chain of her Hibis Janzir jingling at her back, then turned around, and walking backwards, clasped one fist in her other hand, and bowed politely.

"It matters knowing the right way to be respectful," she said, when she looked up again, still walking backwards.

"I'm a prince in my world," Zuko said, still with a scowl. "The fact that you're speaking to me at all is disrespectful of our stations. We'd never have this conversation at all in the Fire Nation."

. . . well, if he hadn't turned traitor against it. But that was another story.

"If I really cared about respect, I'd have told you that already. But clearly, I don't, because I haven't."

"Would you rather I be disrespectful?"

"I'd rather you leave me alone."

"That's no way to meet new people."

"I don't want to meet new people. I want to go home."

"Yeah, but ten bucks we gotta work together to GET home, and friends could make the time we are here less miserable."

She has a poooooint.

"Ten what?"

She may have had a point, but Zuko was not focusing on it.

"Dollars? Like 'I bet you ten dollars.'" A pause. "Ten moneys? I bet you ten increments of whatever money you have back home we'll have to work together to get home. But not a real bet, it's an expression. When you're so sure of something you'd bet on it."

She apparently was used to explaining gestures and expressions and whatnot to someone who didn't know them. She was used to them GETTING explained.

She has a point. Zuko heaves a you're-right-but-I-don't-want-to-admit-it kind of sigh.

"Fine. But I don't gamble."

Except with his LIFE!

"I don't usually either." A pause. "Well, I do sometimes. In inns. You know, quick cash and all."

"I'm sure."

"What with me being one of those scummy salt of the earth types. You know cussin' and fightin' and brawlin' in bars..."

Now she's just messing with him.

"And fraternizin' with whores...."

That got a reaction from him, in the blushing-and-stumbling-slightly sort of way.

"You don't fraternize with whores." His blush deepened as he said it. "You're just trying to get a rise out of me."

OH HO HO, ZUKO, WORD CHOICE MUCH?

"Interesting word choice there, sport, since we're talkin' whores."

"It - that - that doesn't mean anything! You're just twisting my words." Zuko picked up the pace of his stride. "It's not my fault if you can't keep your mind out of the gutter."

Filthy peasant! With your gutter mind!

"Bwaha! I'm just messin' with you. Testing the depths for a sense of humor. I think I'm gonna need a longer stick though."

"I have a sense of humor."

Said with a sulky tone, like a two-year-old claiming to be a big boy. Really.

"Yuh huh," said with the tone of a five year-old that doesn't believe you. "Tell me a joke then."

Zuko glances at her for a few moments before replying. "Okay. Um."

He thinks for a moment.

"Well, I do know one joke - well, it's my uncle's joke, and I don't really remember how it goes, but the punchline is 'leaf me alone, I'm bushed!'"

He pauses a bit before adding, "It's a tea joke. Uncle likes tea."

She laughed. "That was funny but entirely in a way I don't think you intended."

It was said in a tone that suggested 'you're alright, though.'

"I like tea. The Wahidians--the people I was saying with for a while--they're nuts about it."

She gets a glare. Stop laughing at his fail, Leela, he knows you're doing it.

"Yeah, well, you'd probably get along with my uncle."

Actually, Iroh would probably love her and by this point would have already tricked him into going on a date with her. Ugh.

"What's he like?"

". . . more of a father to me than my own father was."

See how he's not looking at you again, Leela? You totally see that.

"And a big fan of tea. And senses of humor. Like I said, you'd like him."

He pauses before adding, "I think he'd like you, too. He likes most people." Another pause. "Especially girls with senses of humor."

"He sounds like...the exact opposite of my dad." She laughed. "Not that my dad's bad. He's just...not much with a sense of humor."

A shrug. "Least I know my dad won't miss me anymore than he did, though, with all this. I was already gone."

"Well he's pretty much the opposite of my dad, too."

Only, Zuko's dad IS actually a bad guy.

"I guess that's something I don't have to worry about either," he muses, casting his glance around the fleshy interior of the ship. "I don't know where my uncle is, so he probably won't know I've disapp-"

He clenches his teeth suddenly, as something occurs to him, and makes a short groan of frustration.

"He's going to think - aaaaugh." Cue a facepalm. "Oh that's just great."

"Think what?"

"Nothing. It doesn't concern you."

No, that was rude. That's not how you go making friends on a ship. Zuko can practically hear Iroh's voice admonishing him in the back of his head. He sighs.

"I'm sorry. I'm just . . . I did something a while back that . . . kind of put us on bad terms. By the time I finally decided to do the right thing . . . he'd disappeared."

He hangs his head. "I never got the chance to tell him I was wrong." Another pause. "Or to apologize him for not respecting him as my father the way I should have."

"Back in the Fire Nation, after I found out he'd left, I went to follow a new path - the right one - the one I think he'd be proud of me for choosing." He stares at his ship-skin-encased feet. "But now he'll just think I ran away or . . . died or something."

"Maybe. But he'll know better when you see him again. When we all get out of here."

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