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...AU - Avatar June companion piece...
Title: Now Is Not Forever
Prompt: Five Times (June Fell in Love #1)
Word Count: 1057
Rating: k
Original/Fandom: Avatar: the last airbender
Pairings (if any): June/Piandao
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/Underage): AU - Avatar June
Summary: This is almost not the typical tale of unrequited love. She's just not sure how.
June was never a damsel in distress, never helpless. She does not need to be rescued (If anything, she will be the one doing the distressing and rescuing). She was too strong, too tough, too smart to need someone else (Nyla did not count). She was the flippin’ Avatar.
So she tried to rationalize Piandao to herself. While he had the misconception that she was lost without him (Despite what he says, she can read a map just fine) and he was her protector (Ha! Who saved whose life when they first met?), he could not be farther from the truth. It was a joke between them, that she kept him around because of his pretty face (It certainly wasn’t because of his ‘cooking’). Although ‘pretty’ might not be the best word. Ruggedly handsome fit better.
She loved his look, his style, how he carried himself with his ever present cool, even when the world is on fire.
He was impressive all around. For him, it was important that she take her duty as the Avatar seriously. And she did, sometimes. He pushed her to do better, to actually want to master the elements. He believed she would, and it was not as if she doubted herself. The thing was, she never wanted to be the Avatar, never wanted to save anybody, let alone the world.
She was perfectly happy – or at least, content – to simply be June, the baddest bounty hunter on the planet. But no, he had to go and convict her about the tyrannical Fire Nation and crazy, old Firelord Azulon going senile and their whole plan to set the world on fire with a comet. He was such a nagging piss and moan sometimes.
Even that, she liked.
The problem – one of them – was his age. Or her age maybe, being half his. It didn’t bother her really, but Piandao was such a prude about things like that.
He did not feel the same way, not even remotely. She was like the little sister he never had, he’d said. He had actually said it. She was doomed to the realm of Sisterhood. That was even worse than the Friend Zone. It was not going to happen, not meant to happen, not written in the stars…she could go one, but the point was…
Destiny was a douchebag.
Was it her destiny to be alone? After the Firelord was defeated and the balance was restored and everyone had a home, what would she do?
Would he leave?
June looked at him, walking alongside her now through a sad-looking town. He would not always be there, would he? He had a life of his own to live. She could not expect him to be there forever.
It wasn’t like he was the first man she had a crush on. It felt like more though. She was seventeen; everything felt like more. Every second glance from a handsome stranger was the beginning of a love affair. Every pimple was the end of the world (Actually saving the world was a side event to the rest of her life).
He was not the kind of man a normal girl would fall in love with. June had never been a normal girl, not when she was dogging her father’s steps as he tracked every kind of criminal all over the continent. Not even before this whole Avatar business (Although she was always the Avatar; she just refused to acknowledge the blatant obviousness). Piandao was so serious and focused (Maybe because of age and experience; whatever it was, she liked it). But he smiled with his eyes, laughed at her humor (It was truly under-appreciated), knew her moods.
Spirits. How disgusting is that? He smiled with his eyes? Ugh, she was a pathetic sap.
June gasped and began to drift with the tide of people toward the shops lining the street. There in the window, someone had placed the most fabulous, knee-high boots June had ever seen. For a moment, her mind was occupied with how good those would look on her.
“You don’t need boots.”
“I want boots. I have earned those boots.”
“Have you mastered firebending yet?”
“…like, ninety percent. But it’s not my fault! Jeong Jeong’s the one who had to go and get himself captured.”
“Then you haven’t earned it,” he said, completely disregarding her totally valid point.
“I could buy them myself.”
“With what money?”
“Are you tellin’ you spent my money? What kind of friend are you, jerk?”
“You wanted to spend your money on that hotel room, remember?”
“You stayed there too!”
“On the floor, and it was your idea in the first place, and your money.”
He smiled. Her stomach flipped.
“But Piandao. I love…those boots.”
Oh, yeah. Nice save.
What was wrong with her?
“The answer is still no.”
“Aawww,” she groaned as he took her by the elbow and guided her away.
Why did she think she was in love with this guy again?
She could have shaken him off, but damn it, she was weak. She looped her arm through his and let him lead her away, enjoying his warmth and strength (Not that she needed either because she was not a damsel, remember?).
It would be better if she just took a clean break from him, maybe abandoned him somewhere safe like…somewhere. Bah Sing Se hadn’t been breached by the Fire Nation, but Piandao was Fire Nation. If they figured that out, he was as good as dead. Omashu was also an option. King Bumi knew them, and he was cool if a total nut-job.
It was an option, something to consider. Just in case.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ll get over it.”
“Wonderful. We don’t want you distracted once we find a Waterbending master for you. After that, I’ll buy you the boots myself. Custom ones.”
Never mind. She was keeping him.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
June bit her lip then said,
“…you know I really do love you, right?”
He looked down at her and winked, smirking. Her heart skipped a beat.
“How could you not? Now let’s hurry to the docks. The captain is not a man to be kept waiting.”
“Even for the bridge between worlds?”
“Especially for bridges. They’re not known for having exceptionally big pockets.”
“Yes, I like to think so.”
