Instead, this happened, further demonstrating to me that I'm not actually in control of this stuff at all. I guess it's logical, though. A Fire to be Lighted was such a runaway hit, how could I not keep it going - I mean, you've gotta give the people what they want, right? :)

--G.
(Also, stay tuned for my upcoming Minis based on one-phoneme alterations of other Cornelius Ryan titles, The Wrongest Day and The Last Cattle.)

Xinqiliu, Wuyue 15, 285 ASC
Saturday, May 15, SY 2404
Shu Jing, Fire Nation
Dìqiú

The Spring Social: The time of closest alignment between the two secondary schools of Shu Jing, when the junior and senior students of the town's state high school traditionally hosted their counterparts from private Piandao Academy to a formal dance and reception. For the students from Piandao, generally outnumbered about three to one by the regionally aggregated community of Shu Jing High, it was a chance to spend an evening outside the walls of their academy and expand their networks a bit, while the youngsters from the state school regarded it as an opportunity to find out just what lurked within those imposing walls outside of town.

The occasion was usually a success, thanks to the concerted efforts of both faculties and Shu Jing High School's Student Activities Committee. In the forty years or so it had been happening, there had never been a serious incident, and there didn't look like being this time either... but not everyone was having a good time.

Karana, for instance, found herself mildly-to-moderately miserable within an hour or so of showing up. She had suspected she wouldn't enjoy the occasion, simply because she wasn't much for formal school dances in general. Piandao Academy held two internal ones per year, and after the first one she'd stopped going. She didn't own the right kind of clothes or know how to wear them, and while she was accomplished at some forms of dancing, the odds that it would be appropriate to haul out a qilaut and commence a proper Southern Water Tribe drum dance with it at such a function were slim at best, even if she had one.

The problem only worsened as she and her schoolmates entered their teens and the problems of romance, theoretical and practical, began cropping up. While she was friends - in many cases, very close friends - with all her classmates in Form Four and a good many students in the neighboring forms, she was attracted to very few of them, and none so strongly as to make her think it was worth the risk of acting on it. This made the courtship aspects of such occasions, growing ever more significant as they all advanced into adolescence, superfluous at best and dangerously irrelevant at worst; another reason to avoid them altogether.

It had been put to her that it would reflect badly on Form Four if any of them were to decline this invitation, however, and certain of her friends promised that she would warm to the occasion once she got there. So here she was, dressed up like she was going to someone's wedding, standing off to one side, and wondering vaguely why it made her feel slightly ill to see her roommate Azana dancing with that one senior from Shu Jing High. Azana was from Shu Jing, born and raised there, and so most of these kids were at least acquaintances of hers from primary school. It stood to reason that she'd mix with them most readily of all, and Karana certainly didn't grudge her roommate a good time just because she wasn't having one; but all the same, she couldn't quite bring herself to watch.

She waited until she absolutely could not bear the tedium and that weird, unidentifiable feeling any more, then slipped away and went back up to the Academy, reasonably confident that she'd shown the flag long enough for honor's sake. There was no one in the Form Four common room when she got back there, naturally. She selected her favorite of Master Sokka's books from the bookshelf, installed herself in the corner armchair she liked by the fireplace, and tried to read.

After twenty minutes of limited success, she was slightly surprised by the arrival of someone else. Without a word, Prince Shinzen entered the common room, crossed to the fireside, and threw himself down in the chair across from her with a sigh, unfastening the high collar of his Fire Army dress uniform as he did so.

"You're back early," said Karana, putting the book aside. "And you sound like I feel," she added wryly.

Shinzen rolled his eyes. In the last couple of years he'd grown like a stand of bamboo, more vertically than horizontally, and was now a tall and rangy young man with the distinctively bushy eyebrows and slightly unruly dark hair of his family line, the latter kept firmly under control with an industrial-strength topknot tie. Slumped in that partly-sprung armchair, he seemed even more leggy than usual, his knees nearly even with his chin.

"I never liked formal occasions much to begin with, but now that Cousin Katara is here, there seems even less point," he said. "She's the center of attention, and she likes it that way. It takes all the pressure off me, except from a certain breed of industrious young ladies. And their mothers," he added with a rueful smile. "One point in favor of the Academy - with very few exceptions, our parents are nowhere in sight."

"Ha, wow," said Karana. "Imagine the headlines. 'Shu Jing's Most Eligible Bachelor Wishes the Girls Would Just Leave Him Alone'." She shook her head, smiling.

"Like all satire, it's rooted in uncomfortable truth," Shinzen admitted. "At any rate, Katara's not old enough for the Spring Social, and so I suddenly found myself back at center stage. I'm afraid it all got a bit too much." He raised an eyebrow at her. "What about you? I'm surprised to see you here. I know you're not a big fan of dances generally, but this is a special occasion, and you're usually in favor of those," he added.

"Oh, sure, special," said Karana sarcastically. "It's real special to stand in one corner of a school gym and watch your best friend dance with some dude whose name you don't know. Sign me up for hours and hours of that."

Shinzen looked surprised. "Karana," he said. "Are you jealous?"

"No," Karana replied at once. "Don't be a dope. I'm not some psycho chick, I don't think I own 'Zana or anything. Even if we are roommates. And best friends." Unconsciously, she touched the necklace at her throat. "And we've been engaged since we were 12," she mumbled.

Shinzen blinked at her. "... Come again?"

"Did I say that last part out loud?" asked Karana, sounding genuinely startled. Her face went crimson through her dark skin. "I, uh... it's a long story. Actually that's a lie, it's a really short story, but... " She gestured vaguely. "We should probably not get into that."

"As you wish," said Shinzen, sounding faintly offended. Karana sighed. Even after all these years, the prince was still a little touchy about some things, and being considered unworthy of a confidence was one of them. Like all members of his family, he could get ever-so-slightly obsessive about others' perceptions of his honor.

"All right, fine, but not here," she said, rising.

They went to the top of the Academy's belltower, from which the changes of the academic day were rung; no danger of that happening on a Friday night. From here, a person could see for quite some distance into the surrounding countryside. Even the lights of Azana's mother's house, where she had refused to live since her father's death four years before, could just be made out in the distance if one knew where to look.

Sitting on the tower's low perimeter wall with her feet hanging down, her chin resting on her folded arms atop the iron railing, Karana explained about the first time she had taken Azana to her home in the Southern Water Tribe, that first winter break after General Izuno died. How Azana, out window shopping in the capital city on her first morning there, had bought a piece of jewelry on a whim and presented it to Karana, to thank her for her friendship and kindness through that difficult stage of her life.

"Of course she didn't know it was a betrothal necklace," said Karana. "She still doesn't, as far as I know. And technically she didn't make it, so depending on which angakkuk you ask it might not even count anyway. She just thought it was pretty and it would suit me, so she bought it for me. I knew that, I've always known that."

She turned her head to regard Shinzen, who sat beside her, listening with silent attention. "And it doesn't diminish the gift in any way," she insisted. "I need you to understand that."

Shinzen nodded gravely. "I understand," he said. Then, producing a small metal flask from within his unfastened dress coat, he offered it to her.

Karana took it, looking curious, and unscrewed the cap. "What's this?" she wondered, then sniffed experimentally and drew back, coughing. "Whoa."

"Caldera City dragon brandy," Shinzen said.

Karana eyed him. "Isn't that illegal if you're under 18?"

"Hello, Prince Shinzen here," said Shinzen sardonically. Then, with a slight smile, he said "My father sent it to me for 'medicinal purposes'. You sound like you could use a little."

Karana almost jokingly accused him of trying to get her drunk so he could take advantage of her, but managed to prevent herself from saying it. He would definitely take offense at an accusation like that, even one obviously made in jest. She sniffed the liquor suspiciously again, wincing at its acrid bite. Then, with a what-the-hell shrug, she took a drink.

It wasn't really that bad as a liquid; it burned a bit going down, but didn't make her gag or cough, and the sensation of spreading warmth when it hit bottom was really very nice indeed - worth the sting of the fumes in her nose at the beginning. She took another for good measure, then handed it back.

"Thanks," she said. "That's not bad." She smiled as the second hit sent another wave of warmth rippling through her center. "Oo, yeah, I could get used to that."

"I told you it was medicinal," said Shinzen, taking a drink of it himself. "Mind you," he added dryly, "I don't know how well my royal prerogative would stand up if Headmaster Changdao caught us."

"Well, we'll have to be careful, then," said Karana. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. It doesn't diminish the gift in any way." She touched the necklace again, a sentimental smile flickering across her face, and went on, "This is my most treasured possession. You know I almost never take it off. And even though I know she doesn't know what it means... even though I'd never be so presumptuous as to hold her to it... even though I'm not sure I'm even really attracted to her that way... " She sighed, folding her arms on the rail and putting her head down on them again. "I guess I just enjoyed the idea that somehow I was hers and she was... mine." She chuckled darkly at herself. "I know, right? Talking about non-presumptuous."

Shinzen considered the matter seriously for a moment, then said, "Maybe you should tell her about it sometime."

Karana laughed hollowly. "Ha, sure, that'd work out fine. 'Oh, hey, 'Zana, by the way, you should probably know that I'm feeling weirdly possessive of you lately on account of you accidentally proposed marriage to me when we were 12, and it really hurt my feelings when you let that guy take you to the dance like that.'"

"Well," Shinzen allowed, "you might want to put it more diplomatically than that, but... " He took another swig of brandy; she held out her hand for it, had another slug herself, and handed it back.

"Ahh, I dunno, man," she said. "It's a silly, childish thing, but... I guess all this time I kinda cherished it, y'know? A little secret that I could hold next to my heart. Like it was fate or something. Like it meant that... 'Zana and me, we were life mates, and whatever happened, we'd always be together."

Shinzen slid a little closer on the wall and put his hand on her shoulder. "Karana," he said. "If you feel that strongly, then... 'that way' or not, you should tell her about it."

Karana turned to him, her face glum. "I'm scared, Shinzen," she admitted in a small, vulnerable voice. "I'm scared that it would all go wrong if i did that. That she'd think I was being weird. Or creepy. Or weird and creepy. That I was expecting something from her that she might not be willing... or even able... to give. Then we wouldn't be buddies any more. We'd be... this other thing, this not-quite-thing, and it'd never be right again." She shook her head, looking out at the night again. "I'd rather hide it than risk that."

She sighed. "At that age, I didn't understand what marriage even was, really. You know? What it meant. Just that I could see my parents were really happy in theirs. And... I wanted that for myself. For us - for her, because her parents never had it, and mine did, and I wanted her to see how amazing it was. It made me feel so good that I was able to make her happy when she was so miserable. I just... " She sighed again and closed her eyes, a tear leaking down one cheek. "I just want her to be happy."

"That... " Shinzen coughed, his voice catching in his throat, and tried again. "That might be the most beautiful thing I've ever heard," he said.

Surprised, she turned and looked at him again, and saw a tear making its way down his own face. "Shinzen," she said.

"I knew you were brave, and I've long suspected you had a noble heart," Shinzen went on. "I didn't realize it was so noble it could even trump your courage. I'm reasonably sure it would be the most beautiful thing Azana's ever heard, too. But if you dare not tell her... or if she's fool enough to reject you, which I very much doubt... then you could always do me the very great honor of agreeing to be my wife."

Karana stared at him for a second, then burst out laughing, her gloomy mood wiped away by the sheer hilarity of the suggestion. She laughed for almost a minute, the tears running down her face now born of mirth, until finally winding down with a long, slow sigh.

"Oh, man," she said. "Thanks, Shinzen. I needed that. Man, you really had me going for a second there." She reached and gave his shoulder a friendly shove, then blinked as he didn't react to it. Looking more closely in the dark, she saw that he'd gone all stony-faced, like he did when he thought someone might have impugned his honor. "... Oh," she said.

"Perhaps I should leave you with your thoughts," he said stiffly, extricating himself from between the railing and the wall. "Good night, Karana."

"Shinzen, wait," she said, scrambling up and darting to intercept him before he could reach the stairs. "I'm sorry, OK? I wasn't laughing at you. Or, well, I was, but it was because I thought you were joking and you wanted me to. I wouldn't have done it if I knew you were serious. Come on, you know me better than that."

Shinzen paused, relaxing a little, but his words were still deliberate and a little stilted as he replied, "Why would you assume I would joke about a thing like that?"

"Uh, because I didn't think you could possibly be serious?" Karana asked in reply. "I mean... " She hesitated, gesturing vaguely. "I mean how could you possibly be serious? Do you remember the first thing you ever said to me?"

"I was eleven!" Shinzen burst out, his stiffly offended façade falling away.

Karana giggled. "So you do remember," she said, giving his shoulder another push, and this time he responded to it, rocking back on his heel and smiling a little in spite of himself.

"I've changed my opinion since then," he said. "I've changed a lot of my opinions, and in large part I owe that to you. You're the one who first opened my eyes and showed me what a parochial ass I was. How much more of the world there was than just the Capital and Ember Island. I'm preparing for my uncle's diplomatic service now, you know, because of you... " He cracked a wry little smile. "... and the lesser of your thumbs."

She chuckled, a little more soberly, at the memory, then said, "It's a long way from losing a thumb war to proposing marriage."

"I know," said Shinzen. "But that's how far I've come." He took her hand. "That's how far you've brought me."

"I... " Karana shook her head. "No. Shinzen, I'm sorry, but there's... there's just no way. I respect you too much to sugar-coat it. I like you a lot - you're one of my best friends - and I'm glad you think I've made such a difference in your life, but there's no way I would ever marry you."

Shinzen considered that, then arched an eyebrow and asked wryly, "Would it be putting you on the spot to ask why?"

Karana sighed. "You really want me to do this?" she asked.

"On the whole, I think I'd rather know," the prince replied.

"OK, then. Basically, there are three reasons. A, I know I don't like you that way, sorry, but I don't. B, you couldn't pay me to sign up for the princess thing - no way, no how. And C," she added with a dark little grin, "your father would have us both killed, if your mother didn't get us first."

Shinzen snorted, amused in spite of himself. "There is that," he conceded. He sighed. "Ah, well. It was worth asking."

They went downstairs and made their way through the dimly lit, mazelike corridors of the school to the Form Four students' bedrooms, in the west wing. The building was dark and quiet; the students in the lower grades had all retired, and the others weren't back from the dance yet.

They reached room 44, the one Karana had shared with Azana for six years and would for one more yet, and paused at the door to take their leave of one another.

"Well... good night, Shinzen," said Karana. "Thanks for cheering me up... even if you didn't entirely mean to. I'm sorry I laughed at you."

"It's all right," Shinzen replied. "Forget it." Tilting his head thoughtfully, he asked, "Are we still good?"

Karana grinned. "We're still good," she said.

"You don't think I'm weird? Or creepy?"

"No."

Shinzen's teeth showed in a little grin of his own. "Well, there you are, then."

Karana gave him a puzzled frown, then blinked as she realized what he was getting at. "You son of a - " she sputtered. "Was that all just to get me thinking about - "

"No," Shinzen assured her. "I was quite serious. That was an... unexpected side benefit." He took her hand and, bowing in his most princely manner, kissed it. "Good night, Karana."

"Oh, c'mere," she said, and hauled him into a hug. "G'night, Shinzen. I'll see you in the morning. And... thanks again."

The luminous dial of the clock on Karana's bedside stand said it was two hours later when she woke again, at the fall of a dim rectangle of light across the head of her bed from the opened room door.

"'Zana?" she mumbled. "Is that you?"

"Sorry," said Azana, standing barefoot in the doorway with her shoes hanging by their ankle straps from one hand. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"'sOK," Karana said, sitting up and blinking. "I kind of hoped you would."

Azana put her shoes down by the door and shut it behind her, cutting off the low hallway light, then turned on her desk lamp at its lowest setting to give her enough light to undress by. "When did you leave the dance?" she wondered as she made her way out of her complicated formal dress. "I didn't see you go."

"You were pretty busy slow dancing with what's-his-face," said Karana, trying and failing not to sound bitter.

Azana paused, glancing at her, then finished taking the dress off and hung it in her wardrobe. That done, she padded across the room in her slip and sat down on the end of Karana's bed. Just enough moonlight filtered through the half-closed blinds on the window overlooking the bed for her to make out the basic outline of her roommate's face.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You sound upset. Did something happen after you left?" She sniffed thoughtfully at the air. "Is that brandy?"

"No. Yes. I mean it is brandy, but nothing happened after I left. Well, nothing major. I mean, Shinzen asked me to marry him, but I said no."

"Oh." Azana blinked at her in the gloom. "What?!"

Just like that, it all came pouring out of Karana, starting with her brown study in the common room and ending with the aftermath of Prince Shinzen's spur-of-the-moment marriage proposal, along with everything in between. At the end, Karana wept silently in the dark, not daring to even open her eyes and see Azana's reaction, certain that she had just wrecked the best and brightest friendship she was ever, ever going to have.

She jumped, uttering an involuntary sound, as a cool hand touched her neck, fingertips sliding across her throat to touch the carved gem on the front of her necklace.

"I found out what it really was two years ago," Azana said quietly. "For a while I wondered why you never told me of my mistake. Then I remembered something your mother said. Do you remember? She asked you where it came from, and you told her I had given it to you... "

Karana chuckled, the sound half a sob, since she still didn't know whether she should be crying. "And she said, 'Well, as long as you're happy, sweetie.' I remember." She sniffled. "That's why she's the best mom ever."

"Yes she is," Azana agreed. "Since that very day, even though I didn't understand that exchange for years, I've wished she could be my mother too."

"Well... she kind of... can be?" said Karana hesitantly.

"Once I realized that," Azana went on as if she hadn't said anything, "I thought about it for a while, and I finally came to the conclusion that if I had inadvertently asked you to marry me, and you not only hadn't disabused me of my mistake, but told your mother about it with such pride in your voice and such a smile on your face... who was I to go back on a thing like that? At best it would be wretchedly dishonorable of me."

Karana blinked, wiping at her tears. "Azana... what are you saying?"

"I'm saying... I don't know exactly what I'm saying," Azana admitted. "There are certain aspects of marriage that I don't think either of us was fully cognizant of at 12, and I'm not sure where I stand on those matters yet."

"Well, no, me neither," Karana conceded.

"But I do know that a big part of it is about love and trust, being able to count on each other, and making each other happy just by being together. All things that my parents never had, and yours enjoy every day." She smiled slightly - Karana could just make it out in the dark - and took both of her roommate's hands in hers. "As my half-brother Zurin would say, I'd be a damnable scrub to turn up my nose at that just because I'm not sure about the details." She looked Karana in the eyes, her smile becoming a little sly, and added, "I am not a damnable scrub."

Karana gazed at her for a moment, eyes going wide; then tears flooded them again for entirely different reasons. She lunged forward, throwing her arms around Azana, and both fell over on the bed.

After weeping happily on her shoulder for a few moments, Karana raised her head to look at Azana again and asked her, "What about what's-his-face?"

"Ikeza?" Azana replied, arching an eyebrow. "I hardly think he need enter into our calculations. He tried to kiss me without permission at the end of the dance, and I smacked him so hard his father probably felt it. I doubt he'll ever speak to me again." Noting the startled look on Karana's face, Azana worked her near arm under her and gave her a squeeze, remarking dryly, "It was only a dance, 'Rana. You're the one who was thinking about her marriage prospects tonight."

Karana sniffle-giggled and put her head down again. Presently their awkward position - half-sitting, half-lying with their legs still hanging off the front of Karana's narrow bed - grew too uncomfortable, and they rearranged themselves so that they were stretched fully out, side by side. There was just enough space, so there they lay, quiet and comfortable, until Azana demonstrated that she wasn't planning to go anywhere by tugging the covers over them both.

"I don't know exactly where we go from here," she said quietly.

"Neither do I," Karana agreed.

"I know this much, though," Azana continued. "Wherever it is... we'll go there together."

"Together," said Karana. "I like that. 'Zana?"

"Yes?"

A pause, the barest hesitation, and then, "I love you."

Azana smiled and kissed her once, very gently, very chastely.

"And I love you, Karana," she said. "Good night."

"A Bride Too Far" - A Future Imperfect/Dìqiú Mini-Story by Benjamin D. Hutchins
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