Sweet Air [Mature]

Kano smiled. He held her hand in his briefly and then turned away. He hated having to say what he was about to say. He could sense he utter dislike, hate even of the Fire Nation. He understood it in full. However, there was a wisdom his grandfather had taught him since before he could speak. It was a wisdom he was devoted to living --

Forgive your enemies, Kano. his grandfather, Hakano had said. Forgive them not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.

He didn't know how far Xi's feelings in the matter extended. And he hated to test their boundaries. However, there was little choice in it for him.

"I... can't hate the Fire Nation." he said slowly, looking back around at her. Though he turned his head in her general direction, he couldn't meet her eye. "You see, I've seen what they are capable of beyond war. That fact alone tells me they do not live to conquer. I've seen them weave beautiful tapestries and compose magnificent music. When I said I didn't want that destruction to happen to anyone, that included the Fire Nation. For all the evil deeds that they may be guilty of, it doesn't mean they deserve to forever be in our enmity..."

"One day, this will all pass and the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation will be at peace again." Kano said, casting her a warm and friendly smile. "Until then, we just have to hope and work for the best."

Kano turned and walked over to the nearest fountain. He ran a few fingers under the stream of water flowing from it. The water was cool and clear. It was perfect. He figured it came up from a spring somewhere beyond the rock face, much like the aquifer he had pulled water from earlier. He bent a few marble-sized beads of water from the fountain and began to absentmindedly play with them using one hand to juggle the orbs between his fingers. It was something of an old habit of his, playing with water whenever there was a particularly hopeless situation on his mind. He sat down on the fountain's rim.

"I'd like that." Kano said, smiling. He'd enjoyed this more than he could have anticipated. The tour, the view... even the discussion. All had been quite enjoyable. He didn't mind the thought of repeating it one bit. In fact... he rather looked forward to it.

"OOOOHHHH, YEAH!" Kano roared, beaming as the wave he'd conjured threw him about ten feet into the air and caught him again. Now this was surfing. It reminded him of times spent on Kyoshi Island with his family. There was no point in surfing if you couldn't take the furs off and get some sun. Up north, wearing just a bathing suit was something of a death wish. Even with his whole ensemble, the north was harsh.

He rode the swell for another couple dozen yards before letting it fade back into the cove's crystal clear blue waters. He glided back to shore on his icy surfboard and then bent it back into liquid before heading back to where Xi was sunbathing. He took care to bend the water out of his fundoshi. When these things were wet, they tended to... cling. Bone dry, at least where his swimsuit was concerned, he settled down on the towel spread out over the ground next to Xi's and laid back.

"This is what I'm talking about." he said, breathing deeply. In another life, he'd have gladly done this all day long, every day for the rest of his life. Hang out on a great beach with friends and waterbend from dawn til dusk.

"The water belongs to everybody." Kano said, smiling contentedly, his eyes closed as he lay, cross-legged on his towel. "As does the sky. You shared the sky with me. Only fair I share the water with you."

He stole a peek at her. She couldn't have looked more different from the girl he'd met just a few short days ago on the Platypus-bear Pagoda. Her hair flowed in a silky sheet, let loose for comfort. She'd left her robes and her warpaint back at the temple. Now she was sporting a two-piece that really did her justice. While Kano usually wasn't shallow enough to focus on someone's physique... but she had a good one. He may have been one to carefully measure most of his actions, but he wasn't dead. The overall effect of her was a little... intoxicating. It was a side of her he liked.

"So," he said, shutting his eyes again and trying to put all that aside. He wasn't about to give into some base instinct like an animal just because a woman was showing a little more skin than usual. "Wanna give it a try?"

"All depends." Kano shrugged slightly, smiling a mischievous sort of smile as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "How's your balance?"

Balancing for two. That was a trick he'd learned awhile ago. His sister loved to surf, but she was no waterbender. He usually ended up taking her with him whenever he went unless his father was feeling particularly adventurous that day. He was confident that he could keep it together. While Xi was most definitely larger than his five year old sister, it really didn't matter. Mammoth waves didn't care how heavy you were. Their favorite pass-times included obliterating seaside villages and tossing ten-ton boulders like they were jewellery boxes.

Giving her strict instructions to hold on tight, Kano summoned a new surfboard and stepped on with Xi. Within moments, they were floating out in the middle of the water, Kano moving the icy board with his bending. Before long, they were riding a twenty foot swell. The wind rushing through their hair, they rode the wave of bent water all the way around the cove. It was an exhilarating ride. But as it wound down, Kano decided to introduce her to something few waterbenders ever bothered to see and even fewer non-waterbenders managed to lay eyes on.

"Hold on!" he said, redirecting the wave toward a particularly dark spot in the water, a tell-tale sign of a deep underwater gorge. As they drifted overhead the spot, he let the wave fall out from under them. As it did so, they fell rapidly with it. Once they fell within a few feet of the water's surface, he straightened out into a dive and with a sweep of his hands opened a great gap in the water.

Down and down they fell until Kano summoned a stream of water to grasp them and save them from their fall. The stream set them gently on the ocean floor and Kano brought a great bubble of water around them, freezing it solid to keep the water back. He took special care with the icy shield against the water's weight to make it as crystal clear as glass. Bending all the water which remained in the sand beneath their feet, he added it to the wall and took a seat on a smooth sort of rock.

"So?" he said, smiling, gesturing around at the vibrant schools of fich darting past, the majestic sharks, even a pair of Killer Whale-hounds. "What do you think?"

Kano smiled at her.

"In the north, the ocean is too deep to do this." he said, looking around at the life teeming in these depths. The light of the noon-day's sun fell in shafts through the water, showering the depths with a beautiful blue light that seemed to shimmer. It was amazingly bright, considering how much ocean it had to get through first. "And on top of that, the beasts of the ocean depths in the north put even creatures like the unagi to shame. This... this is the most primordial place in the world, the ocean."

He spotted a tiny flash in the water and hopped up, watching the little shadow of a figure swim through the water toward their dome of ice. He slowly approached the ice wall, moving his hands in a gentle fluid motion. He knew this fish well. It would follow the water's flow. He drew it in through the icy barrier, bending a small opening in the ice to let the fish through and then sealed it again. He bent the water containing the fish into a sphere and made it float before him as he went back over to Xi with it.

It was a beautiful little creature, to say the least. It darted around inside the water orb effortlessly, completely unconcerned with it's situation. It's scales were silver, lined on the edges with vibrant blue shades. A pattern of blue marks was scattered across it's body in elegant, flowing patterns. Every time it took one of it's razor sharp turns, it's entire body flashed with the most incredible rainbow of colors.

"Take a look at this." he said, looking down at the fish. "It's called a Tribe Fish. The Water Tribes consider them to be sacred. They are supposed to be a sign of good luck. Well... unless you accidentally eat one. Then you're cursed forever. But you'll be dead, so it doesn't really matter. These things are poisonous enough to kill a dozen polar-bear dogs."

Kano watched the little fish swim around inside the orb of water. It reminded him of home. However, it was time that he let the little creature get back to it's home. He conducted roughly the same bending he had to bring the fish in to release it again, though in reverse. Soon it had darted away and out of sight, glinting in the distance once or twice.

The two of them enjoyed their icy aquarium for some time longer before deciding it was time to head back. Kano bent the water around them and they literally walked across the ocean floor all the way to the beach. It was a pretty fun journey, all things considered. Now, on their way back to the temple, they were sharing stories of fights they'd had. Kano's turn had come up and he had decided upon the fight with Zulera. It was quite a tale.

"So then I pretty much dove through the entire building and out the front stairs." he said, chuckling as he walked along beside Xi. He had his towel wrapped around his waist. It fell almost all the way to his ankles. Every step he took had the ends of the damp fabric tapping his legs. He kind of felt like he was in a dress, but he didn't really care. His mind was on other things.

Kano laughed. He got a sudden mental image of Old Man Chu, the resident earthbender and handyman at the Aowaka School, jumping through a stone wall and landing on his face. He was a kind old man, but there was no denying the hilarity of that image. Knowing Chu as he did, he was sure even the old man himself would have a laugh at the thought.

"Reminds me of this time this kid my father was teaching tried to perform the water whip." he said, rubbing the back of his head absentmindedly with a smile. "To this day, I have no idea how he did it, but he ended up frozen to the roof."

"Well, well!" said a voice suddenly, making both of them look around. There was someone walking along the road toward them with a broad grin. "Look at you two!"

"Gen?" Kano said, stopping dead. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was on my way to the beach for a relaxing walk along the shore." Gen said, masking his smile. "I see I wasn't the only one who had the idea."

"I-it was a nice day!" Kano said. His voice sounded much more defensive than he had intended it to be.

"There's nothing wrong with it." Gen said, folding his arms. "I'm glad the two of you are getting to enjoy one another's company more. Hm. Now that I get a good look at the two of you together..." he looked between them, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "You make quite the little couple, don't you?"

Kano's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his cheeks flushed so red that he his natural tan color was just about drowned out entirely.

Gen found the whole situation highly amusing. It seemed he hadn't been too far off the mark when he convinced Kano, or rather tricked him into meeting Xilingshi. They did make a fine couple. However, he felt now that he needed to save Kano from what was surely going to be a devastatingly foolish and uncertain answer. Young men did not respond well to such questions on short notice...

"Oh, come now, Xi," Gen said, smiling kindly. "No need to put him on the spot. It was a simple observation. I'm sure you're famous friends."

He walked past them serenely, his arms held behind his back. It was time this old man let the young ones get back to their affairs. He kept a sharp ear on their conversation for as long as he was in shot of them. But he dared say that they weren't simple friends... or at least wouldn't be much longer.

Kano's eyes followed Gen as he moved past. He was as stiff as a board. He didn't even dare turn his head. What would he say if he met Xi's eye when he did? The truth was he didn't have a clue at that moment how to quantify how he felt for her. He knew he liked her. He knew she was pretty when she wasn't hiding behind face paint and a stony face... Well... she was pretty then too, if he was honest with himself.

His mind worked a mile a minute, but it didn't seem to be accomplishing anything. He was utterly vexed here and he didn't like feeling this out of it. He was frustrated with himself for not knowing what to do. Surely almost twenty years of life prepared you for situations like these more than this?!

Once Gen was out of earshot, he chanced a glance over at Xi. She'd made her unnecessary apologies and drifted off into mumblings by the time he did this, but he still didn't have a clue what to say back. What his mouth settled on, his mind cursed it for.

"T-thank you."

In point of fact, even half his mouth struggled to keep that from escaping...

"Sounds great." Kano said, smiling weakly. He couldn't help but turn his head away from her as he said it.

Kano stared blankly into his own eyes in the mirror as he absentmindedly wrapped a new fundoshi around his waist. It had taken them ten awkward minutes to get back to the temple, where they parted ways with the intention to meet each other in fifteen minutes at the Fountain of New Hopes, the fountain restored shortly after the Air Nomads had returned to the temple which had been all but destroyed, along with the pagoda it was part of, by Azula of the Fire Nation and the assassin known as "Combustion Man" almost one-hundred years ago.

He pulled on his pants, his socks, and his boots just as absentmindedly after he'd finished wrapping his fresh underwear. He'd decided that he preferred not to wear his jacket right now, so it lay untouched on his bed, it's beautiful patterns catching the light shining through the window. He'd instead pulled on his kimono undershirt and tied it with his grandmother's sash at the waist. It had been quite some time since he'd worn long sleeves that weren't lined with fur. When all was arranged comfortably, he headed out and down through the temple to the fountain.

All the while, he pondered what he might say once they were in each others company again. He felt her question deserved an answer. He needed to give her an answer. But what was he going to say? No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of any answer except...

He steeped out onto the terrace on which the Fountain of New Hopes stood and looked around. Xi was nowhere to be seen.

"She must not be here yet." he mumbled, settling himself down on the edge of the fountain.

Kano had decided to turn to an old friend for guidance -- meditation. When Xi arrived, he was deep in thought, his eyes closed. He had been carefully considering his feelings in the matter. He still didn't know if he had an answer. Yet he opened opened his brilliantly blue eyes regardless and considered her.

She'd returned to her warrior self in every conceivable way by the looks of it. From her paint down to her staff, she was Xilingshi, the Tekina-Kaze. It suited him just fine. Truth be told, she was beautiful either way. That much, at least, had come out of his meditation. Most distressingly, his emotions remained an elusive beast.

"It was no bother." he said finally, standing up and straightening his kimono. He'd forgotten how much it shifted around when he sat down. "It gave me time to... think about things."