There was a strange sense lingering in the atmosphere and Shi-Hua could feel it all around her. It gently poked at her, calling for her attention. She noticed its presence right away, leading her to question its intentions, and wonder what it was.
Just this small feeling in the pit of her stomach was big enough to aggravate her and she didn’t like it at all. It rubbed her in all the wrong places, caused her to want to pull her hair out when a sudden burst of it ran through her, and even made her feel uncomfortable while she was alone.
She tried to ignore it and pretend as though the feeling was a false alarm. But a false alarm would not continue to ring if it was meant to disturb, she pointed out, mentally scratching that off as a reason. She tried to convince herself that whatever was coming would be a minor thing, but that wasn’t enough to make it go away.
The feeling stuck with her for a few days and after the denial, she took that time to really think, but it wasn’t going easy on her.
Her mind began shutting out the outside world as she tried to find a way to get rid of the sense. She ignored the other citizens even more than before and didn’t give any of them a wave because she was so deep in thought. She knew it was one of those things that would continue to grow and push her buttons until she found the reason…the answer.
And near the end of the week, one early morning in the store, she figured it out.
Shi-Hua was sitting in her usual spot in the store, listening to the radio when realized the strange sense came to her the day after she met Korra at the Pro-bending arena. Once she thought of her, the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together. While on her walks, she noticed she saw the girl at least once every day. And every time she would try to make conversation, the feeling went a little wild. At first she thought it was just irritation flowing through her but then she remembered the time she met Mako and Bolin.
After rethinking her analysis over, making sure it was correct, she decided to act on it. I guess I can let her in… she thought as she placed her feet on the ground. She seems trustworthy enough. After all she is the Avatar.
She got up from her seat, did her usual routine before heading out onto the street to go for her walk. But today, she didn’t go in the direction she always went. Instead she headed the opposite way, towards Yue Bay.
*On Air Temple Island*
“Wow Korra, you’ve gotten so much better!” a little girl wearing a traditional air nomad outfit with two buns in her short, brown hair cheered over-excitedly.
“Thanks, Ikki,” the young Avatar gladly accepted the praise after her hard work. She stood hunched over, trying to catch her breath from repeatedly spinning in and out of the twirling gates.
“It’s becoming quite exceptional,” Ikki’s older sister, Jinora, added.
“I agree.” Councilman Tenzin stood next to his daughters wearing the same outfit but with a red cape draped over. “You have greatly improved since the first time you tried.”
Korra stood up straight and placed her hands on her hips. “I can feel the growth and it’s starting to feel more natural,” she said.
“I’m glad to hear that…” he responded with a nod. “I have to head off to work now, but you can continue your practice with the girls.”
“Alright.” Korra gave him a wave. “See you later, Tenzin.”
“Bye, daddy! Have fun!” Ikki, who had enough energy to power most of the city, began to jump up and down.
Trying to ignore her little sister’s hyperactive behavior, Jinora muttered, “Bye dad.”
“Good bye girls.” Tenzin walked off and around the spinning gates, but when he got to the steps, he stopped and stared down them curiously. “Hello, there. Can I help you?” he questioned someone that the girls couldn’t see yet.
“Is Korra here?” The three heard a female voice mutter from the bottom.
“Yes, she’s right up here.” He gestured towards her and went on his way.
Korra, Jinora, and Ikki stood staring at just the sky for a few moments; only hearing the sound of footsteps gradually getting closer, until a dark brown haired, orange eyed girl captured their gaze.
Korra looked at the girl in surprise. “Shi-Hua?”
“Hey, Korra,” she greeted, trying to sound as friendly and calm as she could. There’s no backing out, she told herself. You’ve done this before, everything will be fine.
“Did you…did you just greet me?” she stuttered.
Shi nodded once and continued to walk forward until she was standing right in front of the Avatar revealing her height was great enough to make the girl look up to her. “Can I… talk to you?” she asked in almost a whisper, refusing to make eye contact.
Korra raised an eyebrow still staring at the girl in disbelief. “I must be going crazy.”
“No, I think that’d be me,” she retorted through gritted teeth.
“So you actually have a voice?”
Her eyes locked with hers for the first time. “Just because I’m unsocial, doesn’t mean I don’t have a voice.” She grunted, offended by her comment. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Can we talk or not?”
Korra raised her arms in surrender. “Okay, fine,” she agreed. “Ikki, Jinora, would you mind leaving us alone for a bit?” She turned and glanced at the sisters behind her.
Suddenly, an episode of questions erupted from the younger one’s mouth. “What are you going to talk about? Are you two going to tell secrets? Is it something serious? Oh, I wanna know! Oooo, she’s pretty, right Jinora? Who is this girl? Where is she from? Why is her hair in her face? How’d you meet her Korra?”
“Ikki!” Korra snapped, shooting her an annoyed expression.
Jinora grabbed her sister by the hand. “Come on, let’s go.” The two walked off in the same direction as their father.
Shi didn’t take her eyes off of Korra, nor did she react to the strange little girl. She simply took the time to go over what she had planned to say.
“I suppose something absolutely horrible must have happened since you’ve come all this way to speak with me.” Korra’s attention returned to the quiet girl. “Wait, how’d you find me?” she asked, suspiciously.
“Mako,” the girl easily answered. “Speaking of which, I heard you two saved Bolin from getting his bending taken the other night. Thanks for doing that.”
“Talking to and thanking me in the same hour?” It was obvious that her curiosity grew but instead of releasing it by drilling her with questions, she said, “He’s my friend, of course I’d save him.”
“Right…” She placed a hand on her hip and remained silent for a moment. “Look, I’ve talked to Mako and Bolin. I know that you’re upset with me and that you think I don’t like you, and I get why. I’ve ignored you every time you’ve said a word or more to me and acted as though I don’t want to be around you. And I came here to tell you that I’m sorry.” Korra was about to respond but she raised her other hand to stop her. “Before you ask anything, let me tell you that I didn’t mean for it to come off that way. You’re the freaking Avatar, who wouldn’t like you or want to be around you?”
“I could name a few people,” she muttered to herself, thinking about Chief Beifong, Amon and the Equalists, “but how do you-“
She quickly interrupted her, again knowing the answer. “The morning of the day I met you, you were on the radio informing the citizens of Republic City that you, the Avatar, had arrived. At the arena, Bolin introduced you as Korra, the girl on the radio said her name was Korra…”
“Well…okay…it is pretty obvious…”
“It’s also pretty obvious that you wanted my attention.”
“I just don’t like being ignored,” she explained.
“Because you’re used to getting a response and I understand that now. It’s just…usually, people settle for my little wave, but you actually wanted me to answer or talk back and you were going to constantly bug me until I did.”
“If you knew that, why’d you still ignore me?”
“To test you.” She shrugged. “I do it to practically everybody in this city.”
“Why?” Korra pushed for an answer.
She tapped a finger to her lips and tried to find the right words. “It helps me determine who I should be friends with,” she stated.
“How does ignoring people help you make friends?” She was absolutely confused.
Shi-Hua took a deep breath before responding, knowing her explanation would be a long one. “Listen, I am a strange and different person with a lot of layers like an onion.” Her simile made her face scrunch. “I sound like my parents right now using produce to explain something…” She shook her head before moving on. “Anyway, I am a lot to put up with, and I don’t want friends who are going to show up and run out on me when I get a little crazy. I mean, why bother working your way into someone’s life, when you’re just going to leave when things get a little tough? That’s why when I walk around, I ignore and treat everyone the same until I find someone who shows me that they want to see passed my outermost later: the unsocial part. And if they want to see more and they like it, I know that I can trust them and let them in.”
Silence quickly filled the space between them and Shi-Hua knew the girl she stood before was slowly absorbing all the words that were spoken. She waited patiently and nervously, hoping the next thing Korra would say wouldn't be hurtful.
“Let me get this straight.” Korra broke the silence. “You basically shut yourself away so that you don’t make friends with the wrong people.” Shi-Hua nodded. “Well then you could’ve just said that!” she jokingly scolded the girl. “Save me from a lecture, sheesh.”
She let out a short laugh, hiding the relief she now felt.“Either way, I think you were going to get one or else you wouldn’t completely understand.” She sighed. “I know it’s stupid to say that that’s the only way I’ll make my friends. People always want as many as possible so they go out and find as many as they can, but sometimes friends become enemies and dealing with that sucks. ”
“Has that happened to you before?”
“No but it’s happened to my parents,” she admitted. “After seeing it, I realized that I didn’t want to go through any of that. Thus, I started doing what I do today. And I’m kind of proud of it because I made three great friends.” She smiled.
“There’s only three?” Korra wondered.
She hummed a ‘yes’. “Mako, Bolin, and you…if you want to be.”
“I’d like that." The Avatar smiled. "Oh, what about Toza?”
“Eh, he doesn’t completely count. It’s not like we’re close.”
“What about your parents?”
Shi-Hua raised her visible eyebrow. “Are we naming my friends or people I actually talk to? They’re both small numbers, trust me.”
“You aren’t friends with your own parents?” Korra looked at her oddly.
“They’re actually my adoptive parents,” she quickly mentioned, “and I am but not in the same way. I don’t hang out with them like I would with Mako or Bolin, and I don’t talk to them about certain stuff.”
“I get it.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And by it, I mean everything.”
“Really?” Korra confirmed with a swift nod. “That’s great. I thought I’d have to keep talking. I have done this before but you’re the first one who’s wanted a deeper explanation. With the brothers they accepted me after I apologized and told them I’m not used to making friends; with Toza all it took was me helping him cleanup the practice room, but honestly I don’t think I meant to become comfortable enough to talk to him.”
“Hey, I don’t believe an unsocial person becoming quickly acquainted with at least one person they meet is unheard of.
Shi-Hua chuckled. “Yeah,” she agreed. “So…are we good then?”
“I don’t see why not. At least I understand now. But I will admit that it is a bit strange.”
“If we’re going to be friends, you’re going to have to deal with it,” she stated with a snotty attitude.
“Sassy…” Korra hissed.
“It’s one of my many hidden layers.”
The two girls shared a laugh together before they decided their passed conversation was over.
“I should get back to practice, but you’re welcome to stay and watch.”
“Um…sure, I guess.” Shi-Hua eyed the motionless gate. “What are you doing exactly?”
“I’m getting used to the feel of the direction changes the air goes through while learning to be light on my feet.”
“Interesting.”
“You wanna try?”
She quickly backed away. “No thanks, I’m not the one who has to learn how to airbend.” She noticed the two sisters had now returned and were patiently waiting on the other side. “Are those little girls going to try to talk to me?”
“Possibly. Why? What if they do?”
“I’ll probably treat them like everyone else,” she admitted.
“Wow, Shi-Hua…” Korra’s face seemed to drop to the floor. “You do it to children too?” The girl regretfully nodded. “You spoke to their father, how can you not speak to them?”
“I only spoke to Councilman Tenzin because I needed to know where you were, and I figured since he’s your master, he’d know.”
“How do you know he’s my master?”
“Really, Korra?" She raised her visible eyebrow. "It’s not that hard to figure these things out. He’s, like, the only master of airbending in the world, unless the fire nation missed more than just Avatar Aang.”
“You really think things through,” she stated before coming to a realization. “Let me guess. That’s another one of your layers.”
“Yup.” She popped the ending letter.
“It may take me a while to get used to you, Shi-Hua.” She left her and headed closer to the gates.
“Korra,” she called. The avatar turned her head to meet her gaze. “You can call me Shi.”
That made both girls smile at each other, but only one of them was internally happy.
Even though Shi was showing she was cheerful on the outside, on the inside she felt very uneasy. The feeling she had spent the past week trying to get rid of was still there.
If letting her in was supposed to be the solution, she thought, why do things so much worse?
Deep in her own worrisome thoughts, she sat down on the ground and watched Korra wind her way through the spiraling gates as if nothing was wrong.
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Chapter notes: A/N: Brace yourselves, this is a long one.
Shout outs to:
*Sasaui Uchiha, the first to review on this story.
*silverwolf1213, who has reviewed on everything I have put up and has been very encouraging.
*DropDeadThenDance, who has drawn an AMAZING picture of Shi-Hua.
Thank you reviewers for helping me fix up this story before it was too late. :P So Shizuka is now Shi-Hua which means “truth” in Chinese, and I changed her age to 17 (just one year more). Also, quick heads up, this story will have some romance just like The Legend of Korra and some foul language in the future. Hey, it’s not like this is Nickelodeon :P. Anyways, hope you guys like the story so far and the photos. Read on!
Chapter end notes: A/N: Wooh! No more school and I am no longer a sophomore :) Well I’ve been done for about a week but the nice, warm weather distracted me. :P Oh and if someone could tell me how to center my summary page, it would be much appreciated. Let me know what you think! Until next time!