markofthebrave | [Action] .009

[Action] .009

[Due to Sokka's unexpected bout of sheer win, Katara has been given the gift of free time and she plans on making the most of it... after she was shooed back to bed due to threats from Sokka that made no sense at all.

First, she wants to check in on Sanji at the Strawhat's House. Then she wants to stop by the school and see if she can register to go once things are back to 'normal.' And... she has an idea that is going to lead her to the weapons shop. Finally, she'll go grocery shopping because they're running low on easy-to-cook things. Maybe she'll even get a chance to stand by the bridge and practice with real waterbending! ...although saving her strength to keep healing Zuko is probably a better idea. She'll probably just stare at the water wistfully and talk to Sona.

If you're around any of these places today, feel free to say 'Hey!' or give her hand, since she's not exactly sure how to do what she wants to do at the smithy or the school.]

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[Indeed, happy faces all around. Sanji at least has forgotten the previous conversation. Now he follows her orders diligently, bringing over two glasses that are filled with some sugar.]

Okay, done!

[Katara will squeeze the lemons into the glasses, cast a mischevious glance at Sanji, and then shamelessly cheat. She goes into a form, causing the water to rumble around in the glasses like a mini typhoon. When that's done, she exhales, and all around the glass little ice crystals form as the lemonade is chilled to the perfect temperature. Bending makes awesome lemonades.]

There you go!

[Coolest.

Lemonade.

Ever. Sanji's almost too excited to drink it]

That was so coooooooool!

[Katara laughs.] I'm glad you thought so. I don't know if Master Pakku would approve, but... [Grin.] Maybe after he tried it.

[And she will hand the lemonade to Sanji.]

Is that your teacher? [takes it gratefully, giving it a sip...

Mmmmmm the grin on his face says he approves of this method of lemonade-making]

That's right! I'd learned a little waterbending on my own, but he's the one who really taught me.

[...hey, here's a story that Sanji might like.] Even if he didn't want to at first.

[...and you know what? This lemonade is good. She doesn't care what Pakku would have said.]

[his child senses pick up on story!time, and Sanji is never one to turn down a good story]

Really? Why not? [He can't fathom why anyone wouldn't want to teach Katara]

Because... [dramatic pause is go.] I'm a girl.

[And yes, her tone indicates that this is clearly the most ridiculous thing ever.]

[blinks.

Now, as far as Sanji's concerned, there's this rule where you must be nice to girls for some reason. Or at least not be as mean. Zeff's foot says so, as well as some subconscious ideas on what it means to be a gentleman.

But as far as fighting ability go? Yeah, that is quite ridiculous. He scowls]

That's stupid.

I know! And after we had come all that way, just so Aang and I could learn how to fight. We'd traveled all the way from my home in the South Pole, through the Earth Kingdom, dodging Fire Nation soldiers, just to get to where he lived. The North Pole - the other side of the world! All that, and he still wouldn't teach me... nothing would change his mind.

But he would teach Aang. Aang didn't want to learn without me, but I told him it was OK. So while he learned to fight... [She shoots Sanji a conspiratorial look tinged with wry humor.] I had to go in the healing tent with all the little girls.

[...and it was a good thing she had, too. But that wasn't the point.]

But if you went into the healing tent, how did he end up teaching you? [listening intently and sipping his lemonade in riveted attention]

(OOC: Bah, notifs suck. Sorry, Marie!)

Sokka and Aang didn't think it was fair either, so we decided that Aang would just teach me what he learned from Master Pakku at night - this way he'd have someone to practice with and I'd get to learn how to fight. But our very first night of practice, Pakku caught us. He said we'd insulted him and that now he refused to even teach Aang anymore!

Now it was really important that Aang learned to waterbend. He's the Avatar, the only one who could master all four elements and our world was at war. We all needed him to learn waterbending so he could save the world! So we went in front of the chief of the Northern Watertribe, and even he refused to make Pakku continue to teach Aang... unless I apologized for 'insulting him.'

Edited 2010-03-20 15:53 (UTC)

[mumbles to himself:] You didn't need to apologize. [Guess whose side Sanji's on in this fight?]

I didn't think so either. And I refused. I challenged him to fight me instead.

[This face forever, Katara]

Really? Did you beat him?

[Katara laughs. You win points for your confidence in her, chibi!Sanji.] No. And I knew that going in - he was a waterbending master, Sanji - and I'd never even been trained.

[She shakes her head.] But that didn't matter. I needed him to take me seriously -- to prove that I was good enough for him to train, that I deserved to learn how to fight.

...and I did prove that. He thought he could knock me down. [Small smile.] He couldn't.

[He supposes she's right... still would've been awesome if she had won, though]

So after he decided to train you? Once you'd proved yourself?

No. After all that - he still wouldn't train me. [Her hand goes up to her necklace.] But he'd knocked my necklace off - and when he picked it up... he recognized it.

He'd made it for my Gran-Gran. He'd wanted to marry her... but she ran away. And something about that... changed his mind.

[She shrugs.] But at the end, he agreed to train me. And when he was done? [She grins and lowers her voice a little.] I could beat everyone else he'd taught.

Edited 2010-03-21 02:32 (UTC)

[Sanji's face scrunches in confusion at the odd plot twist - a necklace of all things? - but he's not gonna question it.

The last part in particular earns a huge smirk]

Could you even beat Aang?

In waterbending? ...maybe. He's very good too. We've never fought to find a winner, and I've been training him the whole time we traveled.

But Aang is the Avatar. He's going to be able to bend all four elements. It's a lot to master.

Does it take a long time. [takes a sip, and then:]

Ginko said it's gonna take a while before I can learn stuff from the spirits, like Tsinku. Maybe it's the same thing.

Hmm. I don't know, Sanji. I've been speaking with Sona, but it doesn't seem to be the same as bending. With bending you have to learn forms. You have to get the movements just right, or else it won't work. With the spirits, it seems like they just need to agree to help, and then they teach you to work with them.

Sona's the water spirit, right?

[he's considering the rest of her words.]

What types of things are you learning with her, then?

A lot of the things that Sona can show you how to do are like waterbending, so it's strange to try to see them without the forms. What I want to do is learn how to use water with Sona's help and combine it with my bending. Maybe that way I'll get back some of the power I've lost here.

Why did you lose your powers? [he doesn't mean to be playing twenty questions with her - all this information has been lost to him]