Avatar the Last Airbender: Lake of Still Fire

Chapter 9

Book 1: Prodigy
Chapter 9–Shaky Alliance

"Yea, mom. I'll be down in a second."

The sound of the door closing hit his ears, and he sighed wishing he could stay asleep. His mind had been running constantly, so much so that it was hard to sleep. He'd only been able to sleep two hours.

He sat up, stretched out his back that felt a bit tight, and rubbed his curls, getting rid of a faint itch. "Another day without TyLee."

The school had noticed TyLee's absence and issued a message to the police. It turned into a missing person's report with a cash prize for whomever could find her. He knew about it and yet wanted nothing to do with it, he only cared about her safety. He'd been questioned by the police if he knew of her whereabouts and his no hurt him to say but it was necessary. The police could have moles for that organization and it was entirely possible that they could throw him off his game if they messed with evidence or even sealed it off publicly. Lying to them was viable and he was glad not too many were around him when he was with TyLee.

His face tightened with rage as his nails dug into his palm. The anger he held for himself for thinking such a thing was unbridled.

The life of a noble was in fact quite stupid if someone were to ask Shisui. His parents thought themselves no longer interested in doing the things they'd been doing for year like cooking, cleaning, and even the smallest amounts of labor in favor of getting servants to do this exact things. Shisui found that to be wholly unnecessary considering that they'd done just fine without much money or anyone around to help them when they were on the farm. It only cemented just how much he didn't know them before this. Not that it would've changed anything.

Breakfast had been served and he'd opted to stay quiet as his parents talked of the people they'd met and the things they'd learn from their short time as nobles. The topic was super uninteresting, and he longed for their old conversations of blunders they'd use to make in the field during their first couple of years.

Both his parents probably noticed his silence, but his mother seemed to have been particularly worried.

"Shisui, is anything the matter? You've stopped eating."

Shisui looked at his rather full plate of food that he didn't have the energy to eat. His appetite had been gone for a small while, and while he knows he should be eating, finding the strength was too unappealing to try at this point and time.

"I'm fine, just not really hungry. I'll put it up for later."

"Never mind the food." His father said before taking a long sip of tea. "The servants came just cook something for you later."

Shisui frowned. Did nobility really change them that drastically? "That's fine father. There's no point in wasting perfectly good food."

Through the corner of his eyes, Shisui could see his father wanted to say something but held it in with only a single twitch of his mouth.

Shisui lets his gaze fall onto the time, wanting, for once, for the time to wind down quickly and he can head to school.

X

Shisui silently walked through the large double door gate of the school, his head low as he thought about what Mai will tell him. He only accepted her deal for TyLee but he's sure this will cut into his own time which he was still using for training and spying on Azula. He wanted to know how long this will take. He doesn't have much time these days.

The whispers of his classmates as they talk of TyLee makes his fist ball up. Luckily, it's inside his pocket where no one can see. He gets enough attention as is, adding onto that doesn't sound appealing.