#maybe the facility has magic dampening set up

[black-wolf-spirit-art]

Guess who watched SquidGame?

[craftymuffinspyflower]

Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy

AU: When a chemically enhanced teenage girl shows up, and a wave of conspiracy follows behind her, the Avengers (and Yelena) are forced to do the one thing that even a group of superheroes can't seem to hack: caring for a minor.

a/n: so incredibly un-canon! (is that a word?) set after black widow; there was no civil war

a/n #2: i honestly have no clue what i'm doing here. i've never written anything before, other than stuff for school, so i am completely unsure of whether this actually makes any sense or if it's just a bunch of babble, but somebody recommended it for me to try. so here i am. let me know what you thought?

warnings: some curse words. mentions of some violence and injuries.

- - - - - -

It was dark. That was pretty much all she was able to distinguish from the situation that she'd found herself in. Dark, and wet. And there was a faint smell of tacos. That, however, was probably due to a concussion. The big green guy had shown up out of nowhere; she hadn't managed to quite dodge away from the car door that he'd thrown right at her.

It was a simple job, they'd said. Minimal damage, they'd said. Bunch of old, filthy liars. If it was so simple then how did she manage to end up laying on the dampened field covered in blood, barely able to make out which cut it was all actually stemming from? The bullet hole in her abdomen was her best guess, maybe the large chunk of skin that was currently missing from her upper arm. It could go either way.

"Fuck." She rolled over, exposing the majority of her wounds to the world. Ouch. Films never made it look like it hurt this bad.

"Target acquired. Moving forward?"

The hell? She looked up, only to be greeted by the sight of the dude with the arrows blocking her vision.

"Copy," he said, looking down at her. He made a move to grab her arm, but she managed to dodge it. He was nothing like a car door being hurtled straight towards her and she would be damned if she'd let them get the drop on her again. Rolling over a little to the left, she was able to get her bearings and, rather impressively, ignore the screaming pain that was currently shooting through her skull telling her to just give in. She didn't, obviously. Instead, she forced herself to her feet and sloppily threw a punch at the side of his head.

He saw it coming. Unsurprising. She put the fact that he was able to counterattack so quickly down to her weakened state. She also put the fact that she didn't manage see the leg aiming for the back of her knees until it was too late also down to her weakened state. Landing with a solid thud, she grunted. Back on the ground. Fucking fabulous. Goddamn Avengers. They weren't supposed to be here.

"Are you going to come quietly," he said. "Or do I have to sedate you?"

She looked up at him. "Bite me," she spat, getting blood all over his lovely shiny boots. He looked very unamused.

"Have it your way then."

She tried to protest, both physically and verbally, eyes going wide as she witnessed him pull an almost very full syringe out from his pocket. Shit. Her body screamed at her as she tried to roll away again, blood seeping rather dramatically from the hole in her stomach. Arrow dude pulled her up by her bloody chunk-less and already very swollen arm, with almost too much ease, and she grunted at the contact.

"You're really going to regret this," she growled at him.

He looked down at her, still incredibly unamused. "I'm sure I will."

Jabbing the syringe into her neck, he put an arm around her waist to catch the remainder of her weight as she slipped from consciousness. She was tiny; it didn't require a lot of effort on his part.

Her last coherent thought, before her eyelids were forced to close, was how she should probably have tried to aim a solid kick to his testicles.

Now she was merely a floppy, dead weight in the older man's arms.

Fantastic. Goddamn Avengers.

- - - - - -

"It will be simple, I promise. You just need to get in undetected and I will handle the rest." She said, taking a sip of water.

The girl scoffed. "Yes, because your promises are worth so much. You are, truly, very reliable."

"Don't give me attitude, Maya," the older woman sneered at her. "You have your orders."

"Right, and who am I to question the potential threat to the safety of my life?"

She was so preoccupied with reading the latest book of strategies that her mother had thrown at her and told her to read until she could recite that she didn't notice the figure charging towards her until it was too late and she was being pushed against the hard back of an already uncomfortable sofa, her throat being squeezed.

The girl clawed at the woman's hands, trying to mutter words of apology, of regret, but she couldn't produce enough air to make any kind of noise. Her lungs started to burn. She clawed harder.

"What did I just say, hmm?" The woman asked, eyes aflame with anger as she glared down into the girl's now very cloudy orbs. "Don't give me attitude."

She squeezed tighter. And tighter.

"Are you going to behave if I let you go, or do we have to go downstairs?"

It was becoming more and more difficult for her to stay conscious, the black spots creeping into the side of the young girl's vision, but she nodded. Well, nodded as well as could be expected when she couldn't actually move her head.

The woman let go of the teenager's throat and stalked off to the other side of the room. Taking a sip of water from a glass that she had been nursing moments before, she glanced towards the trembling ball of a person that she had just left sputtering and wheezing on the sofa.

"I expect an update as soon as you have made it through the exterior of the building. Don't let me down, Maya."

The girl looked up at her through watered eyelids, fingers stroking faintly over her already purple neck. "Yes, Mother."

Her voice was hoarse, barely audible.

- - - - - -

"Do we know who she is?" Tony Stark asked as he wearily eyed the girl that was laying unconscious on the table.

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Stark. There is no file that I can find pertaining to her identity," the A.I replied.

The Avengers were gathered around different areas of the Medical Room. They were all still reeling, all still in various states of shock.

They had been sent by Fury to deal with a hostile threat that was currently trying to break into a highly top-secret facility. Judging by the amount of carnage that they'd found when they arrived at the scene, they were all expecting to be dealing with at least one large group of professionals. What they didn't expect to find was that at the centre of all of that destruction and mayhem, there was just a single person. A child. And she was good.

She had managed to hold off all eight of the most powerful beings on earth for, at least, a good twenty minutes. She was even able to get the jump on Steve Rogers.

Now she was lying on a table, the whole squad gathered and watching as the machine next to her beeped intermittently.

Dr. Cho walked in, a small piece of paper in her hands. She looked irritated. "This girl sustained quite a lot of injuries fighting all of you. You couldn't have gone easy on her? She took a bullet from one of you. She's just a kid."

"She didn't exactly give us the chance to," Natasha jumped in. "She started to attack us as soon as we landed; even managed to stab Steve in the shoulder. She's fast and incredibly efficient."

Wanda looked up from her seat on the floor, eyes casting over to the girl in question. "She's trained."

All eyes looked, again, to the girl on the table. The room fell silent.

She was tiny. No more than 5'3", that was being generous. She looked emaciated.

"She's trained and we have no idea who she is," Bruce spoke up. His eyes locked onto a very purple bruise that was beginning to appear on the left side of her face. A bruise that could really only be caused by somebody with a lot of power throwing something big and heavy at her. Both sadness and guilt took over his features as fragments of the green guy's memories began to slowly dawn on him. The car door. "She's just a child."

Thor had yet to say a word.

"A child that has the means to kill," Tony jumped in. "You did what you had to do, Big Guy."

The girl stirred. "What the fuck?"

Everybody snapped to attention. Wanda jumped up from her perch on the floor, standing at the foot of the table. Her powers ready to fly if needed.

Clint readied an arrow, Natasha pulled a gun.

Thor pointed his hammer directly at her chest.

The girl looked up, trying to touch her fingers to her face but finding that she couldn't. She looked down. Her wrists were handcuffed to either side of a table that she was currently stuck to. Great. She looked around the room, eyes falling onto each Avenger.

Natasha noted her taking in the room, no doubt calculating an escape plan. She was definitely trained.

"Who are you?" The redhead spoke up, still staring down the barrel of her gun.

"You can't figure that out?" The girl answered, snark and sarcasm evident in her voice as she stared Natasha down.

That was when Tony decided to intervene. "Hey, Hobbit, eyes here!"

The girl growled up at him.

Sensitive about her height, good to know. Tony didn't falter. "She asked you a question. Who are you?"

"Somebody that's about to make your life very painful."

At that, she snapped up. Breaking the handcuffs encasing her wrists with little ease. Everybody stared in shock. She was quick. Darting to the opposite side of the room, putting the table between her and the superheroes, she looked towards the door. Clint was almost ready to send an arrow into her leg when three little red clouds appeared.

Wanda, using her powers, trapped the girl's wrists against the wall behind her. Taking careful consideration for the bullet wound in her lower abdomen, she also added a small red cloud around her ribs. Just to keep her steadied.

The girl, for her part, tried to kick and squirm and free herself from the magic that was currently encasing her body, but she couldn't shift it.

Natasha stood in front of her. After a nod to Wanda, a slight assurance that she had her covered, she stepped closer.

"Who are you?"

The girl, currently pressed tightly against the wall, let out a frustrated scream at her inability to escape the magic red bonds. She finally let out a huff of defeat and dropped her head.

After a single moment of reflection, the girl lifted her eyes and let a cold stare land upon Natasha's face.

"My name is Maya. You people have no idea what you have just done."

- - - - - -

a/n #3: to be continued? i have no clue. i guess we'll see! also, i am sorry for any mistakes! i've never been very good at proofreading.

[deviantnotcriminal]

Rambling commence!

So, shadow was created from the remains of the stored magic inside the test subject’s body. During the initial split the character’s body essentially disintegrated as it’s magical stores of energy differentiated. Unlike the fragments, shadow’s magic was already in the differentiated state in the body and so when differentiated again, it became closer to that of what the fragments become when they go into the waiting void (differentiated dimension) to rest and recharge. It was also during this process that shadow became semi-sentient. The thing was that because shadow was originally pure magic, he could not draw magic from his surroundings. He could only ‘feed’ off the excess magic that was differentiated during it’s use in the fragment’s abilities. As the fragments got stronger, so did he. But because he could not draw any magic naturally, he was dependent on the fragments to remain sentient. Eventually he started to get an understand of his surroundings and could recognise the fragments based upon their souls and magic style.

When the fragments left the facility, shadow’s magic slowly dwindled as he was left to being nothing more than a thought or an idea. Not sentient, just a concept made of magic. This is how he was left for maybe 100 years. Occasionally a child or two might have come to the facility to vandalise it and they may have had some kind of magical ability that he could draw energy from, but for the most part he was left drained. That was until Lucas arrived. As Lucas sent out a ginormous volt of electric magic into the entire facility’s system to get it up and running again, even just temporarily, this magic jolted shadow awake into a fully conscious state. Immediately he tried to find the source of this power. As Lucas was continually using magic to take his notes it was easy to track him down. Shadow stayed near the fragment drawing more energy until Lucas was being called back to Vivian (who had refused to go into the facility for, personal reasons) so he could take him back to the island. As Lucas retreated, shadow followed him, out of the facility, into the portal, back to the island.

The island was like a magical battery. Ever since Lucas put up his magic dampening force field thingy at the highest point of the island, magic could very rarely get out, but it could very easily get in (through sunlight). Immediately upon setting foot on the island shadow felt energised. He was now more than conscious, and was bordering on completely sentient. He found the most intense location for magical energy was in the generator room (a cave at the base of the cliff where Lucas’ laboratory sits). Lucas had rigged it up so it would generate electricity from magical energy. It wasn’t totally efficient, but it was more eco friendly and sustainable than the gas powered alternative they had been using before the fragments had set up most of the infrastructure on the island and made repairs to heavily weathered buildings.

Shadow stayed in the generator room for the majority of his time. He took a lot of notice as to how the system worked. He noted some void souls (though he wouldn’t have known what they were at the time) were used in the mechanism to convert some of the pure magical energy into electricity. Shadow observed the mechanics of the magic used to perform this ability, and learnt to replicate it. This is how he learnt to manipulate electricity. Sometimes he would go outside to take a look at what was out there but he never really took a lot of notice. Occasionally a fragment like Lucas or Cecil would come into the generator room to make repairs. However on one occasion, Lucas came in with another fragment, Vivian. They were talking about some kind of big sparring match they were going to have later that night. (The fragments will sparr on occasion, either to settle an argument or a disagreement, sometimes just for fun and to see what kind of skills they had picked up, and sometimes they would do it for training, to push their magical abilities above and beyond, to try and get stronger. This match was for fun.) Lucas had walked up to the main transformer and had put a hand on the live wire. There were a series of sparks as magical energy shot from the generator, up Lucas’ hand, into his body. As he retracted his hand he shook it and made some remark about it stinging a bit when he does that. (As a Visual gag i may also make his hair stick up, like he’s been electrocuted) As he left shadow could see that sparks would occasionally shoot off his body (he was very charged up. Lucas did this because, when sparring, he can only produce so many electric attacks until he’s too tired to continue/focus his energy into any more. When sparring for fun, often Lucas would go down to the generator and get ‘charged up’. This works almost like taking way to many shots of espresso. He’s so hyped up on energy that he doesn’t feel tired and will not sleep. One of the fastest ways to dispel this energy is to let it out as electricity. A similar effect also happens during thunder storms, which I will touch upon in the comic because why the hell would I not?! Also if he ever got hit by lightening he would have so much energy that he would either A. Dispel it all immediately as he differentiates himself involuntarily, or B. Electrically shock anyone who comes 5 meters of him involuntarily. The only time this happens the fragments do a sparring match because eh, cool lighting + tons of sparks = really damn cool shots.)

Shadow, observing that Lucas has electricity based abilities as well, would then try to touch the generator. And it actually works. He gets super hyped up and comes fully sentient and conscious. He may even have left the cave to follow Lucas into the main part of the island, stopping to check out all of the infrastructure there. As the sparring match takes place at a different part of the island, the lights start to flicker for the first time (as a result of shadow touching the circuits out of curiosity and sending fluctuations into the system). Some of the spectators wonder what is going on with the lights but Lucas is too focused to notice. When they bring up the lights to him after the match he explains that they couldn’t be anything to do with him because he knows that’s not how his magic works. He also informs the group that he will check up on the system the next day, fearing he may have accidentally damaged it.

Lucas goes to check the system. Surprise, there’s nothing wrong with it. However over the next few weeks, strange things keep happening to the electronics around the island. Everyone keeps blaming Lucas, even to the point where Lucas grounds himself (completely rids himself of all his magical energy by differentiating himself) as the lights are flickering so everyone knows that it is definitely not him who is messing with the electronics. Luckily this does succeed in convincing the group, however when he’s in the differentiated dimension, he swears he could see someone in the distance playing with the lights. This of course was actually shadow. Who had learnt what circuits to stimulate with energy to cause his desired reactions, and who was now doing it just for fun because he had never seen the fragments arguing with each other so much. When Lucas integrated himself, he informs the group of this mysterious figure and what it looked like it was doing to the lights. Vivian and Lucas both agreed that it sounds like a ghost. And they then spend the next couple of weeks educating themselves on ghost hunting. This in turn causes Cecil to be active way WAY more than normal which gives us some nice interactions between my fave fragment and the rest of the group. Eventually the tension dies down. The lights are still flickering on occasion but it’s now become a mere annoyance. And even if it is a ghost, which Cecil is constantly at work to try and prove, when a fragment went down to the generator room it would always stop. It was only when shadow caused an entire power outage on the island that Cecil decided once and for all to do a ghost hunt.

This is where we get the fun fact that ghosts do exist on the island. There’s a few who are native Maori peoples, some who were from what the island was used for before and one WW2 pilot who says that he had crashed down on the island after failing to land his plane and had accidentally died in the process. These ghosts were the souls of humans who had failed to die. The system of death for TIOP works like this. When a human dies, their soul essentially differentiates itself a bunch of times until it’s essentially nothing but pure magic, and the person stops existing. These souls hadn’t completed the process for whatever reason. Originally Cecil wondered if it was because they were casters, this didn’t always seem to be the case. Eventually he just made the assumption that was a random occurrence. Unfortunately it was unknown if the ghosts could be helped in any way.

That’s more supposed to be a jokey thing. The weird thing for Cecil is that the readings he is getting on his equipment are very low, which matches with the form of differentiation that the humans had managed, but there was one reading that he was receiving, down near the generator, that was sending his equipment off the charts.

It was in one investigation of the cave where the start of chapter 4 kicks off. Cecil was down there with Connor for backup as they had deemed that whatever it was that was causing these readings, it was not going to be a normal human. The readings were much more similar to that of a differentiated fragment, which was a scary thought. Cecil goes into the cave with his equipment and tells Connor to wait at the mouth/go down the beach (just be outside). Connor happily obliges (Connor had quite a fear of generators and big heavy electrical stuff, or maybe even just of the cave, idk, I want to give Connor a fear of electricity but that doesn’t fully match up with lucas’ power set so I may need to work something else out. It was supposed to be that, when he got split from Cassidy, he gained this fear and that it was an important part of his character growth when he overcomes it. Idk.. I’ll work it out another day). As Cecil walks inside the dark cave, his readings get more and more intense. As he tries to communicate with shadow, all that comes out are auditory glitches.

Crap I forgot to mention. Shadow is technically not supposed to exist. The magic of which he is made from should have just dissipated into the void and should not have become conscious. So technically shadow is a ghost. And I play around with the concept that he’s not supposed to exist in a few places. I also give him auditory and visual glitches in scenes where he’s a main player/trying to interact directly with things in the physical realm. Not in a twee way but more in a ‘ohhhh shit’ kinda way. But yeah, if there are glitches in TIOP, 9/10 times it will be because of shadow in some way.

So, everything that Cecil is hearing from his equipment his just audio glitches, and as he approaches this one corner of the cave his actual readings system starts bugging out. Shadow is getting cornered and is now starting to panic. And of course, Vivian is also starting to panic (and by extension, Cecil). There would be more and more white noise as I start to use visual glitches on the comic frames itself until, nothing. It all goes black. We cut to outside where Connor is fiddling with his tech when he hears a huge zap come from behind him, along with seeing this ridiculously bright flash of light. Immediately Connor rushes to Cecil’s aid. Only to find him lying on the ground, motionless. Connor starts to freak out and tries to radio in to Mika to bring help because something’s happened to Cecil and he’s unconscious but hasn’t differentiated himself.

We then cut to Cecil in the differentiated dimension as he slowly opens his eyes (kinda effect like someone was hit over the head and they’re trying to regain consciousness) to discover he’s in the cave still. He looks around, trying to assess what happened. This is when he sees himself, lying on the floor. Lucas makes a quick gag of deja vu to himself before Cecil starts to panic about what’s happening. Here, I get to play around with the concept of fusions in the waiting void. Because I think, this is the first time that this happens. Here I will play around with the thought of two minds/voices in one head where the components of Cecil (Lucas and Vivian) will talk to each other in conversation through Cecil’s voice. Cecil will also have moments of talking with his own voice, when both Lucas and Vivian are more in sync in their mindsets. Cecil sees Connor rushing into the cave to assist him and has a quick moment of ‘aww that dork’ which quickly turns to guilt as they see him panicking, saying that he thinks Cecil got electrocuted. But then, something happens, as Cecil’s thinking to himself ‘Connor srsly, I can’t get electrocuted’ he sees his body, slowly get up off the floor, steady itself on Connor’s shoulder, and walk out the cave. We cut back to Cecil’s face which will look like: ‘O-O wtf wtf wtf WTF WTF WTF WTF WHAT? SORRY WHAT? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT!S THE FUCK IS GOING ON HOW WHO WHAT?! DGUNINIHWSXSWCAAHHHHHHHHHH’

And then we turn to chapter 4! The Visitor.

1. Yes, Shadow did possess Cecil

2. No, I do not know how he accidentally does it

3. Hell yes, hyjinks will ensue

[bygosscarmine]

We Who See Thestrals

A Harry Potter post-canon fic: Luna Lovegood x George Weasley 

hopefully that isn’t a shocker at this point

Go to Chapter 1

2: George Weasley, Talent Manager

2183 words

They went clattering down the stairs to the shop's main floor, where Luna was standing behind a cleared table, with a circle of children of varying ages. As they got closer, George realized she was doing Muggle magic. Her soft voice pattered through a nonsense description of space and time, while the cards seemed to leap from her hands--not necessarily that strange to a wizarding audience, but different cards seemed to leap out of the deck and show themselves as she said words related to hearts or kings or seven and so on.

"Not that," said Ron, annoyed. "It's the Pygmy Puffs!"

George went to the big glass enclosure, and peered in. The coloration and markings range seemed to be normal but...

"Gobstopping Goblins," he whispered.

There was a nest of baby Puffs in the corner, just naked tiny bean-blobs. All Pygmy Puffs until now had been magically altered Puffskein young. The best results were at about two weeks before birth, but the range of about two weeks around that date was usually fruitful. The tricky bit was transforming only the developing young, not the parent. Never had he dreamed they could actually reproduce the Pygmy mutation naturally.

"Are you telling me that Luna is in some way responsible for inducing the Pygmys to have offspring?" he asked Ron, trying to imagine this process.

"She thinks it has to do with telling them fairy tales. I think it has more to do with the fact that she's built them little homes."

Sure enough, there were little decorated boxes, two large enough to hold a whole pack of Pygmy Puffs, two smaller as if for a nuclear family unit. The nest appeared to be made from the shreds of one of the smaller boxes. The tiny hairless creatures he assumed were the natural children of some couple within the glass container were being hovered around by two pink Pygmy Puffs, who had floated to be between his large head and the nest so he could no longer see it directly.

"You know, I think you're right. Probably you're both right."

He stayed until Luna had finished her magic show, to ask her some more questions.

"What do you think?" she asked. "Is my Muggle magic pretty good now?"

"I saw you finessing that with some summoning," George said severely. "Which just goes to show you are a very skilled witch, since that's not easy real magic, either. What about these guys? You've been giving them the birds and bees talk?"

"Just a little privacy and folklore to build their culture on," she said, reaching down under the mesh top of the cage to let some of the little fur balls cluster against her fingers. "I thought about separating the males and females but Ronald said you didn't know a way to determine sex. Besides, we don't know if they have a binary breeding system."

One of the pink parental puffs bobbed over to Luna's hand cautiously, zoomed at her as if beating her off, and rushed away again. Luna slowly withdrew her hand.

"I don't think they are smart enough to recognize a person," she said somewhat sadly.

"They're probably smarter than they let on," said George, who had never seen the puffs so interested in a human. There was a bit of an issue of bonding with the puffs, which wasn't bad for shop profits, but wasn't quite what he liked as an inventor. Puffskeins seemed just barely large enough to have the brains to recognize a familiar human. Pygmy Puffs, not so much.

Maybe they were usually just too immature.

"Was there anything else?" Luna asked.

"Sorry?" George was a little startled.

"You came down here in such a rush, and I hate to keep you from your work. Ron said you only come down to work in the shop when it's really crazy."

"Well, yes," George said. "Rather. Summer hols coming up, will need to be up to snuff so we can just offload our goods on the children who will be loose for a few months."

"So was there anything else you needed to ask me about?"

"Nothing I needed to ask, but plenty I'd like to," he said, grinning. "How long did you practice the cards before coming up with that little twist?"

"I bought a pack and the pamphlet and took it home," said Luna. "So I've had a lot of hours at home working on it."

She seemed to be apologizing for not being an instant expert.

"I have never seen anyone over the age of fourteen put so much effort into card-tricks before. I am impressed."

"Oh," said Luna, nonplussed.

"I was also going to ask you to consult on my ideas for a new mothers line of products, but somehow I don't think you're the right candidate for that."

"Can I see your workshop, though? I'm very curious about that," Luna said. "Ronald said you wouldn't want to be disturbed but he just went to get you so you're already interrupted."

"Certainly you can." He was pleased, really. "I just got off the phone with Neville, but maybe you can give me an opinion on the algae pet I'm developing."

"A phone?"

"Not a Muggle phone," George hurried to say. "I'll show you what I mean with that, too."

"I'd like to talk to Neville, too," she said. Her always slightly wistful voice was not necessarily more melancholy as she said this, but he was strangely afraid it was.

"Rhodie, we'll be back in a jiff," George called out. "I'm curious about our numbers of Pygmy sales to availability over the summer last year, if you have a minute to check on that."

He ushered Luna up the cramped stairs in the stock-room, where the muted sounds of children shouting at the Snap made the sense of having slipped out of the world more acute. He always felt that a little, coming up here, but leading a newcomer through the maze of boxes with their slight coating of inevitable dust, the sound of their footsteps in the heavy quiet, made it stronger.

"Did you have this one made?" Luna said when they came to the cabinet.

"Well spotted," said George, fairly sure he should be feeling a little shame about conspicuous wealth right now, but just feeling a bit pepped up. "It's pretty new. We had to actually do a lot of research and a little guesswork to get it made. Very complicated magic, have a feeling the originals were dark in nature. Nothing a little ingenuity couldn't fix!"

He opened the door. "Usually I'd say, after you, but always watch a man go first into his vanishing cabinet. I'll leave the door open on the way out."

He stepped through.

For a few moments, he was unsure if she'd lost her nerve to come. Or something bad had happened with the cabinet.

Then she stepped out nonchalantly, staring at the lintel of the door keenly, as if she'd been inspecting it.

"That felt like nothing. Really, apparating could well be replaced by a few of these in wizarding gathering places and we'd all be so much more comfortable."

"True," said George.

Now a pang of consumer guilt hit him, so he did not volunteer that to keep this one working accurately he had to limit daily use. Luna took in the room around them and he considered it himself. It was cleanish and brighter than most wizarding research facilities. He had a rather large terrace-house and the attic formed his laboratory. Everything from modern muggle science equipment to herbs hung from the gabled roof, with the highest center part over the working table, where he'd installed an intake fan so he could easily air out the fumes. He'd bespelled it to also make any colorful or intriguing fumes clear.

Just the kinds of precautions he and Fred had found out the hard way in their room laboratory all those years ago.

"How do you call Neville?" Luna asked.

"Here, see this? Do you remember the extendable ears?"

"Sure."

He held out the bits of rubber-covered foam that now were just as long as a fingertip, and brightly colored so he lost fewer of them. "It's actually connected to the Floo network, so you may see things slightly green for a moment, but you just have to give the address."

Luna gingerly took them but nearly immediately dropped the first one she tried to put in. George swiftly bent down to pick it up, and said, "Here."

He brushed some of her rampant hair away from her ear and squeezed the earplug before setting it in her ear. "Like this," he said, showing her how to compress it. She put in the other without too much issue, knowing know she could safely push it inward.

"What's Neville's fireplace?" she asked, a little too loudly.

"Twelve, Hogwarts."

The earplugs didn't really dampen sound much, so he didn't have to yell. But Luna did, as if jumping into a fireplace, and he grinned.

"Hello, Neville," she said next, in a normal tone of voice. "Did I startle you? Yes, it's me, Luna. Oh, this marvelous!"

She gave George an incandescent smile, and jumped a little. "Neville, how's Pomfrey? Oh, good. I thought that tonic should help his scalewort. I have to go. Maybe George will lend me his ears again. Goodbye, Neville!"

After a pause she said in a whisper, "Do I just take them off?"

"Yes," he said, holding out his hand. "Before I had them turn off with a word, but it was annoying to hear other people say half the word all the time, and it's easier if they just stop when one or the other takes them off."

She dropped them in his hand, scrutinizing them slightly, then turned to the desk beside them. "Were you talking to Neville about this?"

The goldfish bowls with the hopeful algae pets were lined up, labelled so he could track the various tests he'd done. Currently there were twelve. The first six he'd given up on as past further experiments were now living with his female relatives, and a few were set downstairs in the shop as a teaser while they waited for Neville to come pick them up.

"Yes. It's tricky to work with biological things. I don't have the hang of it. Neville secretly disapproves of me messing with nature, or I'd just ask him to be my inventor."

George raked his hair up on end as he stared at the blobs of algae that loosely resembled the heads of the Green Man but not enough.

"I suppose using a cutting charm to just fix them isn't enough," said Luna. "You want them to develop for real so people know what they are."

"And it's pretty easy to get them to look vaguely like people in an ugly way. We always think things look like people."

"You want them to be cute? One of your mom-line?"

"Yes," said George, a little surprised she had connected those thoughts. "If I figure out how to affect their shape more, then I can make them trolls or fairies or crones or princes. Then people can pick what they like."

"Yes, and then people can really talk to them, like a friend."

George had not considered this angle, but it made sense.

"Well, it's just something I'm asking anyone for leads about. Feel free to look around and ask about anything you find intriguing."

She pattered around, hands holding her hair back from falling on anything. It was so unconscious he suddenly saw her as a tiny witch in her mother's test kitchen, keeping her hands out of the range of anything dangerous. He had known her mother had been killed by a failed experiment, which he had promptly tried to forget, as an inventor prone to explosions himself.

"What is this?" she asked, leaning over a pan of starts.

"I'm just trying to learn more about botany and magic. They're violets."

She looked up, eyes glinting. She was laughing, for some reason, about him growing flowers. The skylights diffused the light well through the room, but she was wreathed in sun, since he'd put the starts right in the path of the light.

"Well, probably should send you back through to keep Rhodie in line." He stood, "It's been lovely having you. And don't listen to Ron if he says I'm not to be disturbed. I say that to him because I find him disturbing."

Luna chuckled, and swished out through the cabinet, which he shut with deliberation. Then he went downstairs from his house and out the door to walk all the way to The Three Broomsticks instead of just going out his own shop door and turning left.

By the time his friends showed up for the late Brazil v. Mozambique match, he was three pints in. Angelina swung her way in, and halted next to George to say, "Blimey, George. Why are you sodden already?"

"Just enjoying a night off," he said vehemently.

-

Go to Chapter 3

[ruserious-hi]

Chapter V

Summary: You’re entire life you had felt that you were special, like you were mean’t for something greater. You weren’t ordinary. You had a mother, friends. You were even at the top of your class. It wasn’t until your eighteenth birthday that you discovered you were right all along and yet wrong in so many ways.

A/N:

Although it was early in the morning, you couldn’t sit still as the doctor began sawing off your cast. Your tiredness had quickly faded as the excitement of finally being able to train since your wrist and ribs had healed sooner than the doctor expected.

The moment your cast came off and the doctor went through the spiel of physical therapy you had to do you ran back across from the medical wing to the main dormitory facility. When you got there, you found Sam sifting through the cabinets looking for who knows what. With a flick of your wrist, you shut the cabinet causing him to turn around in shock.

“Notice anything different?” you asked with a slight smirk on your face.

“Yeah. Someone ate the last bit of fruit loops and didn’t replace them. Was it you?” Sam retorted while crossing his arms and leaning against the counter.

You shook your head and rolled your eyes.

“No bird brain, do you notice anything different about me?” you said spinning around.

While you were spinning, Peter yawned as he walked into the room dressed in his Thor pajamas and looked right at your arm. His eyes lit up.

“It’s off?!?” exclaimed Peter. You nodded and he rushed over to you. With a nod of approval from you, he wrapped you in a hug. “Y/N, I’m so happy for you.”

“I think this calls for a celebration,” said Sam jumping away from the counter, forgetting all about his fruit loop fiasco. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. initiate SALMON protocol.”

“What’s salmon-”

Just as you were about to ask what SALMON was Party Up by DMX started blaring out of the speakers, rave lights began flashing, and confetti shot out from every direction. At that point, Sam grabbed your hand and started bopping up and down. Peter joined in and started running around and wooing.

Eventually, everyone else, curious to what the commotion was so early in the morning, ambled into the kitchen. First, it was Wanda and Vision. After congratulating you, Wanda tried to teach Vision how to dance to the music. It wasn’t going so well. Then Nat snuck in and started showing you some new moves. Steve, after attempting to scold Sam who was too distracted by chasing Peter to listen, retreated to the corner of the room where Bucky stood with a neutral expression as he took in the pandemonium of the moment.

Peter, in an attempt to escape Sam, was literally hanging from the ceiling.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. terminate SALMON protocol.”

The music stopped and the lights turned on which led to everyone freezing in their spot to find a stone-faced Tony.

“Sam how many times do I have to tell you not to initiate, you know what, unless it is for a special occasion.”

“It is a special occasion,” he retorted. “Y/N over here has a clean bill of health.”

Everyone wooed and patted you on your back. You couldn’t help but smile.

“I’ll allow it. Clean this up Wilson and Y/N,” he said. “I need to check to confirm with the doctor. Then you and I need to have a little chat.”

After your nod of agreement, Tony spun around and left the room with a trace of a smile on his face.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. you know what to do,” Sam exclaimed.

And everyone began celebrating again.

As you let the joy of the moment vibrating throughout the room flow through your veins, for just a few minutes the pain and suffering that weighed heavily on your heart was lifted. It was just you and a bunch of bad-ass heroes dancing your hearts out.

While everyone went to train after your early morning celebration, you found yourself sitting on your bed doodling in a notebook Steve had given you.

That’s when you felt a vibration at your door. It was from Tony. With a flick of your wrist, you swung open the door.

“Hey, Tony.”

“Hey, Sparky.” Entering the room, Tony closed the door and sat at the foot of your bed. “I’ve got good news and bad-ish news. Which do you want first?”

You pondered for a minute. While looking at Tony, you could tell something was weighing heavily on him. “Bad.”

“Good choice,” he sighed. “Well, you healed much faster than the doctor expected.”

“This is bad news?” you questioned.

“Well, I did say bad-ish. We, the doctor and I, think there might be something in your blood. Like Cap and Bucky.”

You were confused, “What’s in their blood?”

“Well Steve got his powers through a serum my Dad was involved in creating. It takes all human abilities and turns it up to the max,” he explained. “We think you might have some variation, of course not the exact thing, because that was all destroyed in the 40s.”

“Then how did Bucky get all those same powers,” you questioned.

“HYDRA,” he said shortly before coughing and diverting the conversation away from Bucky. “Anyway. Our current theory is that HYDRA was dampening this power, which is why you didn’t heal immediately, so we want to run a few tests on your blood to see what’s in it and also to keep a close eye on you to see if anything else manifests.”

“Okay.”

“Are you sure? If you don’t want to know, you don’t have to. It’s up to you.”

“It’s okay. I want to know everything. And if part of that means finding what’s running through my blood and the full extent of what HYDRA did to me. I’m ready.”

Grabbing Tony’s hand, you sent a feeling of reassurance to Tony.

“Alright,” popping up off your bed, he pointed at your feet. “Then throw some shoes on. We’re going on a field trip.”

As you sat on the chair with a U.V. sticking out pulling the blood trickle out of your body, you asked Tony who was standing across from you with his arms crossed, “So what was the good news?”

“Oh, right,” adjusting the sleeves of his shirt. “Training. You’ve been sitting around locked in your room for most of the few weeks you’ve been here and I haven’t said anything because you were injured, but that’s no longer an excuse. Nat has been bugging me about training you to fight. Something about your magic fingers not being enough to protect yourself and ya da ya - but I agree. I think it would be good for you. What do you think?”

You nodded, “Yeah. I think it would be cool. I always wanted to learn karate, but I was always so busy with school and my mom never took me when I was little so it was just one of those things always in the back of my mind, like learning to do a backflip.”

Tony raised an eyebrow looking out the window, “Well, I can tell you now. Nat teaching you to fight will be tough. If you didn’t have such a fast rate of healing, I would say get ready for puking and bruises. And I am sure your pal Mr. Parker can teach you to do a back-flip he does it all the time.”

Finally, the doctor pulled the U.V. out of your arm and gave you an Elmo bandaid.

“The tests should be back in an hour or so. Tony, I’ll have F.R.I.D.A.Y. send you the results as soon as I get them.”

“Thanks, doc,” you followed Tony out of the room.

“What now?” you asked.

“We wait,” he said as he strode down the hall, you tailing behind him. “But first I want to show you my lab.”

“Cool.”

You felt like you were walking forever. For a place full of maybe the highest tech in America, it was strange that it took so long to get to-. Wait. Something wasn’t right.

You paused, but Tony kept marching forward. Looking at each of the doors, you tried to trace this unknown vibration that set off an alarm in your mind. Your heart rate picked up. It wasn’t coming from next to you, but above you? But this was the top floor...

“Hey Tony?” whirling around, he finally noticed that you stopped following him. Hesitantly, you continued, “I - I think there is someone in your vents.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Yes, Mr. Stark.”

“Smoke him.”

“As you wish, Mr. Stark.”

That’s when gas started pouring out of the vents. Coughing and stepping to the side, a figure came crashing out of one of the openings in the ceiling and landed perfectly in front of Tony.

“Damn it, Wanda,” the figure said. “I thought we went over not snitching on me.”

“It wasn’t Wanda,” Tony said pointing at you.

As the smoke began to fade giving a clearer image, you saw an older man with short blonde hair. He looked at you with confusion.

“Who’s this?” he loudly whispered to Tony.

Walking back up to Tony, you replied for him, “Y/N Y/LN. And you are?”

“Clint... and why are you here?”

“Because I am. Why are you here?”

Tony looked from you to Clint reveling in the weirdness of this interaction, “Yeah. I would like to know that too. Why are you in my vents - Clint? I thought when you retired we’d be free of you.”

“Uh what? Why am I being interrogated? And no one told you about me? This just isn’t right,” he argued to two amused people completely unfazed by his little rant. “Ok. Fine. I left something in your lab BEFORE I retired that I really need and I knew if I told you guys I was coming to pick it up you would do something extravagant for your favorite pal Hawkeye, so I figured I’d sneak in grab it and get out.”

“Bold of you to assume we’d be that excited about your presence,” Tony fired back.

With his hand held to his chest in defense, Clint reacted, “I leave for two seconds and you’ve already forgotten and replaced me.”

Tony patted him in the shoulder as all three of you proceeded to the lab, “You know I’m just messing with you pal. Good to see you, man. How’s the wife and kids?”

“Pretty good. Laura has been keeping me busy and the kids have been doing well in school,” he responded then turned to you. “Did they really not tell you about me?”

“Yup.”

“I’m going to have to have a chat with Nat. What about Banner and Thor? Did they say anything about them?”

You shook your head.

“That makes me feel, slightly better. So what brings you here to Avengerville Y/N Y/LN?” Clint asked as Tony placed his hand on a portion of the wall. Tony stopped to signal Clint to stop asking questions.

Glancing at Tony, you told him it was okay as you all walked into the lab.

“Kidnapped by H.Y.D.R.A., saved by the Avengers, and had nowhere else to go.”

Clint looked at Tony, “So you adopted another one?”

Tony was moving some parts around on a large metal table, “You know I can’t help myself, Clint.”

Clint laughed, “Alright, well it was nice meeting you Y/N. Welcome to the Avengers. Now I better go see at least Nat or else she’ll be pissed I visited and didn’t say hi.”

Clint then quietly walked out of the room as you waved goodbye. “That guy is weird.”You noted to Tony.

“We’re all a little weird,” observed Tony as he sat down on a metal stool. “Come here. I want to show you something.”

Sitting next to him, he waved his arms and a computer screen projected into the air. On the display was your picture from the day the Avengers rescued. You looked so different than you did today. Your skin looked suctioned to your face that was smudged with dirt and a faint purplish bruising. But what you noticed the most was how sad you looked and it reminded you how sad and lost you felt then. I feeling you didn’t want to remember. You couldn’t look at it too long, so you started looking at other parts of the screen.

“As you can tell we don’t have much,” Tony interrupted. “Still nothing on your Mom, but the team has been looking into some known HYDRA facilities that we hope might be able to extract information about your mom and or you.”

Your mom. You hadn’t thought about her in a while. Did she miss you? Was she looking for you? Was she still alive?

“Why are you spending so much time on me?” you wondered out loud, your eyes glued to the floor. “Don’t you have the world to save? I mean. I’m just one person and you don't even really know me...”

Tony looked at you with a concerned expression as if you just insulted him.

“You’re not just one person. You’re Y/N Y/LN. And we might have just happened upon you in that HYDRA facility, but as soon as Barnes rescued you, you became our responsibility. But more importantly you became a part of our family and that means we take care of each other.”

“And I am sure everyone else would say the same thing.”

“Mr. Stark. The doctor has sent the report. It appears your theory was correct. Miss Y/LN has traces of the serum found in Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes.”

“Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.” glancing at you Tony stated, “Well, that’s one mystery solved.”

“I got to get some work done here. I’ll let Nat know she can start whipping you into shape tomorrow. Go rest up, kiddo. You’ll be out kicking ass in no time and we’ll be right beside you.”

Taking that as your cue to leave, you commented before you left the room, “Thanks, Tony. And in case no one has told you lately, you’re kind of the best person ever.”

Tony smirked and waved you off, “I know. Now go play with Peter or something!”

“For someone with super serum running through you’re blood you sure are slow,” Nat commented as you sat leaning against the wall chugging water and dripping in sweat.

After getting cleared for training yesterday, Nat decided to dive right into a mile run. It didn’t help that the effects of the serum dampener HYDRA had used on you still hadn’t taken full effect yet.

“Hey,” you said between labored breaths. “I went. From no movement. To a mile. And my body. Is not liking that.”

Standing up you started stretching and flailing around to loosen up. Everyone else, with the exception of Bucky and Cap who were sparring at the opposite side of the training facility, had already finished their training earlier.

“I’ll let you pull that card now, Y/N,” Nat replied. “But next week I’m not taking any excuses.”

“Tony was right,” you said while stretching. “You are tough.”

Nat’s only reaction was a raised eyebrow, but you could feel her heart warming at that compliment.

“Enough chit chat,” Nat declared. “It’s time to learn to fight.”

Jumping up and down, you started swinging your arms back and forth making a whooshing noise as you followed Nat to the sparring mats, you said confidently, “Okay. I’m ready.”

Lining up across from Nat, she stated, “Come at me.”

You looked at the five-foot-seven assassin. Oh god. What did you get yourself into? You tried to think of how to approach this. Should you go straight at her? Walk around? Throw a punch?

Fuck it. You were just going to go for it and hope for the best.

With a deep breath, you charged forward.

And the weirdest thing happened. The moment you charged forward everything clicked. You no longer saw Nat. Instead, you saw an enemy. Someone who you needed to take out. In a swift motion, you dodged the enemy’s first attack. That was all you needed to take them out. Crashing into the enemy’s exposed waistline, you lunged forward flipping yourself around the attacker causing them to lose their balance. Using the momentum from the forward roll, you swept them off their feet. This was your chance to secure them. In one quick motion, you landed heavy on their trapped body using your legs to secure them to the ground helpless. Raising your left hand above your head-

“DAMN Y/N!”

You turned your head in the direction to find Peter eyes wide holding what looked to be a bag of chips. Looking down you noticed a shocked Nat and then  your right fist raised above your head and ready to strike.

“Oh my god,” jumping off Nat, your heart racing at a million beats per seconds. You knelt next to Nat who was still laying on the ground groaning. Was it hot in here? What the hell just happened? “Are you okay?”

Peter’s shout had attracted the attention of Steve and Bucky. Steve was now kneeling across from you on the other side of Nat while Peter and Bucky stood off to the side

“I’m fine,” Nat grunted as Steve helped her up, who then turned to look at you with a raised brow. “But someone’s been lying on their resumé.”

Steve looked between you two quizzically, “What do you mean?”

“Y/N over here did a little whoosh,” Peter demonstrated what he saw to Cap and Bucky. “And then BAM Nat was on the ground and Y/N was about to knock her out.”

That’s when all eyes turned to you.

Raising your hands, you pleaded, “I honestly have no idea how this happened. It was like someone else was holding the strings and I was just along for the ride. I’ve literally never fought a person before in my life, so this makes zero sense to me.”

“HYDRA,” Bucky asserted looking directly at Steve. “They probably trained her to fight and wiped her memory of it.”

“That would explain the aggressive fighting tactics Y/N used. I haven’t seen that kind of fighting since, well, you Barnes,” noted Natasha. “Whatever this is, Y/N, you need to learn how to control it.”

“Agreed,” Steve concurred. “Y/N, you need both hands on the wheel before you can continue any training.”

“But-”

“Someone could get hurt, including you,” Steve explained.

“Okay,” you accepted. As a silence took of the five of you.

“I can help Y/N,” Peter offered shyly raising his hand.

“Sorry. Bad idea Peter. If Y/N can take Nat down at a snap of her fingers, then you have no chance,” Steve pointed out.

“What about Barnes?” Nat prodded. “He’s been through it and knows how to snap out of it. It only makes sense.”

“What? No.” Barnes protested.

“She’s got a point.”

Barnes looked angrily and motioned Steve off to the side. Walking to the other side of the room, Bucky started whispering angrily at Steve.

“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Peter pondered as he offered you a chip.

“Probably 100 excuses why he doesn’t want to help me.”

Poking you, Peter continued “Hey don’t say that. It’s not your fault.”

“Bucky’s always like that, Y/N,” Nat confirmed. “Alone and brooding. But don’t worry it’s only temporary. Once you’re in control I will happily be your sparring partner.”

“How come you never offered to spar with me?” Peter questioned. As the two spider heroes began an innocent quarrel, you tried to focus in on the argument across the room. The only thing you caught Bucky saying was, “but it’s her.” What was that suppose to mean?

Before you could unpack all that, Steve must have won that argument because they were both walking back towards the three of you and only one stopped while the other angrily marched out the door.

“He’ll do it,” Steve reassured as he watched the door close behind the brooding soldier. “And don’t worry. He’ll come around.”

“If you say so.”

You could really feel the love tonight.

After the training incident, you retreated to your room to take a shower while Peter ran off to go tell Tony what happened.

Peeling off the sweat-soaked clothing, you hopped into the shower. As the warm water rushed over your skin, everything that happened at the training facility resurfaced.

But your feelings toward it were very murky. On one hand, you could kick some serious ass, which could come in handy if HYDRA or any other bad guys came after you again. But then again, you didn’t have any control over it and it wasn’t like you could summon it on command. Then with that came working with Bucky, the human form of a brick wall. How was he suppose to help you? He seems to already have problems of his own to deal with.

As you dried off and put a fresh pair of clothes and fuzzy yellow socks, you heard a knock at the door.

“Come in!”

“Hey girl!” said a cheerful Wanda. “Sam and Peter are starting a game of Life so they sent me up here to see if you wanted to join? I am playing too and Steve.”

“Sure.”

“So I heard about this morning,” Wanda prodded in the elevator ride down.

“Word travels fast here,” you commented.

“I blame Peter,” Wanda quipped. “He’s like your number one fan. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t already made an action figure of you and started playing with it. I just can’t imagine what will happen when he meets Thor.”

“Who is Thor by the way? That guy who lives in your vents mentioned him.”

Wanda laughed at that as you walked out of the elevator, “Thor he’s a god from Asgard.”

“Where is Asgard? Never heard of it.”

“It’s in a whole other dimension.” “Another dimension?”

“Yup. He has lightning powers and is super strong and handsome. He comes to Earth and helps us often and his adopted brother tried to take over the world.”

“ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT THOR?” Peter shouted excitedly from across the room. Sam, who was sitting next to him, smacked is arm putting him back in his seat.

“Oh good. We set him off,” Wanda whispered to you.

“Yup. But now we’re not,” you replied.

“Aww, okay,” mourned a disappointed Peter. “Well. Who’s ready to play?”

When the game ended with Steve winning and Sam ranting about losing his job as a doctor, everyone said goodnight and went their respective ways. Yawning as you stepped off the elevator, you noticed a small yellow sticky note on your door. Upon closer inspection, the black ink scrawled on the little yellow paper read:

                                Meet me at the training facility. ~ B.B.

You gently removed the note from the door. Your bed would have to wait.

[kdinthecity]

Zutara Week 2017: Confessions of a Teenage Sugar Queen

The title is a throwback to a movie I liked when I was in high school, so that is the voice I’ve chosen for this AU. (Not Lindsay Lohan’s from the movie, just me trying to channel my inner teenage Katara...)

All of my @zutaraweek submissions will be part of one continuous story. Get ready for some slow-burn Zutara angst starting with Day One: Fire Lady.

“I can’t wait until summer!” A blur of orange brushes past me in the school hallway. “I’m gonna go hang gliding and kite surfing and eat ice cream for breakfast and donuts for lunch!”

That would be Aang. He lives with his head in the clouds on most days.

“Let me guess. Cream puffs for dinner, Twinkletoes?”

Toph is pretty solid for a freshman. She keeps Aang grounded when he starts to get too flighty. I like hanging out with them, but sometimes their immaturity annoys me. I can tell this is one of those moments. No one can eat dessert all day. Talk about a serious sugar crash.

“What about you, Sugar Queen?” Toph asks.

I don’t know why she calls me that. OK, maybe I suggested once that I could survive solely on fudgsicles and moon pies, but that was only after that bad breakup with Jet. Toph elbows me hard in the ribs, her usual gesture for getting my attention.

“Oww! I have plans this summer, alright? I can’t just goof off. I’m going to get a job and do something that matters for my future!” I hate how haughty that sounds, but I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately. I hurry past them before I say anything I might regret.

“Geez, what’s with her?” Toph mutters. Aang sighs airily in response.

They just don’t get it.

I’m the only sophomore to participate in the school’s summer internship fair this year. My brother calls me crazy. Well, I think he’s crazy because as a junior, it’s his last opportunity to gain this experience for college applications. Yet, he’s blowing it off to go fishing in Alaska with Dad. Maybe Sokka will end up taking over the family business, but I know he’d rather pursue engineering than commercial fishing.

The truth is, Dad cannot provide for our college tuition with his income. Sokka doesn’t think about these things, but I do. I’m getting an internship this summer so I can help pay for stuff like clothes and school lunches. And then hopefully I’ll get a scholarship for a top tier school like Atlas University. I will not be a burden to anyone.

“But what do you mean I can’t get any of the paid internships?” I am nearly in tears as I approach Principal Pakku.

“I’m sorry, Katara, but you’re under the legal working age. You can apply for one of the volunteer positions.”

“I’m a hard worker! And a straight A student!” I want to add that I’d do a better job than half the junior class.

He folds his arms across his chest. “Rules are rules.”

The pale blue of his suit starts to blur in my vision, and my bottom lip trembles, but I refuse to cry in front of this man. “But I'm turning 16 this summer!” My birthday is actually at the end of August. Had I not gone to Montessori kindergarten, I would be an entire grade younger according to the age cutoff for public school.

Ms. Yugoda, the school nurse, senses my distress. “Katara, sweetheart, it will still look good on your college applications, and it will help you land a top notch internship for next year. You still have time.”

“But, I need… the experience.” I will not beg for money.

“There’s nothing I can do.” Principal Pakku claps his hands and rubs them together as if that settles the matter. “I’ll put in a good word for you. How about… the zoo?”

I brush the back of my sleeve across dampened cheeks and stomp my foot. “I do not want to be scooping up ostrich-horse shit all summer!”

The principal’s expression is scolding, but I can’t stand the look of pity Ms. Yugoda is giving me right now. Before I have a chance to apologize for my outburst, Ty Lee sweeps in from the adjoining door that leads to the nurse’s office.

She hooks a bandaged arm through my elbow and escorts me out into the hallway. “What’s an ostrich horse? Sounds… magical!”

Her high-pitched giggle grates on my last nerve. An ostrich horse happens to be an imaginary animal from this fictional world I created. Sometimes I write about characters with amazing abilities to bend the elements. For me, I've always wanted to control water—like command the waves, summon the tides. My earliest memories are of Mom at the beach, so…

“Katara?” The knitted brow and slight frown look out of place on Ty Lee.

“Sorry.”

“You can always join the circus with me!”

“Right.”

I should have asked her what happened to her arm, but apparently I am too self-absorbed today to care about my friends.

“The Marine Science Center has a few openings. Here, take a brochure and see if anything interests you. We are a non-profit organization, so we can’t pay our interns unfortunately, but sometimes our students come back to work for us after they graduate.” The woman has an almost ethereal look about her.

“So… I wouldn’t be cleaning up seal sh—poop? I mean, it’s OK. I just don’t want to do that the whole time.” I cringe, but she smiles.

“No, no. That’s not really a valuable learning experience, is it? I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Yue.”

“Katara. Nice to meet you.”

“So, we have a position that works with the medical staff. Most of the marine animals we treat are sick or injured, so we nurse them back to health, tag them, and set them free. Another position studies the water, looking for contaminants and identifying potential threats, like factory pollution, for example. Then, you can work on a government petition to shut those facilities down or enforce environmental safety regulations. And lastly, we have a group that goes to schools, summer camps, and museums to talk about all these things.”

I skim my fingers across the panels of the tri-fold brochure as she speaks. Rehabilitate. Advocate. Educate. I always swore I would never go into fishing, but this is different. I care about the environment. I even organized a beach cleanup day as a community service event for the honor society. (This is how I know the juniors are lazy dipshits.) And I want to be either a professor or a doctor when I grow up, so the experience would be relevant. I take an application, give her my best smile, and express my sincere interest in the positions.

I sign up for a few other things before deciding I’m done. There isn’t much interest in the unpaid internships, and my eyes are drawn to the crowd on the other side of the gym. The largest group gathers at the table for Future Fire Technology. I've heard quite a bit about the company because the CEO’s daughter is in the honor’s track with me. Azula talks nonstop about how the former weapons company has rebranded and now manufactures cutting edge robotics. I couldn’t care less.

Azula will undoubtedly secure a position at her father’s company for the summer. She’s ambitious like that. Her brother, Zuko, will likely work there, too. He strikes me as different somehow—not really the corporate type. He’s not one of the half-assed juniors, though. He’s still pretty intense. I’m a little intrigued by him, but Sokka warns me to leave him be. Well, Sokka can’t tell me who I can and cannot talk to… I just wish I could get up the nerve to… oh monkeyfeathers!

“There aren’t many sophomores here, y’know,” a voice rasps. Zuko is standing right here. Talking to me. Sokka says he never talks to anyone.

“I, uhhh…” I want to slap my forehead for being such a blubbering idiot.

“I saw you at the Marine Science Center table. Sounds cool, huh?”

He was… watching me? The pink that rises to his cheeks would indicate that yes... yes, he was. I'm dying to ask about that mysterious scar across his left eye, but I guess that won’t make the best first impression.

“Katara,” I say.

“What?” he asks, his single brow raised in confusion.

“I’m Katara.” I hold out my hand like a dork.

“Oh, right. Sorry. Zuko.”

We are now shaking hands. Like dorks.

“And yes.” I clear my throat. “The Marine Science Center looks cool. I hope I get it.”

The results are posted the following week. With everyone crowded around the bulletin board outside the gym, it feels like we’re clamoring to see who’s made the basketball team or the cheerleading squad. I’m the only sophomore and of average height, so it takes me a while to wiggle my way to the front so I can see.

There are three names listed for the Marine Science Center.

Me! I got the position I wanted!

Then, Hahn. I don’t really know him, only that Sokka hates him, which should be interesting.

And… Zuko?

I scan the crowd for his unmistakable face, but he’s nowhere to be found. I can’t help but notice the red-clad crew off to the right, however. Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai are all on our school’s beach volleyball team. Either they just came from practice, are headed to a game, or just want an excuse to wear their uniform. Two seniors, Ruon Jion and Chan, hover nearby, enjoying the view. Ty Lee offers a shy wave when she catches my eye.

“Congrats to the newest Future Fire Lady!” Azula salutes Mai.

The dark-haired girl simply huffs. “But Zuko won’t be there. He got some stupid job at a water park.”

I fight the urge to march right up to her and emphasize how respectable and meaningful the Marine Science Center internship is, but the look on Ty Lee’s face stops me. Her bottom lip protrudes in a full-on pout, and I remember that she told me about Mai’s childhood crush. Apparently it is one-sided, and everyone wishes she would just get over it. Mai's scowl confirms that I should let it go.

“Of course Father wouldn’t give him a job after the equipment malfunction last year.” Everything Azula says comes out like a sneer. “He’s such a disgrace to the family. We need someone who is competent and level-headed in the company, Mai. Not lovesick and forlorn. Should I retract my recommendation I made to Father?”

Even though she’s shaking her head, I swear I hear Mai mumble bitch under her breath. For some reason, I am mesmerized by the exchange. The crowd finally thins out as everyone heads to class. With only two weeks left of school, the summer will be here before we know it. And I will be nursing injured seals back to health with Zuko?

Toph nudges me with her elbow. “Hey Sugar Queen. Watch your back, will ya?”

“What? Why?”

She’s gone before I can ask what the hell she’s talking about.

Chapter Two: Underwater  |  Chapter Three: Steamy

Chapter Four: The Fall