• Zuko watched as Y.N. jogged away holding the present he had bought her. He bit his lip sort of wishing he hadn’t bought it. Did she like it enough to go try it on, or was she just going to hide it so no one would have to ever see her in it? Zuko didn’t have time to really ponder it much longer as he heard his name for the second time that night. The first was because his Uncle had gotten him a new set of Agni Kai arm bands and a cape also for Agni Kai matches. Now it seemed someone else had also gotten him another gift. Opening it he found a new red Chinese style shirt and a book on meditation. The book caught him slightly off guard, at first he thought it was another gift from uncle but upon closer inspection of the tag he saw it was from Y.N. Looking up he found everyone else looking off to the side. He followed their gazes to find Y.N….in the outfit he had gotten her. He looked on just as the others where. She was beautiful- He cut the hormone driven thought off viciously and set his mouth into a thin line.

    -

    Yumi bound up to you, smiling from ear to ear.



    “Wow Y.N., was this what you wanted to try on?” She exclaimed as you laughed sheepishly.



    “Yea, does it look ok?” You asked turning from side to side.



    “Yea, duh! Nice to know my work on your hair won’t go to waste.” Yumi laughed. You rolled your eyes in return. You smiled and joined everyone who had now opened there presents. Iroh and a few others where starting to assemble their instruments. Deciding to risk it you peeked over to Zuko quickly. He wasn’t looking at you, almost as if he was trying not to look at you. Returning your attention to the others you felt a bit of



    “Hey, Y.N. we’re going to play some songs, why don’t you start off?” Yumi asked handing you your new flute. Biting your lip you took the flute hesitantly, you hadn’t played a flute in a long time.



    “I haven’t played in a while so don’t be surprised if I’m off key.” You joked sheepishly.



    “Oh C’mon Y.N. you’ll do ok.” Yumi said encouragingly. Biting your lip slightly you raised the instrument to you lips.



    Taking a breathe you blew into the mouth piece making a sharp note. Everyone cringed lightly as you blushed madly. Looking at the ground you closed your eyes and tried to calm your nerves. You never liked playing in front of people. Trying to imagine yourself alone in your room at home in your dimension you sucked in another breathe and blew. Your breath, now more controlled flitted across the whole of the wood. Some of the air trailed strait across the wood, mixing in with the soft breeze that was more befitting of summer than of winter. The rest filled the flute making a note as soft and as mellow as a whisper in the wind. Your fingers reacted instinctively, moving to change from note to note. Staggering your breath before you took a breath only made the song more soul filled as it mixed with the sound of the waves that lapped against the ship but did not move or jostle it. The wind danced through your hair almost as if it was dancing with the song, slow and yet strong in it’s will as it carried the melody to the ears of the crowd, that in your mind was no longer there.



    Still, still, still. Your mind sang along with the tune. *8

    -

    Zuko watched along with everyone, memorized by the simple yet beautiful song. A soft plucking of strings also caught his attention as Iroh sat on a chair smiling as he plucked the strings on his instrument in a simpler tune that only seem to intertwine and enhance the flutes sweet tones. Her slim fingers danced across the keys of the wood that shined in both the warm glow of the candle light from the ship and the simple beauty of the moon light from above. A few other members of the crew seem to snap out of their trances as they too joined in. The song hung in the air and danced as Y.N.’s friend, Yumi he thought her name was, hummed lightly to the song. Zuko no longer tried to restrain himself as his eyes simply watched her as she played. Her love for music apparent as the song was not simply played well it also had depth to it; he could not help but be calmed by it. All too soon though her notes slowed even more and hung in the air as her playing ceased.

    -

    You let the last note drag out as the last of your air supply slipped through you lips tickling them slightly. You where suddenly brought back from your ‘happy place’ when applause broke out, it wasn’t loud as Zuko’s ship had far less people on it than Zhao had on his but still made you blush slightly. You also couldn’t help but let a grin spread across your lips.

    After a couple more up beat songs you where able to drop out of the spot light and backed into the crowd. Noticing Prince Zuko who was as always, located toward the back of the crowd anti social as always, you rolled your eyes. You really should thank him. Then again he’ll probably just tell you to leave him a lone and not to over think it. Never the less you moved over to him. His eyes almost immediately zeroed in on you. Uh-Oh, you recognized that annoyed look, putting on a defensive and slightly sour face stared him down, refusing to move until his gaze softened.



    “What?” He snapped.



    “Jeeze, cool it.” You snapped back and then sighed, trying to calm yourself.



    Remember, you’re supposed to be thanking him.



    “I’m sorry, I just… I just wanted to thank you for the new clothing.” You replied feeling your cheeks heat up a bit. You seemed to be blushing an offal lot as of late.



    “Good, now maybe you’ll start wearing normal clothing.” He replied. The tone of his voice was a bit off, not sharp like it should be. Looking up to ask him exactly what he meant by ‘normal clothing’ you where caught a little off guard by what you found. His facial features where all but a perfect mask of a cold prince except one thing that gave him away. Slight pink covered his cheeks.



    Is he…blushing? You thought incredulously. Slowly a smile crept onto your face. He noticed this quickly.



    “What?” He demanded again.



    “Nothing.” You replied smiling. Just before he could reply you felt a sharp drop hit your nose. Blinking in surprise you lifted your finger to your nose and pulled it back to look at. Sure enough water was left on it. As if on cue another drop fell, this time on Zuko’s shoulder making a louder sound than it had on your nose.



    Zuko mimicked your actions looking over to the drop that had landed on his shoulder. The sky acted as confirmation of your suspicions as it let out loud crack and then a roar. At the sound of the thunder from the skies everyone slowly came to halt in their activities to look up at the sky. You too set your gaze upon the clouds as the lit up the night much more brilliantly than any of the candles or lanterns had. A few more drops began to fall as Iroh’s voice called out over the silence.



    “I think it’s time to move the food and all of your presents inside.” You turned from



    Leaving Zuko behind, you where already making a bee line for the table to help the rest of the staff pick up the food. You had taken all of your other gifts besides your flute inside already so it wasn’t hard to gather a fair quantity of food. It wasn’t hard to get it all inside and into the boiler room. As soon as you where done you told Yumi you where going to bed for the night. She protested at first but eventually let you go with out putting you in a strangle hold.



    Making your way to your room you changed into your regular clothing and moved to your bed. A small package lay silent and still on it. Frowning, you picked it up and slowly unwrapped it. After tearing away the paper you gasped in surprised. It was an iPod; and not just any iPod, it was yours! You knew it was because you remembered putting the sticker on the back that read “I have p.m.s. and a gun. Excuse me? Did you have something to say?” on it no more than a month ago. Scrambling with the paper you found a small note that had been encased within the package.

    Y.N. I thought you might be feeling a little out of place here. So I thought I’d give you this to make you feel more at home.

    Merry Christmas

    No signature was left on the short note. Sighing, you shrugged and placed the head phones over your ears and pressed play letting your favorite music float into your ears. As you lay on the bed you smiled. You had no clue who sent it, and you where really too tired to care, but right now you where grateful to them. You did feel more at home indeed.

    Merry Christmas Indeed. You thought silently to yourself as a smile graced your lips. Slowly you drifted off into a comforting sleep.





    ~

    *1: In the episode the library when Sokka was trying to pin point the date of the solar eclipse he never used months so I’m figuring they actually don’t have them in the avatar world so I’m going to do it this way which seems more appropriate. I can’t remember if I’ve used dates besides weeks and stuff in here but if I have I apologize for not catching it earlier.



    *2: Christmas is actually celebrated in China which is what Avatar is what the Avatar world is basically built on. However, Avatar traditions seem to be a mixture of older and newer Chinese traditions and backgrounds. It’s a possibility that Christmas actually is celebrated in the Avatar world but I’m changing it a bit to make the celebration only celebrated in a few areas so that way it’s not as big as it is here in America just like in China. So basically just to go with the plot XD.



    *3: In China they celebrate Christmas though they generally ignore its religious background more so then most people in America. (Though I know a lot of people in America forget or ignore it as well).



    *4: Mid-Autumn festival: It is second only to the Chinese New Year in significance. The moon on this day is the fullest and largest to the eye. Viewing it by the whole family while feasting on good wine, fruits and moon-cakes features the night event. There is also a beautiful story behind it. Children are told that there's fairy on the moon living in a spacious but cold crystal palace with her sole companion, a jade rabbit. A heavenly general and friend would occasionally pay her a visit, bringing along his fragrant wine. She would then dance a beautiful dance. The shadows on the moon made the story all the more credible and fascinating to the young imaginative minds.

    I got this explanation and idea from this site: http://www.index-china.com/index-english/chinese_holidays.htm

    Though I’m sure Chinese New Year’s might have been more appropriate I don’t know much about it so I put this instead.



    *5: These two lines (though the first is obviously edited for this fic ^^u) are quotes from the newer version of the movie adaptation to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, of which I of course do not own XD. If I did I’m sure I wouldn’t be gripping about being poor at the moment lol. Not to mention I’d be well over a hundred by now lol.



    *6: This is basically that whole breathe in, breathe out thing from Karate kid lol ^^



    *7: It took me a while to decide how the outfit should look since my original design for it was lost in one of my many drawing pads. Even if I found it my scanner is broken so I wouldn’t be able to get a decent picture of it even if I found it so I went picture hunting on face book. This is where the design came from, but keep in mind I actually didn’t draw this, however I don’t know who did but if the artist who did happens upon this I’m sorry for not asking ^^u I couldn’t seem to find a way to contact you, hope you don’t mind. ^^u: http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s194/Crimson_Angel1410/image012.jpg



    *8: Again, I had difficulty deciding on what I wanted you to be playing so I went hunting through out the internet, this time onto youtube.com. This is what I happened upon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQNQwIZRlt4&feature=related.Although her flute is a regular silver one I still loved her playing and the passion I think she put into her performance. Here is a song played on a wooden flute, I tried to find a Christmas song but it’s mostly all Irish as far as I can find ^^u: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06c7DbwpdMQ&feature=related Again, neither of these is obviously played by me and all the credit goes to them ^^u



    Okay I'm really running late on my social life at the moment so all I'm goign to say for now is please rate ^^ PPPPPPPPPPLLLLLLLLLLLLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ