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[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

Ai-Ling hates formal dinners. She hates them very much indeed. In fact, the only pleasure she usually gains from them is to try and sabotage them in as inventive a way as possible, while staying just out of actualy trouble.

This time, it's vitally important she makes a good impression on her future sister-in-law, so she's practically squirming as she dresses in her formal silks and does her hair up neatly and respectably. Then the need to do something other than what's expected gets too much and she makes a break for it. There's still an hour or so before she needs to be anywhere, so she heads straight towards the gardens, only opccasionally remembering she doesn't want to end up muddy and disshevelled.

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[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

The gardens are basically empty, since it's just an hour before the dinner and all the servants and guests are busy preparing themselves. Except for one - the lone figure standing by the flowers, watching some hummingbird-crickets zoom from blossom to blossom.

She's not wearing the elaborate leather-and-fur that she'd arrived in, but Sakari's Earth Kingdom style silk robes are still blue and white, directly contrasting with everyone else's green and gold.

Sadly for Ai-Ling, the Water "princess" looks over before she can escape and smiles.

(she has no idea what Miki's intended bride looks like and can only guess that this girl lives in the palace and might just be Ai-Ling.)

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

Instantly, Ai-Ling smiles back; a sheepish, caught-red-handed kind of smile that shows how much she didn't really intend to run into someone out here.

Least of all a guest of the palace.

Least of all them, Miki's sister.

And her first reaction is one of fear; she's really pretty. No one said Miki came from a family of people that pretty.

In a second, she feels wholey and completely inadequate and no one's even said anything yet.

She fixes this; "hi."

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Sakari's smile widens a little because, if nothing else, someone else initiating conversation means someone to talk to. And it's boring just waiting in her room for dinner, even if that's what she suspects real princesses are supposed to do. She's not technically breaking any rules, since the gardens are public and both Toph and Bumi told her to look around, but she still doesn't want to be seen as a kid or barbaric or anything.

But since this person said hi first, that means that 'princessly protocol' or whatever practically requires her to have a real conversation.

Besides, that guilty-stricken-sheepish expression is a lot like the ones her brother and sister wear when they've done something hilarious. Sakari's terribly curious now.

"Hi. I'm sorry, did I interrupt your walk?"

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

"No!" Ai-Ling says instantly, before she has a chance to decide whether there's anything that needs denying.

"I mean," she continues, standing up a little straighter in an attempt to recover dignity, "It's not an important walk. I just thought I'd take a turn around the garden before dinner. I do that, sometimes."

She declines to add, 'which is a perfectly respectable thing to do.'

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

Sakari kind of hears it, though, maybe just in the defensiveness of the tone.

Which is why she grins long before she manages to repress it.

"I'm Sakari."

Which is easier than asking 'Are you Ai-Ling?'

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"Yes," she replies. "I did assume you might be."

Recovering a little from the sudden panic of meeting Miki's sister, Ai-Ling bows formally and perfectly. "I'm Ai-Ling. Honoured to meet you."

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

Once she's got confirmation, it's perfectly acceptable for a fourteen year old princess to giggle. Even as she returns the bow, formal and perfect.

"The honor is mine," she says, because that's what you say in response. And straightens to smile again. "So now that I'm here and have met you and we've introduced ourselves...

"Seriously. What does my brother have on you that's so bad you agreed to marry him?"

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

Ai-Ling blinks, the change in demeanour taking her off guard, again. It lasts a beat, and she rocks back on her heels, dropping her hands casually.

"He drove my last fiancé out of town."

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

Sakari grins, moving closer, more comfortable with the other girl acting casual. She can do the formalities and she knows why she should and she understands it - but that doesn't mean it's any fun.

"Nooo, that's why my parents sent me out here with a trunkload of gifts for the both of you. You couldn't miss him that much, I just can't believe Miki's better."

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"Well, he was the best I could get," Ai-Ling admits.

"I could knock any of the other boys around here to the ground. Miki's the only one with a skull soft enough not to mind."

She likes Sakari already.

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"...well, okay," Sakari agrees after a moment of thought, grinning again. "That, I'll believe."

Then Ai-Ling's getting her first glimpse into being part of a Southern Water family - random acts of hugging.

"I'm really glad to meet you, Ai-Ling."

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

Ai-Ling squeaks audibly when she's suddenly hugged from out of nowhere. Then she tenses up inexplicably.

"Hi! Yeah, me too."

Cautiously, she attempts to return the hug.

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

Sakari releases her immediately once the other girl tenses. But at the look on Ai-Ling's face, her reaction is admittedly less compassionate.

Since she's giggling.

"Oh no," Sakari murmurs, one hand at her mouth, hiding her grin. "You're going to have an awful time when you meet Mom."

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

Panic!

"Why?" Ai-Ling says, wide-eyed. "Is she going to hate me?"

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

This, apparently, is not anywhere near the response that Sakari suspected. She blinks, stunned by the question. "What? No, of course not. She's just... huggy. Really physically affectionate."

She has the grace to look a little abashed in her grinning right after she says that, shrugging a bit. "I guess we all are. Though Pay's more likely to wrestle you than hug you."

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

"I can wrestle!" Ai-Ling assures her, nodding hard. "It's just that no one around here hugs much. I can learn."

Apparently 'hugging' is a trial she's willing to go through for the sake of Miki.

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

"Mom will tell you she's too old and feeble to wrestle," Sakari informs her future sister-in-law sadly, "about five seconds before she lands you on your butt."

She grins again, like sisters sharing secrets, though Ai-Ling's far too uncomfortable around her to really remind her of Panya yet. "She likes hugging more than fighting, though. Are you planning on visiting them?"

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, of course," Ai-Ling says. "Soon as I can get out of here, we're heading South."

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Sakari looks incredibly enthused about this, grin brightening. "When? After the wedding? Did Miki write to our parents yet?"

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

"Miki?" Ai-Ling replies, tilting her head. "Write? Seriously?

"I wrote to them. But it only went out yesterday."

[weighandbalance.livejournal.com]

"I know he knows how," Sakari argues with a giggle, "if only because I had to take lessons with him."

She looks like she might be refraining from hugging the girl again, hands clasped in front of her tightly. "They'll be so excited to get a letter from you. You should have seen my mom's face when she realized she couldn't come with me to meet you. She was so jealous."

[blueisboring.livejournal.com]

"Why couldn't she come?"

Ai-Ling's genuine with the question.

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"She's really not supposed to travel," Sakari explains, apparently unsurprised that Miki never mentioned this. "She was such a great warrior for so long, but... well, she says she used her body up too quick. She can still fight and walk and everything but traveling is really hard on her."

...and because Sakari insisted it wouldn't be at all helpful to the new independent and powerful image of the South if her parents escorted her everywhere.

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"Oh."

Ai-Ling frowns for a second, unsure what to do with the sudden wave of pity, but she quickly grins again. "I guess we'll have to get there as quickly as possible.

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"She'll love it," Sakari assures her, grinning brightly. "Mom and Dad both, they can't wait to meet you." She beams, already fond of her future sister-in-law and seeing no reason why she shouldn't consider her family already.

"You'll get to meet Panya, too. I bet you'll get along great with her."

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"Miki says she's an unbearable brat," Ai-Ling says.

"So I love her already."