Side Chapter - Is that a Date?

Michael looked between the knife in the girl's hand and her face a couple of times. "You know, I think even if you stab me in the throat, I won't die." Ty Lee and the unknown girl looked at him like he was crazy, not knowing what to do after his absurd comment. "Oh sorry, you should start yelling at me in an attempt to protect Ty Lee from the 'pervert', please continue. That was just a thought for later."

"Right... Ahem." She raised the knife higher and pointed the blade at him. "Get away from her and quickly! Ty Lee, you too!"

Ty Lee just tilted her head to the side. "Nah, he already ruined the moment. Azo, please close the door behind you." She finally released Michael and he took a step to the side so as not to anger Azo. Even if he thought he could win the fight with ease, he knew better than to anger an already enraged woman.

Azo closed the door and crossed her arms over her chest, the blade never leaving her hand. "Please say that you know who this man is."

Michael looked at Azo and narrowed his eyes. He had never seen her in the TV series, but he knew that there were many more people in the real world than in the cartoon. The girl had black hair, narrow brown eyes, and blood red lips. There was a small horizontal scar under her left eye, as if someone had run a knife across her face. 'Judging by the size and shape of the scar, it was a dull knife. Most likely a knife for meat.'

He thought that it was quite possible that this scar was from a spear or other weapon, but Michael worked with knives a lot, so it was easy to determine which knife was used to make a scar. At least it's easier for him than it was for others.

"Actually, no! But even the best of friends once never knew each other, so I decided to get to know Michael better!" She smiled and put her golden 'Is that a kokoshnik in a shape of a fire?' in the chest beside her bed along with her dress. "Just look what he did to my hair!" She tossed her hair over her shoulder and let it hang loosely down to her back.

"You've never seen him before! He might be the Earth Kingdom spy and you won't even know it!" She hissed harshly, barely able to keep herself from screaming. "Or worse, he could be an assassin sent from Ba Sing Se!"

Ty Lee frowned and looked between Azo and Michael. She didn't like that her friend started yelling at her the moment she let someone into her room. She noticed that this happened every time she met someone new and showed interest in them, but decided to let it go, not wanting to destroy the fragile peace between the circus troupe.

But as with many things, she began to get bored of it soon enough. "Hey, if I were an assassin, I'd have killed her several times by now- no offense." He looked at Ty Lee with apology in his eyes.

"I can stand up for myself if you didn't know. You remember perfectly well what happened to the last one who tried to force himself on me." Ty Lee crossed her arms and glared at Azo with annoyance.

Azo only huffed, knowing that she couldn't win this argument. She gave Michael one last hateful look and flew out of the room like a bat out of Hell. "I feel like there's some history here. But I won't ask."

Ty Lee sighed, but smiled again and grabbed Michael's arm. "Thank you, I'd rather not talk about it. Now let's go, I'll show you the games for visitors!" She ran forward and Michael had no choice but to follow.

"There are games for visitors here?" He muttered and let the energetic girl drag him forward.

Now that he didn't have to hide in the shadows, Michael was able to turn his attention to the crowd of people gathered at the entrance to the main tent. There were several smaller tents in the same red and black colors as everything else in the Fire Nation.

Ty Lee skillfully weaved through the crowd, leading Michael to the first tent. People around seemed to ignore their presence. Michael was very tempted to steal someone's money, but he knew he should better watch out. There most likely were already local thieves here, and he didn't want to mess with them.

There were not as many different games in the tents as one might think. Everything around him looked more like a medieval festival with elements of Fire Bending, but Michael didn't mind. Ty Lee took him from tent to tent where they had a little competition between themselves.

They stopped at the first tent where there were not many people. "Come one, come all! Test your aim in throwing knives!"

Ty Lee gasped and pulled Michael even closer. "Mai will annoy me next time we meet if she finds out I didn't try it!"

They stopped at a wooden table with dozens of identical throwing knives, in the distance there were three targets at different distances: five meters, ten meters and twenty meters.

"Aren't these games open every time after the show?" Michael asked in confusion.

Ty Lee shook her head. "No, we usually don't have enough tent workers. You know how colonies are."

In the end, Michael won 5 to 4. They ran between the tents so fast that he didn't even remember what they were playing. But he remembered that he had won the knife throw, so he was content. Ty Lee was pouting because of his win, so he decided to fix things up a bit.

"Hey, wanna go grab a bite? My treat." He extended his hand towards her and she took it in hers, with a huge smile on her face. Michael wasn't sure where they were going, but he suddenly remembered a food stall near where the cabbages were "killed."

"Let's go, I know just the place." Michael was now pulling Ty Lee towards the city. They didn't notice the figure in the shadows following them.