The Pool, Saturday afternoon

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah opened the door to the pool and held it for Jaime, smiling. "And here we are. Pretty easy to find." She hit the lights, and grinned as the pool lit up, dropping her towel and cover-up onto a nearby chair, then kicked off her flip-flops. "High dive, low dive, lanes. Pretty much a standard pool. All rumors of sharks have yet to be anything more than stories.

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[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

Because Azula felt she didn't have enough on her plate training Hayley she was going to play a game of pig-chicken with the swimming pool.

Except she didn't expected people to be there. This was a bad idea, she should leave.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Azula." Dinah surfaced from the water, blinking in surprise when she saw Azula. Water was the last place she expected to see Azula. "You ... swim?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Dinah," she said, equally surprised. "I do but perhaps now isn't the time."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Why not?" Dinah swam to the ladder, and added, "I won't push you in, or anything. And it's a big pool." She gestured behind her. "No one will bug you, if you want to practice on your own."

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

She eyed the pool, it was big and maybe people won't mind if she just... sat on the edge.

"Perhaps," Azula said, moving a little closer. "I didn't know people frequented the pool the last few times I went here the only person I saw was Ender."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I don't very often, but I mentioned it to Jaime, and felt like I should show him where it was," Dinah told her, wiping water off her face. "It's a good change from my usual running. And weight-lifting." She shook her head, and took a step back, wondering if Azula was still water-phobic or whatever. "I'll leave you to do your practice."

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"No matter, I'm not going to practice," she said. "I'll join you."

By sitting on the edge of the pool.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhkay then. Dinah decided to take a break on the edge of the pool too, and might as well check on something she'd been wondering about, too. "You know how to swim, right?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Of course!" Azula said. This was why she hated Dinah seeing her meltdown. "I used to swim a hundred laps back in the Fire Nation."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

And yet she wasn't even getting into the water now? Thinking, Dinah slipped into the water, standing so that Azula could see it was only a bit above waist height. "It's fun, isn't it?" She tried to concentrate, and aim a little telekinetic wave away from herself, toward the center of the pool. Hmmm. The best she could do was a splash.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

Azula watched Dinah create the wave, "Decent for a five year old waterbender."

With her leg Azula drew the symbol of the Water Tribes, "Remind me to tell you about the philosophies of bending on our next training."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah really, really wanted to stick her tongue out at Azula, but again, trying to be mature, not childish; so she settled for a dirty look, and refrained from splashing the other girl. That would've been mean. Moral high ground secured, Dinah used more force this time, a slightly longer wave. "You know, telling me little kids can do it better? Doesn't mean much. I'll keep trying."

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"It was an observation," she said piously, "I didn't mean for you to react to it."

Liar, she did say it to get a rise out of Dinah.

She took a deep breath and then slid into the water by the time she was inside the pool she was clenching her fists.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah rolled her eyes, then studiously didn't watch Azula get into the water, chatting onward. "Did you start firebending when you were five? Or littler?" Splaaaash. Hunh. If she angled the force down hard enough, and twisted, it went up higher.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

Azula forced herself to relax. She unclenched her fists. Azula reminded herself that she was only affected when she was forcefully submerged.

"Formally, yes. Informally, I was younger."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"How much younger?" Dinah got bored with the splashing and did a handstand for a second, then surfaced again. "And do Earthbenders start that young too? Are there Airbenders?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"I would imagine so, the abilities would emerge young and a lot of people make an effort to school young benders. Can you imagine what would happen if an unschooled bender was let loose? Chaos." Azula said the word with distaste.

"Yes, there is an Airbender."

And if what her intelligence were accurate about the Avatar and the Water Tribe peasant in a few years there would be more of those nimble brats.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Just one?" Dinah asked, surprised, and turned to look at her. "And yeah. That's half of why I'm here. Just to learn to do something with these aside from trying not to break things accidentally."

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Just the one," she confirmed then reluctantly amended, "for the moment."

"Really? You weren't sent here for other reasons?" Like, instead of being incarcerated in prison they send you very far away in the off chance you won't be able to create a coup against the present government.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Welll, like I said, half the reason." Dinah looked a little embarrassed, then sighed out, "My sister suddenly inherited a lot of money and property, there were reporters tailing us everywhere for the story, I broke the nose of one, and it made life difficult. The end." Not that she was sorry.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

That's more like it. She smirked, "Why, Miss Dinah, I didn't know you were such a law breaker."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah snorted, thinking of her Other Job in New Gotham. "Well, I like to keep current, you know how it is." She shrugged a little, and said, "My sisters found this place, but they didn't know all about it. I talked them into letting me stay once they knew, after a month. I'd only been at my old school a semester or so anyway. Not that difficult to transfer." She hit the water again, watching it fountain up. "It's harder to get in trouble here than you'd think."

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"You can turn that into a shield if you create it high enough," she said. It turned out it was harder to stop giving people advice when you've already started.

"I don't know if Zuzu knew about the island's peculiarities. Knowing him I think he just lucked out."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hunh." Dinah gave the water a speculative look, and tried again, then said, "I can't hold it there, though." She had to grin at the nickname again. "So he just wanted you to go to school..." And why was that again? Because they couldn't stand each other? "...and he found the weirdest place ever."

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"He wanted me to go to school again," she corrected. "I already finished my studies in the Royal Fire Academy. I was the youngest to graduate and I was top of my class but my brother thinks that's not enough. That I have more to learn."

Like being nice.