[FANFIC] (well, more of a drabble really) We Know This Much

[giefu]

Title: We Know This Much
Universe: Avatar: The Last Airbender (crossed over with the nation-personifying of Hetalia)
Character(s) or Pairing(s): Lee (Fire Nation), Tseten (Air Nomad)
Rating: G
Warnings: Mentions of genocide
Summary: The Fire Nation does not dream

(Poem by Sappho found in another, much better fic about Janet Van Dyne of the Avengers by schmevil )

We know this much

Death is an evil;

we have the gods'
 word
for it; they too

would die if death

were a good thing



- Sappho

The Fire Nation does not dream. He most definitely does not dream about temples perched halfway up mountains or hanging under cliffs, full of monks in saffron robes who do not fight back, will not fight back, their prayers somehow worse than the cries of pain that they suppress. He does not dream of a woman with long brown hair, her bones delicate like a bird's. Just as easily broken. He does not hear the snap as she steps over the balcony and falls.

Another dream he does not have (not any more) is pushing through crowds of people; soldiers, civilians, priests,- to try and reach a figure he knows is Avatar Roku. He needs to speak to the Avatar, urgently, but by the time he arrives he always forgets what it was he was going to say. Sometimes it feels like it should be an apology, though the Fire Nation does not know what he has done. There are so many things. Roku never speaks to him anyway, which is odd, because Lee knows that they were friends. When Roku turns around, he is someone else. Someone dead. Then Lee wakes up in a room that is far too big, and passes the rest of the long night alone.

The Fire Nation does not dream any longer for the simple reason that he does not sleep.

I am not afraid of dying. Tseten had said in the old days, when they were immortal. I am afraid of who would kill me.