ab·strac·tion /æbˈstræk n]

–noun

1. apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances.

2. an impractical idea; something visionary and unrealistic.

3. the act of taking away or separating; withdrawal

4. secret removal

Origin:
1540–50; LL abstractiōn- (s. of abstractiō ) separation.

A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N

BUTTERFLIES

"Hush, little baby. Don't say a word,

and never mind that noise you heard.

It's just the monster under your bed.

It's in your closet. It's in your head."

.

"It's raining."

I stared through the wild and dangerous downpour at Kaida, who stood just a few feet away. She had said it so calmly, so evenly, that I had almost not even heard her over the pounding of the typhonic storm. She looked sideways off the deck and up at the offending sky, then slowly back to where I stood, partially covered by the doorway, as if asking my opinion on her comment. Somewhere behind her, lightning cracked the sky, splitting the clouds that covered it.

"Very perceptive," I replied, my voice equally as controlled as hers'. The shadowbender's emerald eyes flashed.

"Nothing good ever happens when it rains," she explained, gazing up at the overhanging clouds once again.

"I didn't think you were superstitious," I answered, still trying to fathom why she had to be standing out in the rain to know that it was raining in the first place. The lunatic had been out on deck for at least an hour, now, and it would take just one badly placed wave to sweep her into the ocean, stick that she was. My right hand twitched as I considered reaching out into the sheets of rain and pulling her back inside. Kaida raised an eyebrow comically.

"I'm not being superstitious," she argued, resting a hand on her hip. "I'm being analytical."

"You're being an idiot," I decided. "You should come inside before you catch a cold."

The shadowbender stuck her tongue out at me, but stepped inside the stairwell anyway, dripping all over me and the floor. I wondered idly what she planned on changing into, since she only owned that one outfit and refused to wear anything of Azula's. Kaida shook her head, rainwater flying from her obsidian hair. I put a hand up to shield my face half-heartedly.

"Where's Iroh?" Kaida inquired, tilting her head sideways and ringing the water out of her hair. The liquid hit the metal floor with an almost musical sound as she looked up toward me for an answer.

"Already asleep," I replied. The sun had set at least an hour ago. It had been a hard day for Uncle, so I'd volunteered to take over for him while he got some rest. Kaida nodded, straightening back up.

"Ehh, I'm going to bed too," she decided, stretching laxidaisily. "Rain makes me tired." I rolled my eyes, walking beside her as she headed toward the room. Just as usual, Kaida treated standing on deck in a near-hurricane like a drizzling walk in park. How predictably unpredictable.

A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N

"Will you stop playing with the light, Kaida?" Zuko demanded from his bed in the corner of the room. "I can't sleep with oversized fireflies circling my head." I looked over at the irritating firebender to find that he had the pillow pulled over his face. He looked stupid.

"The solution is simple, Zuko," I told him solemnly, wondering if maybe he was trying to smother himself; put an end to his own self-inflicted misery. "Stop trying to sleep." Zuko groaned loudly, flipping over onto his stomach as I blatantly ignored him and continued to shadowbend. I twirled the light around my head in a kind of celestial dance, making different shapes and figures out of it. The soft glow of the light soothed my monsoon-induced headache and cleared my muddy thoughts.

I had wondered, at first, if maybe the calming sound of a light rain would ease my tensions. As it turned out, the intense storm had only served to make them worse, but once I was out there it was next to impossible to leave. The play of light and dark just fascinated me; the blinding streak of the lightning as it hit the ship. I could have stayed out there and watched it for hours. If it hadn't been so close to killing me, that is.

"Mhhp thdddb nrr mhh-hn."

"Take the pillow off your face, Zuko," I said, rolling my eyes as he pushed himself off of his face, leaning on his elbows heavily. He gave me a not-very-amused look as I bent a silvery ring of light over his head like a halo, then started laughing.

"Why don't you sleep at night?" he asked again, his tired voice cracking. Spirits, he overworked himself. "You're always tired during the day because of it." I frowned.

"No, I'm not," I denied automatically, stringing the halo into a glowing ribbon in front of Zuko's face. He waved his hand through it lazily, causing the ribbon to dissolve like smoke. I pouted as the amusing night light dissipated, quickly forming another one a safe distance from the tempermental firebender. Zuko raised an eyebrow at my remark in disbelief.

"You fell asleep at the market place yesterday," he reminded me, watching my new self-made lamp distrustfully.

"Pfft . . . pssh," I sputtered defensively. Smoooooth, remarked a sarcastic voice inside my head. I wasn't very fond of that voice. "Yeah, well, maybe if you and Iroh hadn't taken so long at the supply shop and left me at that comfortable table in the square, then I wouldn't have fallen asleep," I offered half-heartedly, crossing my arms as if offended. It was a terrible excuse, and I knew it. He could tell that something was wrong.

Zuko gave me a dull look, apparently thinking it best if he just didn't respond at all. I trailed my stream of personal sunshine absently around my pinky finger, wondering what the young prince was thinking. He simply watched me in silence, the crease between his eyebrows growing more and more pronounced by the minute. I wove the delicate beams of luminescence through and around each other, like thread, encasing my wrist first, then threading them around each individual finger.

After a few minutes' silence, I was almost convinced that Zuko had finally managed to fall asleep. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, he sat bolt upright, making me jump at least a foot off my bed, narrowly avoiding falling onto the cold, iron floor.

"Kaida," he spoke alarmingly, his eyes huge.

"What?" I returned, my freaking out entirely his fault. He ogled at me, his mouth hanging open stupidly; seemingly shocked into silence. What had he seen?

"You're . . ." Zuko's voice trailed off distantly, as if he just couldn't find a way to form the right words for what he had to say to me.

"What?" I demanded again, really getting unnerved. His inability to speak was making me more and more jumpy by the second. "I'm what? Spit it out, princess!"

"You're . . . afraid of the dark," he sputtered uncharacteristically, completely cracking up.

I stared across the room, mortified. If his accusation hadn't made me so angry, the fact that Zuko was actually laughing so hard would've been amusing. I growled, clenching my teeth and glaring at the prince. How dare he say such a thing? I was a shadowbender for pete's sake! Emphasis on the 'shadow' part. What kind of sense did that make?

"I'm not afraid of the dark," I said, my voice strong, though I was admittedly lying in a truthful kind of way. That made no sense at all.

"Uh, huh," Zuko answered, the smirk on his face making my blood start to heat up. Out of pure instinct, and in attempt to make him shut up, I shadowbent all the darkness out of the room for a split moment, causing a bright flare. Zuko let out an annoyed hiss, rubbing his eyes in response as the light stung his vision.

"Crazy woman, trying to blind me," I heard him mutter under his breath as he glared at me. I returned the look with ease.

"I'm not afraid of the dark," I repeated, quieter this time, but considerably more threatening. "I'm just . . . afraid of what's in it." I stared the floor down, refusing to make eye contact with Zuko. Who knew what sort of smug things he would say after-

"What are you afraid of?"

I looked up distrustfully. His expression seemed genuinely confused, now, betraying no hints to the previous amusement that had left his eyes. I hesitated momentarily. I still hadn't found the right opportunity to tell him about the shadow beings. Maybe this was the chance that I'd been waiting for. I bit my lip uncertainly but decided to enlighten him.

"Just trust me in the fact that I've seen much more of the shadows than you ever will," I assured the young prince, not wanting to fling about too much information, too soon. No reason for both of us to have nightmares, after all, I decided. "There are things you can't see. Things you don't want to see."

There were hints of actual concern in Zuko's eyes, now, as he realized exactly what I was saying to him. I had never told anyone outside of my family about my little "shadow world" before, save for Iroh. I gauged his reaction silently, silently vowing not to say anything else unless he asked me.

"Things I can't see . . ." Zuko repeated hoarsely. "What exactly do you mean by that, Kaida?" I paused, trying to organize my thoughts. How could I possibly explain this to him?

"You know how the air nomads used to have flying bison, and their air bending was the only reason they could work them?" I asked experimentally, praying my history was at least partially accurate. Zuko nodded, so it must have been. "Well, for shadowbenders - or, me really - there are creatures that only I can see." My words were slowing down as I tried not to sound too much like a mental patient. "Other people can see what they do to the surrounding area, but can't control them."

"So, what you're saying is that there could be something attacking you and no one could do anything about it?" I grimaced. Bingo, sparky.

"Trust me, Zuko," I said bitterly. "If something from the shadow world has found a way to be attacking me, we're dead anyway." Zuko frowned; probably at my apparent lack of optimism.

"Why is that?"

"As far as I know," I answered casually, still trying to decipher why he hadn't asked me if I'd lost my mind, yet. "The only thing that's ever gotten rid of the shadow beings is my bending."

"Good to know," he muttered darkly, pushing himself off his cot and standing up. I watched with interest as the young prince sauntered over to my bed and sat down next to me, an unconcerned expression on his face. I arched one eyebrow in question, internally wondering if he was a lot more exhausted than I thought he was.

"Um, no offense, Zuko," I said cautiously. "But, what the heck are you doing?"

Zuko fell backward onto my bed, putting one arm behind his head. Despite the fact that he was clearly lying as far away from me as the tiny piece of furniture would allow, I still couldn't ignore the fact that Zuko was on my bed. It kept nagging me in the back of my mind, refusing to leave me alone. He lifted his free hand, fire springing up from his palm. I watched carefully as he twirled the embers in between his fingers distractedly.

"Hmmph," he started evenly, closing his eyes. "Since you're not going to let me sleep, I might as well keep you occupied." I was about to ask pointedly what exactly he meant by that little comment, but he answered my unspoken question before I could put a voice to it.

I sucked in a breath as a butterfly made entirely out of flames appeared in Zuko's palm. It lifted off from his open hand, beating it's blazing wings as it flew circles around me. The golden flames danced up and down it's body, creating an ever changing pattern that had me mesmerized. It reminded me of the first time I had learned to shadowbend. Entranced, I lifted my hand to touch the fiery insect, completely forgetting what it was made of.

"Don't even think about it," Zuko murmured, grabbing my forearm before I could burn myself, even though his eyes were still closed. What the-? Well, that was strange, I thought, leaning down over Zuko's seemingly-unconscious form, studying the young prince closely to see if he was peeking. He wasn't.

"Kaida, quit staring at me," he said, a few of his words slurred together with exhaustion. I quickly looked away, somewhat unsettled by the fact that he knew I was watching him with his eyes closed, but just shook my head.

"I wasn't staring at you," I contradicted halfheartedly, turning my attention back to Zuko's butterfly. I successfully kept my eyes off the boy on my bed, but with much more difficulty than I would have liked to admit to myself.

"Liar," he murmured sleepily.

"Don't flatter yourself, Zuko," I grinned, creating a butterfly out of my own element, though it was not nearly as good as Zuko's. Mine did not move as much like a real butterfly and every now and then it would become slightly transparent.

"You're just special," I told it in a voice that I normally reserved for small children and house pets.

"What did you just say?" Zuko asked me, sounding a more than a little concerned for my mental state.

"I wasn't talking to you," I said bluntly. Apparently, the prince knew well enough not to respond when I said something odd. Oh, well. It wasn't any of his business, anyway. I could talk to nonliving things if I felt like it.

I shifted my pathetic excuse for a butterfly around the room, noticing that the further away I sent the apparition, the less visible it became. I turned to see Zuko's eyes open again, though he looked incredibly tired. He watched my sad attempt at shadowbending as it flew crookedly around us, looking slightly injured and more than a little mentally challenged.

"You don't have to stay awake with me, you know," I reminded him. "I'm a big girl. Seriously." By the morning, he would be dead on his feet if he didn't sleep, and, although it would be hysterical to screw around with someone who likely wouldn't even remember any of it later, it would not be helpful for travel. We kind of needed him to help guide the ship, since Iroh wasn't feeling well.

"With my luck," he muttered drowsily. "You'll disappear into some shadow the moment I fall asleep." Zuko held one finger out and I let my butterfly land on it, though not as gracefully as I was going for. Poor, stupid butterfly, I thought.

"So," I responded slowly, my voice amused. "You're afraid I'll disappear?" He turned his gaze toward me, looking a bit irritated. That was a 'yes,' Zuko style. I grinned.

"Eh, don't worry," I instructed, easily brushing off any concern. "As long as I can shadowbend, they'll never be able to get me. Nothing's going to happen."

Of course, that was before I found out that I was dead wrong.

A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N

A/N: Yays for a Metallica quote, eh? Man, I am too proud of myself about that. I've had this chapter written out since I first started Blackout. I just never knew where to patch it into the story. I went a little fluffy, so I hope it isn't too out of character.

Also (THIS IS IMPORTANT) if anyone on here hasn't read Blackout, then you probably should. This is the sequel to that story, and you will be confused if you're just reading this and not the first part.

Anyhoo, let us all hope that Kaida's butterfly get's some help, yeah? Read&Review! Srsly.