Honora's Great Escape (feat. Bumi)
(insert disclaimer here)
Author's introduction: So, this is my first attempt at writing fanfiction for the fandom. If you wish to disembark, lifejackets are stored under your seats. Honora is Zuko's daughter, and thus named because of Tumblr. Fair warning: creative license widely applied, so if something doesn't seem quite right, please refrain from hanging, drawing and quartering me and instead send a review so I can reply and try to defend myself/make up excuses/fix it /sob.
PART ONE
"Everything in the universe is interconnected, Honora." The old man took a long sip of his tea and sighed appreciatively.
The teenager seated opposite him did likewise, except without the sigh. "What do you mean?" Honora appreciated her tea-time with grand-uncle Iroh. It always made her feel a little calmer afterwards, and it was amusing watching father throw up his arms and mutter about how he was corrupting her tea-free existence.
"Avatar Aang was once told that separation was an illusion. The Fire Nation, Water Tribes, and Earth Kingdom might all seem very different, but underneath it all… Every element can contain a trace of the others, if only you look close enough."
"Like how aunt Toph found earth in metal?" She shifted her legs a little to prevent a bout of pins and needles.
"Yes, that is an example. But I mean like finding earth in fire, or even finding fire in water."
Honora frowned. "Earth in fire. I suppose that would be like lava."
"Mmm." He took another sip.
"But what about fire in water? Wouldn't the water put the fire out?"
Grand-uncle Iroh shrugged, and was about to reply when there was a knock on the door and one of the palace servants stepped in. "I'm very sorry to interrupt, but it's time for Honora's firebending lesson."
Honora looked at Iroh. "Go on," he said. "I'll see you … oh, at dinner, I guess."
She frowned. "Grand-uncle, not that I want you to go, of course, but don't you usually live above your tea-shop?" He was insistent in constantly having a hand in running it, although he was a frequent visitor to the Fire Nation palace.
"Ah, don't tell me you've forgotten already! The gang is having its annual reunion today, remember? And of course, I was invited."
Honora clapped a palm to her forehead in exasperation. How had she forgotten? "Thanks for the reminder, grand-uncle." She placed her tea-cup back on the table before getting up, bowing, and briskly walking to the training grounds.
Honora usually loved firebending. Of course, it helped that she was rather good at it. But she was rather distracted throughout her lesson that day. After her initial excitement at seeing her friends again, Iroh's statement kept popping up in her head.
She kicked and punched the air, fire blasting from her fists.
Fire in water. How do you get fire in water?
The first sequence of movements merged seamlessly into the second as she jumped and rolled into the next sequence.
Fire in earth was lava, which was basically just really hot rock, right?
Flames whirled around her torso, but she was only partially paying attention to what she was doing as she frowned. For some reason, her mind kept fixating on hot rock.
Mentally shaking her head, she started to move onto the next sequence but, momentarily distracted, her foot slipped and she wobbled in the middle of her kata.
Her instructor held up a hand and frowned down at her. "Princess, what's the problem? You appear to be quite distracted."
"…Nothing, sir." Hot rock. Heated rock.
He sighed. "Just concentrate on the kata- oh, good afternoon, your highness." He bowed to someone behind Honora.
Honora turned. It was her father, Fire Lord Zuko. She did the same, bowing for a moment, then straightening. "Hello, father."
He smiled at her before addressing the instructor. "How is her lesson going?"
"Good, good, she's just revising one of her katas. Honora, why don't you show your father what you've been practising."
Honora nodded and told her mind to shut up, but it refused to listen.
As she went through her flame fists and fire kicks, the words kept chasing each other around her head. It didn't help matters one bit.
Hot. Fire. Heat. Water. Hot. Fire in water. Hot. Water.
Honora's mind whirled along with her body. Hot water? Would fire in water simply be hot water? And if she could bend that fire- perhaps- perhaps-
Agni. She missed a step again and her instructor frowned. "From the beginning again, princess."
She'd tell uncle later. First, she needed to finish her firebending lesson.
Grand-uncle Iroh was calmly polishing off the last of the tea when Honora came rushing in again. He looked up at the sweaty teenager. "Back so soon, Honora?"
She took this as an invitation to explain her train of thought.
Iroh had to ask for her story twice before he understood. "Oh, so you think there might be fire in hot water. I see what you mean… Like the heat. Very clever!"
"Yes, but would it be possible to bend that heat? It's like fire, right?"
"Well, theoretically, I suppose it would be possible. I don't see why it wouldn't work…" said Iroh thoughtfully.
Honora called a servant over, and soon a pot of hot water over a brazier was sitting in front of them. She raised her hands, but paused as she realised she had no idea how to begin. "Grand-uncle… I don't know how I should start."
"Hmm. Well, you're trying to manipulate little bits of fire. Maybe imagine you're trying to bend a candle flame."
She reached out towards the water, feeling the heat broil her hand. Then she flicked her hands up, as she would to augment a candle flame.
Nothing. Not even a ripple.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
"Can't you just do it and show me?" she grumbled, playing around with the fire in the brazier.
"I would..."
Honora brightened.
"…but I don't know how to do it either." He lit a fire in his hand and heated up the last cup of tea before sitting back and drinking it. "Mmmm."
She sighed. Perhaps if she tried making the heat slightly bigger? She closed her eyes and sought out the heat again, feeling the blob of warmth pulse in her fingertips… Then with a flicking motion, she channelled her chi into the heat.
"Arghhh!" She fell backwards with a startled cry as the brazier fire suddenly exploded in her face, upsetting the pot of water. Okay, she thought, breathing deeply, let's try again.
One hour and numerous pots of water later, Iroh was snoring gently to one side, oblivious to his grand-niece's frustrated shouts as her temper finally snapped and she started kicking the pot around. "Why," kick, "won't," kick, "this," kick, "work?!" The last kick was particularly vicious and the pot bounced off the wall next to Iroh's head.
He stirred and yawned. "How is the-"
"It's not working!" she groaned, giving the dented, abused pot one final kick.
"Don't stress about it, niece. It is very difficult for even a fully-realised avatar to bend lava."
"But this isn't lava," Honora said, pacing around the room like a caged tiger-dillo, "it's water and it should be a million times easier to bend-"
"Ah, but you're not an avatar, are you? This will take time, Honora."
"Ughhh." She collapsed into a chair.
"Have patience and try again later. Take a break. Practise your knife-throwing. Perhaps meditat-"
Honora got up from her chair. "You know, I think I will." She strode out the door.
"Throw knives or meditate?" Iroh called after her. No answer. He sighed. Considering her parents, he highly suspected it was the former.
Honora methodically emptied her sheaths of weapons- her first lot of knives, then her second lot of knives, then her first holster of darts, then her second holster of darts. The rhythmic thudding of her weapons against the target soothed her temper, and she soon started practising in earnest.
She had emptied and resheathed her knives and darts for the third time, and was about to start throwing again when a pale, slim hand corrected the positioning of her elbow. Honora whirled around, coming face-to-face with her mother, Fire Lady Mai. "Mother!" she said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"I live here," replied Mai calmly.
"No- I mean-"
Mai decided to spare her daughter and cut to the chase. "I hear you were a little distracted in firebending training today. What was that about?"
"Oh, I was talking with grand-uncle over tea and I was thinking about what he said during training when I had a brainwave so I ran off to try it out."
"You have training for a reason."
"I just got a little excited, mother, and I guess I became careless."
Mai raised a skeptical eyebrow but said nothing, just as a servant walked in and bowed. "Yes?" Mai asked.
"Fire Lord Zuko says that a Water Tribe ship has been spotted coming into the harbour."
Honora visibly straightened. "That's them!" She turned towards the door but then remembered her mother behind her. "Mother, may I go and greet them?" Mai nodded. A sigh hadn't fully escaped her lips when Honora left the grounds, still clad in her sweaty clothes, and headed for the harbour.
Honora stood on the wharf, standing as close as she could to the edge without getting in the workers' way. She peered out to the horizon, where the unmistakable shape of a Water Tribe ship was growing larger and larger and squinted, seeing some coloured dots waving at her.
As the ship drew closer she could finally make out their details. The one dressed in blue waving a water whip had to be Kya. That meant the slightly shorter orangey blob next to her must be Tenzin, and the one in brown next to him and waving as frantically as Kya was Bumi. She waved back excitedly.
Suddenly Kya stopped waving. She appeared to be bending something… an ice boat? Honora grinned hugely as she realised what Kya was about to do. Kya lowered the boat into the water and jumped in, motioning to Bumi and Tenzin. Bumi tugged at Tenzin's sleeve, but Tenzin shook his head, saying…something. It was impossible to hear from this distance.
Finally, Bumi threw his arms theatrically in the air and just pushed Tenzin off the edge of the ship. His arms flailed for a moment before he remembered his airbending and landed neatly in the boat, muttering to himself. Then Bumi jumped in, almost upsetting it, and Kya started waterbending the ice boat forwards.
The makeshift boat soon reached the wharf. "Kya! Bumi! Tenzin! It's so good to see you all again!" Honora said, beaming.
Kya waterbent herself up from the boat, splashing her siblings in the process, and hugged her. "I haven't seen you for ages! How is everything going?"
"Great! I'm so glad you're here, we're going to have a wonderful time!"
A gust of wind blew into Honora's face, and she peered past Kya's head to see Tenzin landing gently onto the wharf.
He brushed droplets of water off his orange and yellow robes, a disgruntled expression on his face. "Hello, Honora. How are you?"
"Oh, I'm good, thank you. You?"
"Fine, although a little damp, thanks to somebody-"
"Aw, don't be such a wet blanket, Tenz. You're just sad you didn't get to be a loner and ride Oogi over." With an ungraceful lurch the two girls stumbled forwards to include the airbender in their embrace. Honora patted him on the head mid-embrace. He grimaced, then sighed, resigned.
Suddenly they simultaneously tripped backwards a few metres as something large, heavy and wet collided with them.
"Honora!" Bumi...boomed (there was really no other way to describe his yell). "How's my favourite Fire Nation princess doing?" A dripping hand ruffled her top-knot and, extracting an arm from the tangle of limbs, she batted it away.
"I'm the only Fire Nation princess you know," she said, mock-sternly. "But yes, it's good to see you too."
Footsteps came up behind them, and she felt the pressure of the three bodies leave her as the three siblings hurriedly detached themselves from each other and bowed to the Fire Lord and Fire Lady.
"Kya. Tenzin. Bumi. Welcome to the Fire Nation." She could hear amusement in his voice.
"Where's everyone else?" asked Mai.
"Mum's still on the ship with aunt Toph and Uncle Sokka," said Kya. "And dad got caught up in some Avatar business so he'll be arriving in an hour or so."
"Aunt Suki won't be coming until three more days, apparently there's some Kyoshi island... stuff that she needs to sort out with the twins," Bumi added.
The shouts of the dock workers increased in volume as the ship pulled closer to the wharf. Honora moved her friends out of the way of the descending gangplank before stepping forwards to join her father in greeting the new arrivals.
Aunt Toph was the first off the ship, muttering curses on ships under her breath as she stomped down the gangplank and shrugged off any efforts made to guide her. She stopped in front of Honora and her father. "Hey, Sparky. And Mrs. Sparky. And Sparky Junior." Not bothering to make any conversation, she wobbled onto the solid stone part of the wharf and earthbent herself a chair. "Next time I'm going on Appa with Aang."
Uncle Sokka was close behind. "Ah, but then you'd miss my wonderful company!" He bowed to Mai and Zuko, then shook his head, laughed and gave her father one of those back-slapping man-hugs. "Good to see you again, Zuko. How's the Fire-Lord-y stuff coming along?"
As her father got drawn into a conversation with Sokka, Katara stepped off the gangplank. "Sokka! How many times do I have to tell you, insert-weapon-here-bending is not a type of bending!" she admonished. "Hello, Zuko. Hello, Mai. Lovely day, isn't it?"
"How was your journey here? I heard there were rough seas a few days ago."
"Oh, it wasn't too bad, except Toph-" The ground underneath aunt Katara shifted and she just managed to avoid tripping.
"Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I can't listen," snipped Toph.
"I'm rolling my eyes at you, Toph. Anyway, I have to say, it seems like Honora never stops growing."
Honora mentally compared her height against Kya and slowly grinned. "I think I'm as tall as Kya now."
"Hey! You're not allowed to be taller than me!"
Bumi took a few steps back and peered exaggeratedly at the top of their heads. "Hmmm... it's Kya! No, no, Honora... wait, maybe Kya..." Honora flicked some sparks at him at the same time Kya splashed him with more water.
("Kya!" a freshly-damp Tenzin grumbled.)
They bickered happily all the way back to the palace.
Going back to the palace took a little longer than it should have due to the curious crowds that gathered to have a gawk at the Gaang, despite keeping the ostrich-horse-drawn carriages to the back streets as much as possible. But after that, it wasn't long before the group dropped off their luggage in their rooms and gathered on one of the private pavilions on the palace grounds for refreshments.
Bumi was reclining on one of the padded benches on the pavilion, chomping on a pastry. "Aaah. Have I ever told you how sweet it is you're royalty?"
"You could stand to mention it more- hey, that's my seat!" Honora threw a grape at him. It stuck for a moment in his nest of dark brown hair then rolled onto the floor. A stern look from her father, however, prevented any further retaliation.
Suddenly a familiar groan sounded in the air above them. Everyone looked up and saw two flying-bison-shaped blobs circle around them, before descending and landing with a gentle thud next to the pavilion amidst calls of greetings.
Tenzin ran over to the smaller bison and patted it fondly. "Oogi! Thanks for bringing him, dad."
"Welcome, Aang! It's great you made it!"
He grinned. "I wouldn't have missed it for anything...wait," he said, eyes focussing on the table of food in the pavilion, "are those egg custard tarts?"
Honora grinned and passed him the plate. "Here, uncle."
Two tarts rapidly disappeared down his throat, almost faster than Sokka running to an all-you-can-eat meat buffet. "Mmm, thanks Honora." He looked around and smiled. "You've grown a lot, I think you should be taller than Kya by now, is that right?"
"Dad, how could you!" her friend wailed, as everyone laughed.
Zuko waved a hand at the servants, who started carrying away the table of food. "As much as I enjoy informal gatherings, unfortunately, I'm obliged to throw a formal dinner for the Avatar and the heroes of the war, so I suggest using the next few hours to mentally prepare yourself." He grimaced. "And before you ask," he added, seeing Kya take a breath to speak, "the invitation, of course, extends to the children of the Avatar."
Kya, Bumi and Tenzin all deflated like punctured waterskins.
The wings the guests were currently staying in were only a corridor away from the Royal Wing of the palace, so it was only natural that Kya come over to Honora's suite to muck about and get ready for the dinner, or so Kya said.
"C'mon, Honora!" Kya jiggled the door open and started pulling her inside.
Honora frowned, and looked down the corridor where the brothers were passing by. "What about Bumi and Tenz? I'm their host as well."
Tenzin heard. "Don't worry, Honora," he called, "We don't mind. Anyway, you two haven't had girl-bonding time for a while." He grimaced slightly.
"Yeah!" Bumi smiled a custard-yellow grin and slung an arm around his brother. Tenzin's grimace became more pronounced. "We'll be fine! We've got the whole week to catch up after all."
Honora wavered. "Well, if you insist."
"That we do! Come on, Tenz!" Arm still firmly wrapped around the airbender, Bumi walked him away, Tenzin half-heartedly trying to get out of his grasp.
"See you!" Honora waved and turned to go inside, then something clicked in her mind. "Hey Kya, there's something I've been trying to do with water..." She eased the door shut behind her, smiling to herself as Kya babbled on. This week was going to be fantastic.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Now, this fic isn't finished yet (you won't escape quite so easily /cackles) although most of it's done. So I'll probably be uploading a chunk every day or two (so that I get more time to finish the end bit orz). A review would be wonderful. If you're worded-out, even a smiley face will do.
Up next: Interlude- where shit starts to get real. Sort of.