Evening falls and the day goes out in a blaze, the sunset igniting the sky. Katara sits on the stairs to the beach house, the sweat on her back cooling slowly. The wind is mild. The sea is calm. Suki is beside her, and her breath follows the rhythm of the waves.
They don't spar together often, it doesn't happen that way, but today it did and it was good. Suki is a born warrior. Katara clings fiercely to her hard-earned skill, but Suki wields her fans with the certainty of someone who was granted their art. It's an advantage except when it's not.
Katara closes her eyes and lets the last rays of daylight paint bright red swirling dragons on the inside of her eyelids. She allows herself to drift, thinking of nothing, so when Suki speaks, voice as low as it is sudden, Katara is momentarily shook off balance.
"What was she like?" Suki asks. "The Water Tribe princess."
Her eyes are serious and frank and Katara ducks out from under them to adjust her sandal, wins time.
Yue was silk and softness around a resolve as hardy as steel. She had warm smiles and on the surface her eyes were courteous and correct while cheerful wit glittered at the bottom. She kept her back straight but her neck down, and her robes always covered her feet.
Suki is leather and grass and natural confidence. She lets her anger flare and her happiness shine and she laughs without restraint. She commands her troops with callused hands and paints her eyelids with graceful fingers.
They differ in a lot of ways.
The way Katara's breath hitches is the same.
She straightens and meets Suki's eyes, but just as she's about to tell her these things - some, not all - the other girl shakes her head.
"I'm sorry. It was a stupid thing to ask." She takes Katara's hand and squeezes it as though repenting. "I'm so glad we'll be sisters," she says with a smile.
Katara smiles back.
"Me, too."
The words only hitch a little.