FIRE & WATER
Impressed with the firebending skills and wit of a young woman they meet in an Earth Kingdom port, Iroh persuades Prince Zuko to hire her to help them capture the Avatar. She has different plans, though maintaining the balance between her ethics and her heart becomes her hardest fight as she falls for a complicated young man. [Reboot]
Some IMPORTANT NOTES on my changes to the canon:
-In the show, Zuko's age is 16 and Azula's is 14. I'm switching their birth order and aging them both up, putting Zuko at 18 and Azula at 20. I'm leaving Zuko's banishment at age 13.
-I am exaggerating the racism and racial tensions between the types of benders and cultures in the story.
-I am maturing the canon overall and making it darker. There are explicit sexual scenes and main characters will kill.
Even though it's an older story, please feel free to review. I still really enjoy getting them!
Since this story parallels Avatar: The Last Airbender, some action and dialogue is taken directly from the episodes, so I take the time now to credit Avatar with that.
FIRE & WATER
Chapter 1: Three's a Crowd
...
I DON'T NEED ANY CALMING TEA!
-Prince Zuko
...
"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it, Gen. She'll come around. For a handsome man like you, who wouldn't?"
The barman chuckled, rolling his eyes, and rubbed his bald spot pointedly. "That's right. I'm a catch."
Nami grinned, glad he had lightened up. "Could I get another? Go a little easier on the sugar."
The light in the large room was dim, but it smelled pleasantly of cider and wood. There was a sudden loud outburst of hearty laughter, and she turned to see a group of men laughing in the back of the tavern, their drinks slopping over themselves and those around them. She shook her head as she watched them, but could not help but smile at the sight. She had been here a little under a week and recognized a few of the faces.
The door behind her opened with a groan, and she gave it a glance, and then blinked twice and stared at the two people entering. She had not expected to see anyone in Fire Nation attire in this obscure little Earth Kingdom port. The skin around her eyes tightened.
One was rather large and aging, and his companion was a tall, lean young man whose dark hair was up in the traditional topknot of someone of Fire Nation prestige. She could not make out precise features in the dim light and did not want to draw attention to herself by looking too hard at them. The two sat at a table in a corner of the tavern and Gen's assistant went to them.
Grimacing, she quickly shrugged off her jacket. It was an old relic from her time in school, and its old-fashioned Fire Nation insignia on the back and on patches on the upper sleeves made it an edgy oddity in the Earth Kingdom, but would draw Fire Nation eyes. Nothing she could do about her boots… They too were of Fire Nation make. She hid them in the shadows under the bar.
But when she glanced up, she saw her attempts had been in vain. The younger of the two newcomers had sharp eyes. It appeared he had noticed everything, because he was staring hard at her from the dimness of their corner table, suspicion etched onto his haughty face.
Ignoring her new cup of spiked cider, Nami stood and dug into her pockets to take out some coins to leave on the counter. It would be best if she left the place before the newcomer decided to confront her.
"Some nice hot ginseng tea, please," she heard the older man say.
She turned to leave, but found the young man blocking her exit, standing uncomfortably close, his expression aggressive. She hated aggressive men, and under any other circumstance, she would have loosened a couple of his teeth. But instead, pure shock froze her.
Now, in better lighting, she recognized him as the banished Prince Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozai.
"Are you Fire Nation? What are you doing here?" he demanded, as if he somehow had the right to know her personal business. His voice was haughty and hostile. A powerful and immediate dislike of him settled itself in her stomach.
"I could ask you the same thing," she replied coldly.
"My business is my own," he growled.
"As is mine."
"Don't you know who I am?"
You're Ozai's little protégée. Right within reach of my knife. Old hatred, like hot blood, rose in her stomach like bile. How many years of tyranny could I erase from the world with just a slash of my blade across that white neck? Her fingers twitched hungrily.
But the moment was yanked away from her. The loud voice of Huojin from a table against the wall commanded the room suddenly, his big fist wrapped tightly around the handle of his pint. "Those two friends o' yours, Nami?" he rumbled, his beady eyes on Prince Zuko, dislike heavy on his features.
"Nowhere near it, Huo."
Huojin grunted, his eyes narrowing to slits on his red face. "Well, they ought to know they won't find a ruddy welcome here. Fire Nation scum." He spat noisily on the floor. The prince's hands clenched into fists, the tendons in his arms standing out against his skin.
"Easy, Huo," Gen said quickly from behind the bar top, looking fearfully at the prince's livid face. "He doesn't mean it," he added, addressing him. "He's been drinking…yeh know how it is. Yeh can't really blame him for resenting the—the Fire Nation… They been…been takin' most of our profit, yeh see…" He trailed off looking more afraid than before as Prince Zuko's eyes locked on his.
"Necessary confiscation. Peace and victory have a price." The prince's tone dared poor Gen to contest him.
Gen looked down at the bar top and fiddled nervously with his hands. "Oh, yes, no, I didn't mean to imply…of course the Fire Nation…yes, the price of victory …" he stuttered. Prince Zuko gave him a withering look and returned his gaze to Huojin who was still glaring at him.
"If you have a quarrel with the Fire Nation, Huo, go ahead and take it up with me," the prince baited, his fists balled.
"Prince Zuko, now is not the time—"
"Now is the time, Uncle, to teach these insolent peasants to respect their betters."
"Betters!" Huojin thundered, standing. "Better at what? Thievery, cruelty, arrogance?" He whipped out a knife and took a threatening stance.
Prince Zuko laughed, harsh and loud. "Better at fighting, for a start." He curved his arm outward and a jet of fire blazed before him, curling toward the startled Huojin. But before it could reach its target, it was redirected—manipulated back and away. The blazing, licking fire rushed toward Nami's hand and melted away into nothing. Her palm smoked threateningly.
Her expression was dangerous, and her eyes were leveled on the prince.
"You're a firebender," he blurted.
"Leave now if you don't feel like dying today," she replied in a slow, murderous voice.
The prince's tendons bunched up again at that, and his eyes blazed vengeful fury, but those sharp eyes also told him he was in too dicey a position to retaliate. All the other occupants in the pub were standing with similar expressions, and had drawn whatever weapons were on them.
"That, I think, is a very good idea," the older man said. He grabbed the boy's shirt sleeve and began to pull him toward the door. "Come, Prince Zuko."
Nami lowered her arms and stepped aside for them to pass, watching the young man with a dark look. They left, and the strained atmosphere in the pub lightened.
"I didn't know he could bend," Huojin muttered.
"You're lucky I'm around, Huo," Nami sighed, still watching the door the two had left through with tight eyes.
"Yeah, you would've had a scar to match the boy's, Huo," a man in the table beside him teased. Huojin scowled at him.
…
"Prince Zuko, what were you thinking?! You could have seriously hurt that man!" Iroh exclaimed when they got outside. Zuko crossed his arms tightly, scowling over Iroh's shoulder, and did not reply.
"You're lucky that young lady stopped your blast—"
"Lucky? I was shown up by some—some common traveling girl!" the prince spat.
"Yes, you are lucky she protected both you and that man from feeling the consequences of your temper! And I would hardly say she was common. You saw her ability. That was some excellent bending." Iroh was frowning thoughtfully. "We could use another pair of talented hands on your mission."
"Shh!" Zuko hissed. "You don't know who might be listening! And absolutely not! She couldn't be trusted and would slow us down."
Iroh rubbed at his beard. "I doubt she would slow us down. I wonder who she is."
Zuko scoffed derisively. "You think she's that important? That talented? I doubt it."
"Yes, I do think so."
Zuko glanced at him. His uncle had a stubborn look in his eyes that the prince did not like.
"Prince Zuko, the Avatar continues to escape from us."
"You think I don't know that?!"
Iroh ignored his outburst. He crossed his arms and eyed his nephew thoughtfully. "Do you believe you could best this girl in a duel?"
"No question," Zuko scoffed.
"Challenge her," Iroh said. "If you best her, I won't say another word about hiring her. But if you can't—"
"What? We ask her to join us? Are you crazy? After the way she spoke to me back there?!"
"Yes. Prince Zuko, if her bending skills are comparable to yours, do understand the edge that would give us? You can't afford to ignore such an opportunity. No matter how much you might dislike her."
Zuko weighed this wordlessly, his expression hard and his eyes on the road. His eyes were not seeing the road, but instead all the things he wanted. Everything he could have if he could best this child of an Avatar. It all was worth tolerating someone he hated for a time. His uncle was right, as always, but he would never admit it.
"I'll challenge her," he growled. "And we'll find out if this is even a conversation we need to be having."
…
Nami waited half an hour more for the prince and his companion to get well enough away before she shouldered her pack and left the tavern.
The waiting had been pointless.
They stood a bit down the road, waiting in the shade of some trees. Seemingly for her. Early evening cicadas were humming and the low western sun was slanting at an angle through the trees and painting the dust of the road golden. Nami evaluated the aging fat man as she approached, dust and dirt crunching under her boots. She could not take on two at once, but it seemed the old fat man was negligible.
Suspicion rankled her. If they think to punish me for defying what the little prick of a prince wished, I'll scatter the boy in so many pieces across this road. A deadly thrill of anticipation surged through her. She glanced around. If I don't want to be hunted by the royal army, I would have to leave no witnesses. That meant she would have to kill the old man as well, and this bothered her somewhat. He had a wise, scholarly air to him.
"You," the prince called imperiously as she approached. "Come here."
Nami stopped where she was in the dusty road, keeping her expression cool as ice. Jackass.
"I will not be summoned at the will of a banished prince." She shifted her weight onto her other leg. "Especially one that's such a rash and arrogant waste of firebending." His face contorted in rage, but she continued in a bored drawl, "Your temper's obnoxious. I'd have banished you, too."
He was coming at her. She smiled seeing it. "You see, you are much easier to summon at will than I am."
Prince Zuko blanched, realizing he had in fact been the one to come to her. Then the rage was back and he lashed out with firebending. She blocked it with a blast of her own, moved back from him, and took a stance.
"Go on, fight me," she growled. "I haven't had a good one in a while."
"I'll show you a good one!" he snarled, spinning toward her and kicking out fire. She twirled, blocking his bursts, and retaliated with some short blasts at key places to mess with his balance and concentration. His offense halted for a moment, and Nami raced around him, showering him with jets fire aimed at his feet that she kicked out from her legs.
The prince cried out in fury and was forced to scramble away from her attack, shielding himself with a wide fire blast from both his hands.
"What is a banished prince doing around here, anyway?" Nami asked, raising her voice so he could hear it above their raging fight.
"A banished prince may go where he wishes—"
"Except in the Fire Nation, of course."
"—but unless you're banished yourself, I would wonder why you're here," he cried, twirling his body and arms to send curling sleeves of fire at her. It was a polished and effective move, and Nami dove into a summersault to avoid the onslaught. She retaliated with both her hands open and straining with a stream of licking, roaring flames that poured from her palms toward the young prince. Smoke streamed into the air, stinging her eyes.
"I'm simply roaming the lovely lands our great and powerful Fire Lord has taken over for the good of the world!" she shouted in reply, a mocking smile flitting over her face through her concentration. "Is there a law that says I must remain in the homeland?" She could not keep the potent move up for very long, however, and when she stopped to recover from the effort she was forced to dodge and block Prince Zuko's angry fire bursts.
She yelped as a blast came dangerously close to her left ear. "Temper, temper."
The prince's control slipped in his fury, and the move he was doing did not come anywhere near her, which gave her a moment to recover from his attack. The prince reeled himself in, and continued his blasting. Nami did not have any of his polished technique training, but many of her moves were unknown to him, and that threw him off enough for her to more than hold her ground against him.
She had seen his moves before—they were the traditional bending forms taught in the academies in the Capital. Some of his forms were polished, but others he went into too quickly or ended too suddenly, affected by her taunting and his own anger. He had a great deal of firebending power, but in this temperamental boy's hands it was as focused as cheap firecrackers.
As she rolled from his last blast, he paused to breathe in deeply for a more powerful assault, and she came out of her roll standing and turned sideways to face him, welling the strength in herself as well. They both sent a powerful fire jet from their index and middle fingers of their right hands at the exact moment and with the same power. The jets met in midair between them and the backlash sent them both flying to their backs in the dirt.
Prince Zuko scrambled up, kicking dust, ready to continue, but Nami sat up laughing.
"We'll call it a draw, Princey."
He made for her again, but the older man blocked him, stepping in front of him and putting a firm hand in the middle of his chest.
"That was impressive!" the old man praised her while the prince stood scowling. "You two are well matched! Prince Zuko has better training and more power than you, but some of your techniques are like nothing he has been trained against! Also, you are more controlled and able to take his instabilities and turn them to your advantage. In skill it's hard to say who has the upper hand." He gave the prince a loaded look.
Nami narrowed her eyes, looking between them, unsure of what they were silently communicating.
The prince took a slow breath in though his nose. Then he steeled his back, and said to her in a formal and emotionless voice, "We have a business proposition for you."
Her eyes darted back and forth between them suspiciously. "I'm not a fugitive, you know. There'd be no use in taking me prisoner."
Humor flickered across Zuko's sharp features. "Unfortunately, that's not what I had in mind."
The older man was smiling gently. "Maybe you could join us for some late supper on our ship."
She crossed her arms. "I don't like ships."
"Then in one of these little restaurants? Our treat."
Nothing they could say could ever convince me to help them. But if I don't find out what they want from me, I'll wonder about it for months.
"I know a place." She turned and led them down a street.
…
Plates of dumplings, vegetables, rice, and bowls of hearty soup were laid out in front of them on the low, dark wooden table. The old man had a robust appetite and had ordered enough for six people. Nami pulled her bowl of soup toward her but did not yet touch her spoon.
The prince lit one of the candles on the table by brushing his fingers over it. Nami did the same to the candle on the other side. The evening was growing darker outside the windows.
The older man took up his chopsticks and popped a dumpling into his mouth. He chewed happily. It seemed they would not be discussing anything until after they ate. Nami started in on her soup. She was hungry and it had fresh crab meat in it from the harbor. The soup was one of the best dishes served anywhere in the port. The prince too began to eat in silence.
After a few bites, tea was served, and Nami took up the pot and poured for the old man first and then for the prince, as was proper etiquette. It rankled her to serve the prince, hating him and his family as she did, but she had slipped about her a comfortable blanket of deception. Play the subservient now, and perhaps an opportunity would present itself later in which she could get the boy alone…and make it look like an accident…
When the older man had finally finished, Nami shifted her position on her sitting mat and asked, "So can I be briefed about this proposition now?"
"First, introductions," the older man began sensibly. "My name is Iroh. You know who my nephew is. And if I caught your name correctly, you're Nami?"
Nami blinked rapidly. "You're General Iroh. Gods, I apologize for not recognizing you. It's an honor." She inclined her head respectfully to him in the best bow should could accomplish while sitting. He nodded back.
"I am not very much like my pictures in the books anymore," he admitted amiably. "Not to worry."
"I'm Namura, but yeah, you can call me Nami."
"Don't you have a surname?" the prince asked.
"I don't see why you would need to know it."
Prince Zuko opened his mouth to snap something irritably, but Iroh raised a hand to quiet him, and the prince swallowed whatever angry thing h had been about to say.
"Prince Zuko, please explain our proposition," he said.
The young man glanced at him with a grimace, and then admitted in a low, hard voice, "I'll be blunt. The Avatar is again at large and we are hunting him." He scanned Nami's face for a reaction, but her expression was carefully blank. He continued, "He's an enemy of the Fire Nation, so it's your duty to help capture him in any way you can, anyway, but we're willing to pay for your aid in our personal mission.
"There are others after him as well—Commander Zhao among them—but I have my own reasons to want to get to him first, and my uncle and I would like to solicit your assistance. You're an impressive firebender—more impressive than we expected to find... I've already faced the Avatar and his little friends on more than one occasion, and—even though he hasn't even mastered earthbending yet—I've been…unsuccessful in keeping him in my grasp. Therefore, if you're…open to it, we'd like you to join us so that next time he won't get away."
Nami was quiet after his little speech, and the prince looked calculatingly at her.
"Not what you expected?" he asked.
"Not exactly. The Avatar's really back, then. I didn't believe it when I heard the rumor."
"Yes."
"He must be an ancient man by now…or has he moved to another life?"
"He's a twelve year-old boy. Apparently the same twelve- year-old boy that disappeared 100 years ago."
"Impossible."
"As far as I've surmised, he was somehow frozen or froze himself in the Avatar State in an iceberg in the South Pole for those 100 years."
Nami weighed this for a moment. Then she asked him, "Do you plan to kill the boy or just capture him?"
"Whatever is necessary to eliminate the threat the Avatar poses to the expansion of the Fire Nation." His voice was cold. "It would of course be best simply to capture him, because if he were allowed to move onto another life, the search would have to begin again, though the new Avatar would not be a threat to us for some years."
Nami's expression was inscrutable. "This war—"
"This war is spreading the prosperity and power of the Fire Nation—bringing peace and unity to the world," Zuko snapped, anticipating her.
The war is spreading hatred, destruction, and pain, you tyrannical fuckface. Don't even try to sell me those deluded lies.
"I was going to say," she began again calmly, lifting an eyebrow, "that our war might seriously be hindered by him if this boy manages to master any elements and tries to get involved."
"He's already mastered airbending and is basically finished with water," Zuko muttered. "He's started on earthbending. And already he's proven difficult to capture."
"So he needs to be taken care of as soon as possible," Nami agreed, nodding. She laced her fingers together as she leaned forward a bit. "Frankly, I'm honored to be part of this. I'll help in any way I can. We'll get this little bastard in chains and shipped back to the Capital City in no time, seems to me."
Zuko smirked. "That's the first thing you've said that hasn't made me want to fireblast your face."
"Cheers to that," Nami said, smirking and raising her glass. "Kanpai."
General Iroh and the prince touched their glassed to hers. The prince was smirking in satisfaction, but his uncle was watching her a bit too intently for her comfort.
"Excellent," Zuko said. "You'll be compensated accordingly. Also, I require your specific loyalty to my uncle and me. There are many people after the Avatar, as I said before, and I would do anything to get to him before others. Betrayal is not something I can tolerate. The consequences would be…"
"I understand," she replied, nodding. "I will assist, protect, and fight beside you both to the best of my ability. I give you my word."
