Game

(n) a form of play or sport

Lady Bei Fong was not sweet of tongue and heart.

He remembered when the waterbender girl had boarded the ship. He had drew a careful breath in and out, regulating his body temperature in the cold that threatened to drown him like the ocean below. He remembered seeing the little girl with dark hair, dark skin and eyes bluer than any he had ever seen as she clung to her people, crying and hugging. Azula would have said she was being weak, but Zuko thought that he might have done the same if it was his mother or his Uncle Iroh he was saying goodbye to.

Not his father – his father would agree with Azula.

She had nothing with her but a few possessions carried in a bag. She didn't look like nobility, but his uncle told him that it was more than her blood, it was that she could bend water. He knew that waterbenders could start storms, could change the tides of the oceans, and could stop the rain. He knew they were dangerous.

She didn't look dangerous though.

Lady Bei Fong – or Toph, as he had to call her after she subtly made an attempt on his life ("oh, calm down, Sparky, think of it more an at-tempt on your pride") for calling her the Lady Bei Fong – had arrived a docile young girl in a white dress, dark hair swept back, green eyes blank but steady. She hugged her parents quickly, and her attendants carried trunks and trunks into the ship. That was what he had been expecting. He just hadn't expected her to push apart her hair and demand a garden on the ship.

Really, all the crew was wasting their time by watching Katara avidly when she was on deck. She could barely waterbend. It was Toph that was the danger. She was loud, demanding and brash. He guessed that the crew was just used to nobility like that. It was Katara's strange quietness and kindness that perplexed them. It perplexed him too. They weren't alone in that.

So when she drew closer to him a few days later, eyes so perfectly clear that he could hardly believe she couldn't see, he was wary. Especially when her mouth opened. "I'm bored, Sparky. Your training exercises are boring." She had been observing them for the past few days. She had been quiet, almost withdrawn at first. Then she was thunder, and everything she did was heard. "You should spar someone."

"They're not boring," he told the five year old, indignant because they were boring. She was just as smart as Azula was when she was five which was kind of terrifying. "And there's no one here to spar except my uncle."

"There's Sugar Queen." Toph said.

"No."

"Ugh, you're boring. Why not?"

"I don't want to," there was no point in giving her reasons that – "ow." He glared at her, rubbing his ribs. For being blind, she could punch well. He couldn't even punch back because she was a girl and blind.

"That's a dumb reason."

"It wouldn't be honorable to spar Katara when she barely knows waterbending," he amended.

"Sounds like you're afraid."

Zuko narrowed his eyes. "I'm not afraid." Before she could press her point, he went on to say, "but I'm not sparring Katara." With that, he got up to see if he could convince a crew member to spar swords and not fire with him.

He should have known Toph would go to his uncle.

: :

There was something about the North had made Azula not want to burn it down. The fire in her, the flames in her blood – it was so potent at times that Azula swore it was hurting. It burned beneath her skin, crackled in her lungs and sent her heart thudding. She had asked her brother once how it felt to be a firebender, to be always consumed with heat and flames.

"It's not like that, 'Zula," he had told her, brows furrowed in confusion as he glanced over her. "It's… like a sun at the center of your body. You draw from it. It's your source of power."

"And if the sun's too big?" Azula asked him. It was nothing like a sun to her. It wasn't a faint warmth, candlelight on her skin. It was all-consuming. It was the rage of wildfire contained in her lithe body.

Zuko gave her a look. "Then you control it."

Sometimes she could. Sometimes it was just candlelight like her brother had said. Those were her good days. She smiled more those days. Sometimes she couldn't. Those were her bad days. During those days, she could be smiling as she razed cities upon cities. In the North, she could. It was shudderingly cold, and the sun was so far away it made her ache, but she had never been in such total control.

Azula didn't know if she loved it or hated it.

What she did know was that was beautiful as the North was with its ice and snow, their people were more stupid than Zuko. They had been nice enough to her at the start, but they almost refused to believe that the ship captain was a woman. They insisted on speaking to Lu Ten instead. "I could just murder them," she fumed, hands curled up into fists and hung stiffly by her sides.

"What did your mother say about murder?" Lu Ten only teased her. Lu Ten was also stupid if marginally less stupid than Zuko. When he had been at Ba Sing Se, he brought her back a doll.

She glared at him before her expression smoothened into a sweet smile, reaching out to stomp on his foot.

"Azula."

"What?" She asked sweetly.

"Why don't you go talk to Princess Yue? Make her feel welcome."

Azula wrinkled her nose. "Why would I do that? She's a hostage."

Lu Ten sighed.

: :

Pai Sho. Katara had played the game with General Iroh a few times (who called her Lady Katara even though she was no lady, but he said that he was no general – and that was a lie because everyone she asked said he was a general) who took a liking to her when she had taken the white lotus gambit. She had told him it was because she thought it was pretty, he only laughed kindly. It wasn't with him she played today. It was with Zuko.

Because Toph wanted them to spar.

"This will test your precision and accuracy," he told them both, setting the board. "As well as your strategy. Instead of using your hand to move the tiles, you must use your elements. Katara, your water, Zuko, your fire."

"Why isn't Toph playing?" Zuko asked, turning to glare at the younger girl.

Toph smiled brightly. "I'm blind, Sparky"

After a few mistakes and a long hour ("Agni, Katara, move your tiles not mines" "I thought you could use the help winning"), she had enough of a grasp on it to chance conversation. Flicking the heel of her hand to use water to push her air tile forward – it was funny how Pai Sho still had all the elements even though they no longer existed in this world – she asked Zuko, "what will it be like? Being a hostage?"

He didn't glance up to meet her eyes, only carefully propelling a fire tile forward. It was harder for him. It wasn't truly with heat that the tiles moved but with the burst of air created from the flames. She supposed air wasn't truly gone from the world. It still existed with the other elements. Not to mention Toph liked to mix up the board every once in a while by accident. Or so she said. "You're a lady, so I guess you'll be treated well. You're a girl so you'll spend lots of time with my sister."

"So, I won't be… put in the dungeons or anything?" Katara asked him, moving her earth tile diagonally to create a defense. Zuko's strategy was wholeheartedly offensive, and it was enough for her to use it against him.

"Spirits, no," he dismissed. "You'll be put with my sister. That's worse."

a/n

Ugh, I had so much muse for this, and it just somehow happened. It's on the short side, and the next chapter might be longer or shorter. I know the kids are acting a little grown-up, Katara and Toph especially, but that's a deliberate choice. I feel that they need to act that way to be sort of secure with themselves the best they can, and Toph's just like eager about how much bigger this new cage is for her. I hope you guys liked Azula because she was definitely my favorite of this chapter.

The reviews I got were incredibly inspiring (thank you two so much), and I'd love to hear more feedback and thought this chapter too. That's what keeps me going after all.