Way of the Warrior

Chapter 2

Of Sparring Matches and Silly Memories

Author's Note: Here is chapter two, set the next day while the Gaang is still at the Western Air Temple (I'm not 100% sure if Azula attacked them the next day in canon, and it wasn't explicitly stated, so I am assuming she waited at least a day, mostly because it would take time for her to gather three airships and crews, which she didn't have at the Boiling Rock).

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Zuko sighed as Aang bounded out of the clearing and off toward where Katara was preparing dinner. The kid never took firebending practice seriously enough for his teacher's test, and he seemed all too excited to be finished with the workout. By the time practice was done each day, the young Avatar would be nearly gasping for air as he claimed he was 'too tired to go on,' but as soon as Zuko dismissed him, he suddenly had enough energy to play and laugh for the rest of the night.

He supposed he was being a bit cynical, but Zuko didn't understand why the boy wouldn't take his training so seriously. Being the Prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko had been training since he was old enough to bend, in various forms of combat, and he had always embraced the practice. His only source of motivation had been impressing his father and becoming the best he could, but it was enough to drive Zuko to try his hardest every moment he spent training. Aang had the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, yet he couldn't even bring himself to do an extra set of fire squats at the end of a long day of training.

"Hard to believe he's the most powerful bender in the world, isn't it?"

Zuko shrugged indifferently as he turned toward Suki, who had apparently joined him in the fields above the Western Air Temple. "He's not. At least, not yet," Zuko replied, his tone factual and devoid of emotion. "He's a talented bender, but he's a terrible fighter. I really don't know that he'll be ready to face my father," he added a bit more solemnly.

"Of course he's not a fighter," Suki replied, sitting down on the grass. "Bending and real fighting are two totally different things."

Zuko cocked his head to the right, intrigued and a bit offended at the same time. "Not really; it's the same mentality." Suki laughed lightly, sending Zuko what he swore was a patronizing look.

"Well, you're a bender, so you wouldn't really know," she countered.

Zuko's eyes widened a bit in shock, and a smirk quickly began growing on his lips. "I was trained to fight in different ways, with and without my bending," he stated, earning an apathetic shrug from the teenage girl sitting in front of him.

"Sure, I bet you are a decent fighter, for a bender," Suki responded, and Zuko could have sworn he saw an evil glint in her eye. "But you spent far more time working on your bending than your hand-to-hand skills. That's why there aren't any benders that can hold their own in a real fight."

"Is that a challenge?"

Suki smirked. "I wouldn't want to embarrass you." Zuko's smirk quickly morphed into a snarl, though the girl continued on, unfazed. "But I don't really have anyone else to spar with, so I suppose I could get a bit of a warm-up in."

"That's a lot of talk for someone I've already beaten," Zuko pointed out, referencing their fight at Kyoshi Island.

Suki chuckled lightly, though Zuko caught a hint of bitterness in her laugh. "You were bending. I'm talking about a real fight; no bending, no weapons. Just a friendly match of hand-to-hand combat."

Zuko rolled his eyes while scoffing. "Friendly? After all that talk? I don't think so."

Suki stood, smiling as she made a face of mock offense. "Wow, so rude, Prince Zuko. Weren't you ever told not to hit a girl?" she asked playfully, beginning to stretch out her arms as she spoke.

"I lived with Azula for more than ten years; you learn not to worry so much about things like that. Besides, when it comes to fighting, you're a warrior first, and a girl second," he replied.

"Good," Suki said, her tone back to serious. "Though I'm still not convinced you won't go easy on me. How about we make it a bit more interesting?"

"How so?"

"I say we make a little bet. When I win, you have to endure an entire day of training just like Sokka did back on Kyoshi," Suki responded, smiling slightly at the memory of Sokka wearing the Kyoshi Warrior's dress.

"What does that even mean?" Zuko asked, entirely confused and a bit concerned.

"You have to wear a full Kyoshi Warrior uniform and spend the entire day learning combat training from me," Suki elaborated. "And yes, that means you'll be wearing a dress and makeup and fighting with a fan," she added.

"Wait, does that mean that one of those 'girls' that fought my men and I was actually Sokka?" Zuko asked, unable to stifle a chuckle at the thought. Suki nodded, and it took all of Zuko's effort to hold back his laughter. "Okay, and what happens if I win?"

Suki thought for a moment as Zuko continued his struggle to maintain his composure. "It won't happen, but I suppose you can come up with something. Any ideas?"

"Oh, I have an idea," he replied menacingly.

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Suki and Zuko stood opposite each other, glaring at their respective opponents as they sized the other one up. Neither was willing to make the first move, as both fighters wanted to err on the side of caution. Suki was confident in her fighting ability, but something about the way Zuko was analyzing her made her a bit uneasy. She was all but certain that she had the advantage in terms of form and experience, but Zuko had a significant edge in strength, and she knew little of the firebender's agility.

Zuko, on the other hand, was worried only about his lack of experience with the girl's particular fighting style. He was confident in his own fighting ability, especially when it came to a sparring match. The key to winning a fight like this wasn't necessarily to be the better fighter, only to be the last one standing, and while Suki was certainly tough for a girl her size, there was no way she would be able to outlast Zuko when it came to taking punches. He just needed to make sure that he traded blows and got some sort of hit in every time she managed to crack his defenses. As such, he opted to take a defensive approach, and he would wait for Suki to slip up to take the offensive.

Finally fed up with waiting, Suki cautiously began an approach, sending a light strike at Zuko's left shoulder without committing to any follow up. The firebender brought an arm up to block, and Suki decided to take advantage of his momentary lack of vision by sending a kick toward his feet. With surprising quickness, Zuko easily jumped the strike, and countered with a jab of his own, which Suki almost missed in her moment of shock. Bouncing back and distancing herself from her opponent, Suki took a moment to make some mental readjustments.

Zuko was far quicker than she had hoped, and getting in strikes was going to be a lot tougher than she would have liked. Knowing that the prince was far stronger than her, she realized she would need to hit him far more often than he hit her. Setting her face into a look of determination, Suki closed the distance between them again, this time committing to a far more aggressive approach.

She jabbed with her right arm and quickly followed with her left, which Zuko blocked with his own forearms. She rebounded from the initial strikes and crouched to punch low, but Zuko sidestepped the first strike and caught the second, catching the girl off guard once again. His counterattack came in far faster this time, and Suki was barely able to get her arm free in time to block it. Pushing back hard with her legs, Suki once again distanced herself from the firebender, quickly losing confidence in her victory.

She wasn't horribly concerned that Zuko was able to catch her strike so easily, but she was panicking about how much it had hurt to block his counter. She couldn't afford to take many hits like that, as the firebender had far more power than she did. She would have to be even faster, and force Zuko to stay on the defensive as long as possible. If he did manage to get a counterattack in, Suki would need to either dodge it or break away from him again, as she would wear down quickly if she was forced to block such powerful strikes.

Rushing in again, Suki initiated an onslaught of kicks and fists that were met only by the firebender's arms or legs. Fighting defensively, Zuko was just as fast as her, though both of them knew he would have to strike back in order to actually win the fight. Suki threw a large amount of her weight into a right hook that Zuko absorbed with his shoulder as he tried to grab her arm before she could get back. Expecting this, Suki brought her arm down and punched with her left fist, aiming directly for the boy's face.

Spinning back to avoid the strike, Zuko extended the motion and swung his foot around, sweeping at the girl's legs. She jumped the kick and retaliated with one of her own, which Zuko blocked by crossing both of his arms in front of his chest as he was forced to one knee. Seeing an opportunity to take control, Suki kicked across with her left foot before striking down with her right fist, trying to keep Zuko from being able to stand back up. He blocked the kick, but took the punch directly to the chest.

Suki was ecstatic to finally connect a solid hit, but unfortunately her opponent didn't seem horribly fazed by the attack. Using the added momentum from her strike, Zuko had rolled backwards and regained his footing before smirking and dropping into an offensive stance. He dashed at the girl, bringing his right fist back in preparation to send a brutal punch directly at the girl's chest. Suki prepared to block the attack, using both her arms to avoid taking as much damage, but at the last minute Zuko spun on his heel, instead sending another kick at the girl's legs.

Having put all of her effort into absorbing the punch, Suki wasn't able to react in time to avoid the kick, and was sent tumbling over her left leg as it was swept out from beneath her. She was able to catch herself and cartwheel to the side, but Zuko had followed the movement and was already sending a fist toward her head. Reacting as quickly as she could, Suki bent over to duck below the fist, but her stomach was met by Zuko's right knee, completely unprotected.

The air rushed out of her lungs and Suki fell over, the sting of defeat hurting her pride far more than the attack had damaged her gut.

"You alright?" Zuko asked, offering the girl a hand as she lay on the ground. Blushing lightly in embarrassment Suki grabbed his outstretched arm and allowed herself to be helped to her feet.

"I'm fine," she replied, a bit bitterly. "You're better than I expected," she admitted begrudgingly, dreading her punishment for losing the bet.

"You probably just underestimated me," Zuko replied humbly, rubbing his neck awkwardly as the girl dusted herself off.

Suki couldn't help but smile as the boy's awkward nature once again began to shine through, though she decided not to point it out again. "Maybe," she replied as she and Zuko began heading toward the rest of the group.

"So, are you gonna do it at dinner or later tonight?" Zuko asked, smirking at her. Suki sighed, her microscopic hopes of Zuko having forgot the bet being erased.

"Later; I want to put it off as long as possible." Zuko chuckled, offering no escape or comfort to the girl. "Don't think this is over, though," Suki added, her pride resurging as they walked back to camp. "I'm going to beat you when we rematch."

Zuko scoffed in what Suki assumed was his attempt at playfulness, though it still came off as derisive. "I'm looking forward to it."

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Zuko smirked as the group sat around the fire. He could see Suki nervously messing with her fingers as she sat next to her unsuspecting boyfriend. Though he wasn't one to get terribly excited, Zuko would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to the scene that was about to unfold. Suki turned a pleading gaze toward him, her eyes silently pleading for mercy he wouldn't give. After a moment her stare dropped in defeat, and she took a deep breath before turning to address the Water Tribe warrior seated next to her.

"Hey Sokka," she started, clearly unhappy and worried about upsetting her boyfriend. He turned to her curiously, as did everyone else in the circle, which included Katara, Hakoda, Aang, and Toph on top of Zuko, Sokka, and herself. "I keep forgetting to as you when I see you, but what did you do with the dress you stole from us at Kyoshi Island?"

Sokka's eyes widened and Katara and Aang busted into laughter while Hakoda and Toph looked on in confusion. Zuko could barely contain his smirk as he watched Sokka fumble over his words, trying to gain control of the situation before his father started making the wrong insinuations.

"You stole a dress from Kyoshi?" Hakoda asked, his tone a mixture of confusion and concern.

"I didn't steal it! She gave it to me!" Hakoda didn't appear to be satisfied with the answer, but Katara spoke up before he could prod his son further.

"It's okay dad. It went really well with the makeup he was wearing," Katara inserted mischievously, reverting into a fit of laughter at her father's incredulous look.

"I was not wearing makeup!" Sokka asserted, at which point Toph joined in on the fun.

"You're lying," she stated, breaking into a fit of laughter herself.

The situation quickly devolved into Sokka attempting to assure his father that it was merely part of his training while Katara played the role of devil's advocate, and Suki was able to slip away in the midst of the ensuing madness.

"You're mean," she told Zuko as she sat next to him and began watching the scene unfold. Zuko merely chuckled, so she continued. "Sokka had nothing to do with this."

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A/N: Aaand that's that for chapter 2. Not my favorite honestly, the ending scene feels bad and the sparring match was long-winded, but I suppose I'll let you all be the judges. Speaking of people commenting on the story, I never got around to responding to reviews (sorry, I'm lazy), so thanks to the people that did review, and I hope you enjoyed the second chapter. I'll try to respond to reviews from now on.

Thanks,

-Boredone32