A/N: I have exciting news! I now have a beta for this story. You should all go thank Caelum Blue for the awesome beta-ing skills and advice. Caelum's been SO much help in writing this chapter and getting me back on track for this story. If you haven't already, you should all go read Caelum's story Vintage Gaang, which features the antics of Aang, Kuzon and their friends before Aang was frozen in the iceberg. It's a wonderful story. Anyway, go read and review and tell me what you think of this chapter.
--
Ryou hadn't had to go far before he caught up with Aang and the others. They had stopped three corridors away, leaning against the walls, laughing. At least, Katara and Aang were leaning on the walls for support. Toph stood in the center of the hallway, loudly imitating the envoy's flustered voice as he'd realized he'd been outmaneuvered by four teenagers. The effect was only slightly marred by the intermittent giggles that insisted on erupting every so often. Fire Lord Zuko looked extremely pleased with the entire situation, and was even chuckling quietly, but he didn't need the wall's support to stay upright.
For a moment, Ryou felt that he shouldn't intrude. The young Fire Lord hadn't seemed to be angry with him when he'd interrupted him earlier. He'd actually been very helpful, pointing him in the right direction to find Katara. But then, that had to be just because he was only delivering a message from people the Fire Lord considered friends, didn't it?
"I was talking about meeting my friend Zuko."
Aang's voice rang through Ryou's head, and his heart calmed down somewhat. Maybe Zuko was the Fire Lord, but he wasn't like the rest of his family. He wasn't his father, who had featured in Ryou's nightmares several times. The Fire Nation boy shuddered briefly, remembering the anger the dream version of Fire Lord Ozai had displayed when he'd caught Ryou trying to help the Avatar.
He's not his father. Aang wouldn't have approved of his coronation if he was, you know that, he scolded himself. There was no reason to be afraid of Zuko.
He still hadn't convinced himself to move forward when Toph noticed him.
"Ryou! You had perfect timing!" she called, dropping her imitation of Harisha. She grinned widely at him. Ryou grinned sheepishly, a bit embarrassed by the sudden attention, and moved forward.
"I just told Katara and Fire Lord Zuko what was going on, that's all."
"Yeah, but you did it quick enough so we could pull it off." Aang put in. Zuko glanced thoughtfully at the other Fire Nation boy, then huffed slightly.
"It's Zuko, Ryou," he said firmly. Ryou blinked, astonished.
"Um…what?" he asked, confused. Zuko snorted.
"My name is Zuko." The older boy spoke slowly, as if he believed Ryou had hit his head and was having trouble processing simple information. "Both the court and the envoys have retired for the night. I don't make my friends call me Fire Lord when it's not necessary."
"Oh." Ryou was still off-balance from the unexpected statement. He couldn't be serious, could he? The teenaged ruler couldn't possibly consider him a friend, could he? But then, he'd just said, and then he'd, but…Ryou blinked his eyes a few times in rapid succession, hoping to clear his whirling mind. It didn't help. Zuko smirked and turned away, starting down the corridor.
"I don't know about any of you, but I'd rather not get caught lying to an envoy, even one as annoying as Harisha."
Aang sighed, looking dejected again, but then he brightened considerably.
"Hey, that means we can actually have a sparring match."
"That was the point!" Toph yelled. Katara calmed the other girl down with a few well-placed words and grinned over at Ryou.
"You want to come? We could use a referee. Sometimes certain people won't admit when they're out," she said, slightly louder so her voice reached all three of the others. Zuko and Aang exchanged sheepish looks and ducked around the corner quickly, avoiding her gaze. Toph snorted and crossed her arms, stalking down the corridor mumbling about opponents being too concerned with stupid rules to care about the actual fight.
Ryou laughed outright at their reactions, and nodded his agreement to Katara, since he couldn't speak at the moment.
--
Ryou looked around curiously. Zuko had led them to a semi-secluded spot outside of the main city. It had been the practice ground where he and his sister, Azula, had learned to firebend, but it hadn't been used in several years since Zuko had been banished and Azula had become the heir apparent, who therefore had better things to do than continually practice her bending.
The practice ground was inside a natural valley, with rock walls surrounding it on three sides. The fourth side provided the only easy entrance and exit. There were two guards stationed there, a compromise Zuko had worked out with the head of the palace guard.
Ryou had been slightly surprised to find that Zuko couldn't just do what he wanted because he was Fire Lord. His actions and behavior determined how the other three nations viewed the efforts he was making towards peace. It was why he'd insisted that the sparring match actually take place, not that anyone had disagreed. Ryou suspected they all wanted to let off some steam.
But Ryou hadn't expected Zuko to have to negotiate with his own palace guards. They'd been very nervous about Zuko leaving the palace grounds with no one but his friends. Ryou had seen Zuko's back stiffen at the implication he couldn't defend himself, or that his friends wouldn't help if he was attacked, but the older boy hadn't lost his temper. He had bargained with the guards, managing to get the captain to agree that only two needed to accompany them, since the Avatar was going with him. Aang had backed him up and the captain had reluctantly agreed.
"All right!" Toph stretched her arms above her head, cracking her knuckles at the same time. "Who wants to get beat up first?" She had a slightly maniacal grin on her face. Zuko simply smirked at her, working through some warm-ups and stretches of his own.
"Who says you're going to win this time, Toph?" Katara asked sweetly, swift motions gathering some of the nearby seawater to her and it swirled around her like a playful puppy.
"Yeah, I could win!" Aang put in, grinning all around. Ryou laughed at their antics and headed for the spot Zuko had indicated, that would put him far away from any stray strikes, and still allow him to see well enough to be able to call someone out if he needed to.
"You're all forgetting I won last time we sparred." Toph was smug. Aang blinked in confusion and Katara huffed in outrage.
"You did not!"
"Did too!"
"I didn't think anyone won that time. You both just walked off."
Zuko was looking between the other three with confusion. "All four of us haven't sparred together. Ever. What are you guys talking about?"
"This was before you joined us, Zuko." Katara said airily. "And Aang's right. None of us won, because we never actually finished that sparring session."
"You're the one that walked out on it, Sugar Queen. Means I won."
"Oh no, you didn't-" A blast of air knocked Toph backwards as a fireball landed perilously close to Katara. Both girls scrambled out of range, glaring at the two boys when they were safely behind the small wall Toph had erected to deflect any more attacks.
"No fair!" Katara yelled at them. Aang and Zuko exchanged glances and turned back to the girls at the same time.
"I still don't know what you two are arguing about, but we came here to spar," Zuko said, his voice calm. "So let's spar."
"You two can settle who won last time later," Aang put in.
Katara glanced down at Toph, who tilted her head to the side. "I think they're asking for a butt whooping, Katara."
"They most certainly are, Toph."
Zuko and Aang were backing away slowly, slightly panicked looks on their faces. Aang hurriedly erected a barrier of his own to shield the two boys, but it was torn down just as quickly as he put it up.
"Nuh-uh, Twinkletoes. You know the rule. Only one element per match. You already used air. You're stuck with it."
Aang gulped and looked to Zuko, who had settled into a defensive stance, his face resigned.
"We're in trouble, aren't we?" he asked quietly. Zuko nodded.
"We pissed off two master benders, Aang, two female master benders. We're not just in trouble. We're doomed."
--
Zuko, Ryou reflected, had been right. He and Aang were getting battered, and Toph and Katara didn't even seem like they were winded.
Aang was sporting a liberal coating of dirt from multiple close hits from Toph. Zuko's clothing was soaked through, and there were random bits of ice stuck in his hair. Toph's clothing was windswept and her hair stuck out at odd angles, but she didn't seem bothered by it at all. Katara's own clothing had acquired a few burns, but nothing else.
At that moment, Zuko let loose a particularly strong blast of fire in Katara's direction. As said girl was standing below Ryou's vantage point, the fire blast was coming in his direction, too.
It came no where close to hitting Katara, and was even farther from hitting Ryou, but that didn't stop the boy from ducking to avoid the flames. He peeked over the rocks shielding the viewing spot somewhat sheepishly, but no one was paying attention to him.
Ryou might have felt ignored if he hadn't understood that any attention not focused on the sparring match would have resulted in some quite colorful bruises. Aang might be using an element most people now-a-days were used to seeing as calm – unless there was a storm – but he was certainly causing enough havoc to prevent Katara and Toph from uniting in their efforts to pound both boys through the cliff face. Katara had molded the water into something that remarkably resembled the legs of an octopus, and it swirled around her, lashing out at her command and knocking aside the blasts of fire that Zuko was trying to strike her with, to no avail.
Toph was perhaps having the most fun out of the group. She was whipping boulders around with ease and Aang was more often than not forced to leap out of the way of a flying missile. Her taunts alone would have been enough to convince Ryou she was having fun.
Ryou considered the other three benders in the sparring arena, and couldn't say they looked unhappy, either. Katara had a look on her face that Ryou could only describe as satisfaction, and Zuko looked as if he were completely relaxed for the first time since Ryou had met him. Odd as it sounded, since the Fire Lord was in the middle of a sparring match. Aang, even though it didn't look like he'd win his own part of the match, was grinning like mad and moving through his attacks and defenses as if he were playing a game.
Ryou ducked again as a stray bit of broken off boulder zipped overhead, knocked away as Aang deflected Toph's attack. The boy leaned back enough to spot the area it had landed, somehow not surprised to find a small crater in the rock above his head.
They're all such good benders, he thought to himself, somehow happy and envious at the same time. How can they want to be friends with someone who can't share this with them? Wouldn't it be hard, having to separate those parts of your life?
Ryou's head hung sadly, all thought of making sure all the participants in this match adhered to the rules gone from his head. His great-grandfather had been a bender, as was his father, but the skill had skipped him, like it had skipped his grandfather. Surely none of them really saw him as an ally, as a friend. He couldn't help them in a battle. He'd be in the way. He couldn't share this part of their lives with them; he had no similar experiences with which to compare.
"Wha'cha doing?"
Ryou jumped in fright, turning and nearly falling on his back as he struggled to see who had come up behind him. A dark hand reached out and steadied him, helping him retain his balance. Ryou looked up into Sokka's dancing blue eyes.
"Shouldn't you be more aware of your surroundings when you're this close to a sparring session between those guys?" Sokka jerked his thumb down towards the ongoing fight, which had somehow morphed since Ryou had last looked, since Katara and Zuko were now fighting side-by-side against Aang and Toph. All four elements were still being thrown around like play-toys, however.
"I guess, but this spot's pretty protected. Z-Fire Lord Zuko said this was where their non-bending teachers would watch them try new, potentially dangerous moves. Ones that would be harmful to someone who wasn't a bender if they went wrong."
"Makes sense," Sokka nodded. "Fire's dangerous. It's not something to take lightly."
Ryou simply nodded, watching the battle, which had morphed again; this time pitting Zuko and Toph against Katara and Aang.
How could he have ever thought he might fit in with these people?
--
Sokka felt very much like smacking someone's head into the wall. He wasn't sure just whose head would be meeting the rock yet, but he'd figure it out. He knew that look on Ryou's face. He had worn it not all that long ago, when he'd been having a crisis of confidence in his own skills. When he had seriously thought about letting Aang and Katara and Toph go on by themselves because he couldn't possibly help them, couldn't contribute and he got in the way too much. The only thing that had stopped him was his promise to his father to protect Katara; his sister could defend herself physically, but her emotions always managed to sneak up and ambush her. Sokka had set himself up as her bulwark for when that happened, and had tried his hardest to prevent the need for his strength from ever happening.
But the point was he knew exactly what Ryou was thinking right now, could see it clearly written all over his face.
What good am I too them? They can't possibly want me around, not when they can do that.
'That' was clearly demonstrated by another whizzing boulder and a blast of air that somehow cut the boulder in half.
"You know, Ryou, firebenders are weaker at night and they have absolutely no powers during an eclipse. And they tend to be so aggressive they forget they still have to defend from other attacks. It's easy to take advantage of that."
Ryou blinked, wide-eyed and surprised, up at Sokka. Sokka ignored the look and continued his analysis.
"With waterbenders, you just have to either get them away from water, obviously, or fight them during the day or during a new moon. They're weaker then. Course, Katara can pull water from just about anything, so it's hard to separate her from her element, but that's not the point. If you break their stance, disrupt their balance, whatever you want to call it, you have a good shot at taking them out before they recover. Waterbending is about turning the opponent's strength against him.
"Earthbenders, now those are some hard guys to beat. You really can't separate them from their element; though I suppose if you wanted you could lock them in a metal box. Toph's the only metalbender in the world. But they can still be beaten. They don't like looking for solutions that work around problems. They're direct and straightforward. You can take advantage of that in a fight.
"And airbenders…er, airbender," Sokka shrugged. "I've only got Aang to work from here, but if you can get in close quarters, then he's pretty much toast. He won't have room to bend the air effectively and if you haven't noticed, Aang's kinda scrawny, he doesn't do well when he's faced with a stronger opponent up close. Or anyone really. It took forever to convince him that fancy footwork couldn't solve every conflict for him."
"Why are you telling me this, Sokka?" Ryou wasn't quite sure what to make of Sokka's sudden seriousness. He sounded like a teacher lecturing his students. Ryou was much more used to seeing Sokka joking around and goofing off. Sokka snorted at him.
"Because you're doubting yourself," Sokka grabbed Ryou's shoulder and started to drag him down the trail towards the exit from the training grounds.
"I promised Katara I'd referee their sparring match…"
"Not like they'd hear either of us anyway, they're having too much fun. They haven't gotten to spar since before Zuko's coronation. We've all been too busy."
"Still, I shouldn't just…"
"Oh, come on, Ryou, they won't mind. And I haven't had a decent sparring session in a while either. You can be my sparring partner for a while."
Sokka overrode every one of Ryou's protests to being dragged off the bending training grounds and to the palace training grounds, ones used for less explosive fighting practice. Sokka dropped Ryou's arm as they reached his intended practice court and he spun on his heel, fixing Ryou with a semi-serious glare.
"You don't have to feel like this, Ryou," Sokka didn't blink, didn't even twitch, as wide golden eyes fixed on his face.
"Feel like what?" Ryou was trying to divert him with affected ignorance, and Sokka snorted his contempt of the obvious ploy.
"Like you're not worthy of being friends with such powerful benders. Like Katara, Aang, Toph and Zuko wouldn't want to be friends with you just cause you can't bend."
There was silence from Ryou. Sokka pressed on, at the same time grinning his thanks to a servant who had noticed them and quietly set out a training sword of appropriate length for Ryou.
"You don't have to be a bender to fight well, Ryou. I couldn't bend to save my life, but I can still fight. And I can do things that the others can't."
"Like what?"
There was a brief spark of interest in Ryou's gaze. Sokka felt the beginnings of a smug grin starting on his face. He pushed it down. It wouldn't help if he scared Ryou off. He leaned in close to the Fire Nation boy, and held up a hand to his mouth, as if shielding his words from unfriendly ears.
"I can't tell you." Ryou's eyes fell, disappointed. Sokka continued with a wide grin. "But I can show you."
"Really?" Sokka nodded, then turned Ryou and pointed him towards the practice sword.
"Go get that, and I'll give you a free lesson in non-bending fighting, Sokka style!"
Sokka was feeling very proud of himself as his temporary student ran to get the practice sword and Sokka nodded a greeting to a widely grinning retired general named Hadi, who carried a practice sword of appropriate length for Sokka over to him.
"Don't be too hard on the boy, I doubt he's ever had any real training."
Sokka grinned at the man. Hadi was one of the few older men who hadn't resented the changes that Zuko was making. He seemed to welcome them, actually. Hadi had been quite willing to show Sokka everything he wanted to see in the palace's armory and training areas, and had even sparred a few times with him. They'd gotten to know each other well, despite the vast age difference. Hadi was even older than Sokka's own father, Hakoda.
"I won't be. But I'm not going to let him wallow in self-pity either." The grin faded a bit. "It's not a fun thing to do."
"Nor a wise one. You're a good deal smarter than most boys your age, Sokka."
Sokka blushed a bit at the compliment. "How'd you know I'd need a sword, anyway? I didn't even know I was going to be teaching Ryou until just a few minutes ago."
"I saw him leave with your sister and the others. Then I saw you leave in the same direction. I figured you'd be dragging him back here, and he'd be feeling a little overwhelmed. It's best to always be prepared."
Sokka shook his head at how well the man had come to know him in the few short weeks he'd been here, but he was grateful that the retired general was so attentive to the movements of those in the palace. He hadn't wanted to lose the momentum he'd gained with Ryou just to grab a few wooden practice swords.
At that moment Ryou ran back, a tentative smile making inroads on becoming a beaming grin on his face. Hadi passed the practice sword to Sokka, grinning and repeating his words from earlier.
"Don't be too hard on the boy."
--
"Ow!"
"Don't let your guard down, Ryou! You only got a bruise."
"That hurt, Sokka!"
"Be thankful we're using wooden blades, or you'd have a decent sized cut and Katara and Aang would throw me into the middle of the ocean."
Ryou let loose a mostly smothered laugh at that, managing to keep his wooden sword in a defensive position in front of him, this time. Sokka huffed and stepped back, letting Ryou get his case of the giggles out.
This is fun, Ryou thought to himself, pulling in several deep breaths to try to calm his laughter. It was only marginally successful. The image of a hapless Sokka getting flung several hundred yards out into the ocean by his ticked off sister and friend was very amusing. I never thought I'd be any good with a blade – what use does a Fire Nation peasant who will never see battle have for fighting skills? - but Sokka thinks I could be someday, if I practice enough.
Ryou couldn't quite pin down how that vote of confidence made him feel. He was grateful that Sokka was trying to cheer him up, and to be honest, the Water Tribe boy had accomplished that the moment he'd pointed him towards the wooden practice sword a servant had set out for him. But the older boy hadn't stopped there. Ryou and Sokka had spent the past hour or so fighting their way across the training ground Sokka had commandeered for their use. Actually, Sokka had pushed Ryou around the training ground, calling advice and temporary halts to correct Ryou's stance or angle of attack or defense.
And throughout it all, Sokka had dropped off-hand comments about how to defeat benders of all types; little things that Ryou would never have thought of, but that made perfect sense once they were pointed out to him.
I thought this morning that I'd made friends with Katara and Toph and Sokka, but I think this proves they think of me the same way. Ryou finally managed to get his giggles under control and this time it was the Fire Nation boy who initiated the attack, momentarily putting Sokka back on his heels. Ryou saw the appreciative grin spread on Sokka's face, before he found himself forced to duck back and away from a swipe from Sokka's own practice sword.
I could get used to this, Ryou thought contentedly. He didn't even mind the numerous bruises he'd have in the morning from this sparring session. They paled in comparison to the knowledge that he'd done more than just fulfill his family's duty to the Avatar, he'd made friends along the way.
--