Coming Apart I
This will be the last time I meet with you, the note reads. The character strokes are penned by a hand accustomed to ink and parchment.
'You're leaving?' Her shoulders slump and the high of their recent success raiding a Fire Nation militia falters; water down a drain.
Nod.
'Why?' There's a fragility to their alliance. It is delicate and tense for reasons she doesn't understand. She wants to understand.
The Blue Spirit looks away up the road, over the hills, far away.
'Blue…'
He turns back towards her. It looks unwilling.
'I wish I could know why,' she sighs but like much with the Blue Spirit, she is left unsatisfied. Curious. Frustrated.
He shrugs and stares at his feet.
Does he care? Has he not enjoyed their time together? The things they've done, the people they've helped… 'I'm going to go north, to Ba Sing Se.' He glances at her sharply. 'There are people after me, me and my friends. You could come with us.'
He backs away three steps, then eight. He may as well have drawn his swords on her.
Coming Apart II
It needs to stop. Tonight. No more tomorrows. Tonight.
She is blurring things that are certain as stone.
Water is the element of change. Given enough time, water will wear away at the mighty boulder. Wash it away to nothing but sand.
But now she is inviting him to come with her to Ba Sing Se.
He is alone.
He left his uncle weeks ago.
It would be so easy…
'I'm sorry.' She's apologising to him. Again. It occurs to Zuko that he's never apologised to her for tying her to that tree, or stealing her necklace, or knocking her down in the North Pole.
This is why it needs to stop. Tonight.
He shakes his head— wishing he could say goodbye, no matter how false the words would taste when he was mere days from catching up with the Avatar— and turns to leave.
Her dress brushing the grass sounds like the wind through treetops. He is torn between turning to defend himself and the cursed dissatisfaction. Curiosity. Frustration.
So he stays still.
And let's her embrace him.
His enemy.
'Thank you for all your help,' her breath would tickle his neck were it not covered. 'I'll miss you.'
He is stiff. He cannot return the embrace.
But he does.
This needs to stop. Tonight.
When he turns suddenly to leave, he can tell he's hurt her.
His father's voice resonates with everything he doesn't want as it jeers from the darkest corners of his mind.
