Chapter 4: Bridges We Burn

The Parlor

Izumi came back to find her fiancé, his sister and her best friend, and brother-in-law waiting for her.

"Nice show today, Zumzu," Lin muttered sarcastically with an afternoon issue paper in her hand.

Since when did information travel so quickly? Izumi thought to herself undoing her topknot and running her fingers through her graying hair.

"Not how I would have announced our wedding," Masaru commented.

"Well sorry. I didn't really have a choice. I was asked a direct question and couldn't lie," Izumi replied, passing them.

"What happened to all that training Azula gave you back into the day specifically to teach you to lie?" Masaru asked, following her.

"It's GONE, okay?!" she yelled whirling on him. He stepped back with his arms up in surrender.

"Izumi, maybe you're not in a state where you should be engaging with the public or making decisions right now," Lin suggested.

"I'll decide that!" Izumi yelled storming off.

Lin followed suit. "Zumi listen up! I don't care if you're the fucking Fire Lord or not. You are my friend and will be my sister soon and I simply cannot not allow you to let your grip on yourself to spiral out of control."

In the Bath

When Masaru returned to the room that night, none of the candles in the chandelier or the torches on the wall were lit. Where is she? He thought of his fiancée. Then he saw blue light emanating through the crack under the door to the bathroom. Fire. HER fire. Masaru threw the door open to find Izumi in the bathtub. She gasped when she heard the intrusion and a half dozen or so flaming dragons woke from their slumber and snarled at him.

"It's alright, guys! Saru won't hurt me, you know that," Izumi said to the flaming creatures. The dragons went back down.

"Izumi, I thought we agreed that you weren't going to let your inner fire come out. It's too dangerous!"

"Actually, I've been doing some reading here and in the spirit world, and I learned that it isn't. It actually feels nice to let out sometimes. It is pent up energy. I've discovered several dragons inside of me. That one's Fear," she said pointing at the largest dragon curled up and partially hanging over the edge of a shelf by some gnarly looking candles that looked like they had been mauled by the heat radiating from the dragon for a while now. "That one's Hunger..." she said pointing at the small one on the chair sitting on her clothes. "that one's Hurt, she said pointing another rather large dragon on the bath rug. "that one is the mommy..." she added pointing at a medium sized dragon by the second. "that one's Heart," she said pointing at another rather large dragon that was curled around the bathtub and acting as a headrest and matching her blazing blue hair, "there should also be Happiness but he has been missing as of late. I think Fear and Hurt have been stealing his food," Izumi said pensively as if these fiery dragons were her pets and she were worried about them.

"Izumi, your inner fire... it's not actually firebending is it?" Masaru asked.

Izumi turned to look at him.

"What do you mean?" Izumi replied..

"You don't have to move to move them. They're not actually fire. They're your energy. They're you, Izumi. And you've been letting Fear and Hurt consume your energy."

Fear and Hurt both started glowing and growling at Masaru as Izumi considered his words, her own brows furrowing.

"You could be right," she said finally and both Fear and Hurt subsided.

Masaru put his hand on the back of the chair and looked down at the scrawny little thing Izumi called Hunger. "May I sit?" he asked.

Hunger eyed him wearily then slid off the chair and made his way into the bathtub and floated on his back in the water in front of Izumi, warming the water, but not extinguishing.

"What are your greatest fears, Masaru?" Izumi asked looking over at him.

"Greatest fears?" He thought looking at her. "Is seeing your Hurt and Fear becoming too much for you to bear, and it consuming you," Masaru said pointing at the two largest dragons.

"Have you ever tried releasing your inner fire?" Izumi asked.

"I don't know. I'm not really sure what that means or what exactly I'm looking for."

"I think I understand it now. I can try to walk you through," Izumi said with her eyes closed and her head leaning against Heart's body.

"Alright," Masaru said getting comfortable on the chair.

"First, it is not something you look for… it is just something you… feel," Izumi said. "Close your eyes now. Use all of your senses to search inside yourself for something that you're not sure you can handle."

"Can you be a little more descriptive?"

"Truth, Saru. Search for truth."

"Truth?"

"What you are, Masaru, as a man, as a bender, as a father...as a son."

"Saru! No!" a vaguely familiar voice screamed. Saru turned and he saw a woman with long bangs hanging down in her face, unseeing eyes gazing blankly, but arms reaching for him as he walked forward, into fire.

"Mama-" baby Saru said looking down at his hands.

"Look!" He pointed two open palms at the woman and saw red and orange cloud his vision. And he heard screaming.

"TOPH!" an even more distant voice yelled coming closer.

"He burned me!" the woman cried clutching her hands to her chest.

"The little monster burned me!"

"He's not a monster, he's our son. And he just needs a teacher, that's all. Nothing to worry about. We're all new at this thing. Cut him some slack," the man said as he dipped his wife's hands under the tap and fetched ice from the ice box.

"Mama?" Baby Saru asked waddling up to her side.

The woman turned to him again and beckoned small stones to her hand. She took one of baby Saru's hands and covered it in rock then did the same with the other.

"For all of our safety," she said kissing him on the head and walking away.

The man frowned. "Take this and go pick your toes or something," he said handing her a bag of ice. He then picked up baby Saru and adjusted the glasses on his face. "Come on, Saru. Let's free you of these bindings, shall we? Don't worry about Mommy. She's had a— difficult history with fire and… well… seeing it— not seeing it, but feeling it, brings back some painful memories. You're not a monster. You're just… learning. The solution is not to muzzle you but to give you a distraction until we can find a teacher, eh? How would you like that?" the man asked, getting a chisel and a mallet to gently jack away at his firebending son's earth gauntlets. "How do you like drawing?" He asked showing the boy some designs for a new machine.

Baby Saru shrugged and moments later heard his father screaming!

"SARU NO! You're destroying the blueprints— you're destroying everything!" the man yelled. Baby Saru looked down at where his hand was resting on the desk. In thinking about the events earlier that day, he had begun subconsciously bending again, years of his father's work gone in seconds because of his uncontrolled flame.

"If only he were an earthbender!" the woman yelled at her husband that night.

"Well face it! He's not an earthbender, but he's still our son and we still need to find him a teacher."

"But I don't want just any teacher. I want him to be the best at what he does!" the mother replied.

"He can change masters later to become the best, but in the meantime we need to work with what we've got. We can't keep waiting!" the man yelled.

"I thought you were going to 'distract' him from firebending!"

"He has no interest in arithmetic and drawing!"

"Not my problem!"

"Toph!"

Baby Saru ran. He ran as fast as his tiny feet could carry him into the village to some merchant closing his shop for the night.

"Do you know how to write?" Baby Saru inquired.

"Yes," the merchant replied

"I need you to write a letter for me."

"I guess I could help."

"Great!"

Saru sat down with the merchant in his stand.

"Dear Dad and Mom…"

The merchant wrote.

"I'm leaving. Love, Saru—,"

"Wait! Kid! I can't write something like this!"

"But you said you'd help!" Baby Saru yelled feeling slighted.

"But I ain't helping you run away!"

Baby Saru became angry. SOOOOOO angry! He turned and punched the wall, blasting fire from his tiny fist and setting the entire place ablaze.

"Kid! What are you doing?!" the merchant yelled.

"I told you! I need to leave! I'm dangerous and need to find a teacher to teach me how to control this thing! You have to help me!" Baby Saru begged.

The merchant finished the short letter and handed it back to the boy.

"Thank you!" Baby Saru said flying out the door, extinguishing the flames as he left leaving black burn marks on the walls.

He placed the note on his bed and dipped his hand in ink and stamped it and fled.

Masaru slowed his breathing. He could feel his temperature going up and wondered if it was working.

Baby Saru looked up at the signs. Domestic. International. He would find no fire in the Earth Kingdom, he thought so he went to international.

UNITED REPUBLIC

SOUTHERN WATER TRIBE

NORTHERN WATER TRIBE

FIRE NATION

"Bingo!" Baby Saru thought racing over to the Fire Nation terminal, sneaking onto the ship by hiding between people's legs and luggage.

"Someone in the Fire nation must be able to teach me firebending! Then I won't hurt Mom...

"Saru!" Izumi exclaimed. Masaru opened his eyes. And saw a little red dragon at his feet peering up at him, ready to make friends... or... enemies? Masaru couldn't tell, but the dragon looked angry. The little red dragon took in its surroundings then multiplied into five. Fear was small, Hunger, a waif like thing, Father not as large as Masaru thought it should be, then no, Hurt was not a fitting name. Regret, Saru decided to call it. Regret was surprisingly large. It came up to his knee and looked to be about twelve feet long. Heart seemed missing, as well as happiness.

"Saru, behind you," Izumi said sitting up in the bath.

Masaru turned. Coming up to his waist and wrapping around the chair stood Heart. Saru recognized him by his warm and peaceful face. But behind him, something bigger and redder.

"You're not Happiness," Masaru said looking up at the largest of both of their dragons nearly filling the room.

It was Anger, and Anger was getting bigger.

"Saru! Saru what's happening?" Izumi asked standing up with her hands open in a defensive position as Saru's Anger locked its sight on her with its menacing teeth bared, and its nostrils flaring. As Masaru's Anger grew bigger, so did Izumi's Fear.

"Don't touch her," Masaru yelled jumping between them, shielding her naked body from Anger.

Anger leapt towards them both. They closed their eyes but felt no fire. Instead they heard screeching and turned as Masaru's Anger attacked Izumi's Fear. They watched in awe as the flames tumbled off the shelf, knocking candles into the bath and splashing water onto the floor as they fought each other.

"Make it stop!" Izumi screamed, hiding her face in Masaru's chest. Just then, Hurt, Izumi's blue dragon on the rug joined the fight, nipping and tearing at Masaru's anger.

"Maybe... maybe not," Masaru thought as he looked at the three dragons fighting. He put a hand on Izumi's back. Her muscles were starting to loosen as the fight continued. Her shoulders relaxed and her face smoothed. He felt her heart steady then finally, an exhale of relief.

Masaru's anger turned to face him and stepped aside revealing Izumi's Fear and Hurt had been reduced to nothing more than candle flames. Anger shrunk down to the size of a tea cup and flew up to Masaru's shoulder and blinked at Izumi. Izumi sensed its change in energy, uncovered her face, and looked up at the tiny dragon. "You— you were fighting for me?" she asked, reaching a hand out to the small red flaming dragon.

It jumped onto her palm and bowed its head to her.

"How are you feeling?" Masaru asked combing his fingers through Izumi's blue hair.

"Lighter,," Izumi replied reaching up to touch his red. "As if a massive load has been lifted off my shoulders."

"I'm glad," Masaru said holding her, looking around at her blue dragons snuggled up against Masaru's red ones. There was the creaking of a door behind them. The linen closet slid open and a tiny blue dragon came out. Izumi stepped out of the tub and rushed to greet it, a warm smile on her face.

"Hey Happiness, how are you doing? Long time, no see, little miss," Izumi asked with a smile as she picked it up in her hand, stroking its flaming head with her index finger.

"How can we feed you?" Masaru asked, walking up beside Izumi and wrapping his arms tightly around her bare waist from behind.

Izumi leaned into him and the happiness glowed and grew slightly in her hands.

"You know, I never will get used to you having blue hair," he said, pushing the wet blue streaks away from her face.

"Nor will I become used to seeing your red," she replied, turning in his arms to touch his.

He turned to the mirror and laughed before turning back to her and coming down on her lips. "To quote your aunt: together, we will be the most powerful couple in the world. We will DOMINATE THE EARTH!" Masaru said lighting his hands on fire blowing back his red hair.

Izumi laughed. "But we wouldn't, would we?"

"Nah!" Masaru said waving away the thought and taking her in his arms again. "At least I wouldn't. I don't need the world under me to be happy, only you," he said, gently peeling her lower lip down to give himself access to the inside of her mouth. "How power-hungry are you, Zumi?"

"Not at all," Izumi replied untying his shirt and then belt.

He lifted her up and stepped between her legs eliciting a gasp. All of their dragons glowed and slowly backed away from the couple. Saru's Anger turned to Happiness and Izumi's Happiness grew a little bigger with every second that passed.