Wow, okay, this has taken me long! I am so so sorry for this, but after having to do everything about uni with my laptop, I sometimes get sick of sitting in front of it, and yeah... It's worse through the home office. There is no real distinction between uni and fanfiction anymore, you know? It's all the same computer, all written at home...
In this chapter, we will have a comic from the collection of comics Avatar: The Lost Adventures, playing during Zuko's time at the Western Air Temple. The comic is called Swordbending?.
WARNING: Zuko will lose his temper, and there will be some f-bombs.
Enjoy reading! I hope you'll like it. Please let me know what you think.:)
I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender, nor its characters.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Zuko
After Aang and I came back from seeing the dragons and learning the secret of firebending, I felt incredibly better.
The fact that there had been a logical reason for me losing my firebending, and a real solution was one of the most comforting experiences I had ever made. When I noticed how my bending got weaker, I had wondered if my bad luck was back, or if it maybe never left. Honestly, then for once I wanted to do something good, these people needed me, and then I was letting them down, although I didn't want to? Worst thing that would have ever happened to me. Really.
I almost slumped with relief, after we got up on Appa again. I couldn't stop feeling deep inside of me, my fire stronger, warmer, and brighter than ever. Maybe it was that way because I was hundred percent sure I was doing the right thing. Because my motivations weren't all over the place, and because my morals weren't standing in the way of my goal.
The dragons hadn't only changed my perception on fire and my inner fire, it felt like a lot more. I felt way better in my own skin than I ever had before. The way my body felt was right for the first time. Being Zuko was okay. I was no bad firebender anymore, I was no bad Fire Nation person anymore, I was no bad prince anymore… I was Zuko, the Avatar's firebending teacher. And I had seen dragons.
If Aang wouldn't keep on babbling about how great and cool and awesome everything had been, I probably would think about it, too, all the time. Dragons! Holy dragons, dragons! Dragons, old, wise creatures, deeming me worthy of learning the secret of fire! Ha! Me! I couldn't stop my proud smile, as I watched Aang telling me of all the feelings he had experienced during the last twenty-four hours. At least, he wasn't still mad at me for touching the golden sun stone.
Next time someone would ask me what my favourite animal was, I would say dragons, although the person would think they were extinct, but I knew better now! My favourite animal so was a dragon! I was mesmerised by their violent and powerful beauty, their long bodies dancing in the air, gliding almost like fish, their scales glittering like the sun light on the ocean, and their heads even more magnificent than the golden dragon face in the throne room. Their faces had reminded me a little of a crocodile wolf with the fangs and scales. I hadn't known dragons had hair, but it had almost looked like the crest of a lion antelope.
We arrived back at the Western Air Temple around noon, and Aang immediately wanted to show everyone our new kata. I wasn't so keen on it, since it was supposed to be secret, but when Sokka started making fun of it, I lost it.
I got indignant at his disrespectfulness. How could he not see or understand the power behind the moves?
When Katara got me to tell them the kata's name was The Dancing Dragon, and everyone started laughing, I let them indulge shortly, before I took a deep breath. "Alright, you guys had enough fun. Now, leave. Aang and I need to practise."
"But we haven't done anything else for the last two days!" he objected.
I crossed my arms. "Oh, so you think sitting on Appa and discovering old ruins is firebending practice? I have found my drive, you aren't afraid of firebending anymore. Now, the real practice begins, Aang."
"Okay," he said with an exaggerated sigh.
"Good luck, Aang," Katara wished, before leaving, and the Duke waved at him, as all the others left, too. Except for Sokka.
He had this expression on his face, and although I only knew him for three days, I knew what he was going to say. He opened his mouth, but with two steps I was right in his face, grabbing his tunic. "Don't," I hissed.
He pouted, stepped back and straightened his shirt. "Alright, alright, I got it. Have fun…" He walked to the end of the platform. "…with your jerkbending, jerks." And then he ran.
"Urgh, fuck off, will you?" I shouted, feeling completely exhausted again. My arms tensed, before my eyes widened in horror. Shit, I'd just dropped the f-bomb. How old was Aang?
I immediately turned around, stiff as a board. "Erm… Well, don't say that."
Aang blinked at me, sitting on the ground, bending an air ball for Momo to play with. "Don't say what?"
Closing my eyes, I sighed in relief. I hadn't been quiet, but I hoped the other kids hadn't heard us. I had officially already failed in not losing my temper around little children.
"Never mind," I sighed. "Come on, stand up. We'll start with some breathing exercises."
Grimacing, he got up in a gust of wind, but joined me in a lotus position.
oOo
After our dragon adventure, all of us quickly got into some sort of routine.
I was always the first one to wake up, and like I had predicted, Aang was maybe able to firebend, but he was no firebender. He had absolutely no motivation to get up in the morning and he needed meditation to be able to feel the sun's energy in his body. It sometimes infuriated me how he would yawn during meditation. Worse was only when he called me hotman. That was like the uncoolest word in the whole Fire Nation, not even grandparents would use it! But Aang had been alive a hundred years ago, and so of course, he had picked up on that ridiculous word.
He slept in a room with Sokka, because there weren't enough rooms on the boys' side of the corridor, and no one wanted to sleep alone in another corridor or in another story even. Why boys and girls needed different corridors from each other was beyond me, though.
Sokka snored loudly, every morning, as I entered their room, and more often than not, a scroll full with some scrawl was lying on his stomach. Sometimes, he drooled, and sometimes he muttered things in his sleep.
Aang, on the other hand, almost always frowned in his sleep, and I wondered if he had nightmares, but since that was a delicate topic that he should really talk about to people he knew better than me, I reassured myself with the fact that I was waking him from them.
Aang was always reluctant to get up, and almost on an every second day basis, I had to drag him out of his bed and dump him into the fountain outside for him to wake up.
We would meditate, do breathing exercises, stretching exercises, and muscle exercises until breakfast.
Katara was always the only one making breakfast, and she looked more asleep than awake while doing it. Quite often, she only thought she had lit the fire, and walked away to get the pot. I would steal away from our meditation to light the fire then.
I think she saw me the fifth time I did that, because she wouldn't stop glaring at me all through breakfast. Although, she was always glaring, whenever she looked in my direction, but she tried to avoid that.
I tried to avoid her and not to give her a reason to slice me with her icicles.
This got impossible when she accused me of lighting her fire, as if it were some crime. I quickly said it wasn't me and that I was sure it was Aang who was practising his firebending, but then she only glared at me and emptied a bucket of water over the fire. The wood was completely soaked. She made me get new wood, and then I had to watch her how she used firestones to try and light the fire. It took her minutes. Of course, I offered my help then, but Katara seemed wary of my fire, so I let it be. I wondered if I had maybe only dreamt about the nice, caring waterbender down in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se. Katara was more like a fury than the girl who had offered to heal my scar.
In the afternoons, Aang, Haru, and Toph flew away on Appa to practise their earthbending in a place where no ruins could be damaged. They told us that place was only made of rock, no tree was anywhere close, but a river was flowing through the small valley. Katara joined them after getting frustrated with the small amount of water in the fountain.
When I heard that there was nothing that could catch fire, I wanted to come too, as I always needed to restrain the length of my fire balls, whips, and shots, and more often than not, some kid had come too close to stare at me. Mostly the Duke, accompanied by Teo.
The first time I had seen them there, I had to act fast to keep the fire from the move I was just practising from touching them. I dropped the fire and told them to leave.
Teo nodded, but they didn't leave.
"Boys, I can't practise when you're that close. My fire might hurt you."
Teo nodded again, but the Duke shook his head.
"I burnt Toph's feet," I said instead, trying to frighten them.
"But she's earthbending again," Teo pointed out, and I glared at him. His head shrank between his shoulders, while the Duke kept looking up at me, staring with a very neutral expression, but big eyes, not saying a word.
Groaning, I ran a hand down my face. "Sokka! SOKKA!"
He came with this lazy walk he had, munching on some berries. Honestly, I probably never saw him without any food in his hand. "What is it, jerk?"
And yeah, I had given up on that. "Make them go away." I waved my hand in the direction of Teo and the Duke.
Sokka raised an eyebrow. "And by which decree, Your Royal Highness?"
Narrowing my eyes, my foot started to tap. "It's just that I'm trying to practise firebending, and they are too close. They could get hurt, but they don't go away!"
Teo raised his hand.
Sokka opened his mouth to retort, but I frowned at Teo's raised hand. Was he honestly asking to be allowed to say something? Wow, that had to be the most polite kid out of all of them here. Everyone else just talked over each other, until Katara yelled at everyone to be silent and sorted everything out.
"Teo?" I asked cautiously, feeling like my father in a meeting, when he allowed his generals to speak.
"Yeah, erm… Well, I would really like to leave, but I don't want to leave the Duke here alone." He grimaced, emphasising on his dilemma.
Sokka stroked his chin, his elbow supported by his other hand. "And why does the Duke want to be here?"
Teo shrugged, and the Duke as always remained mute in my presence.
"Sokka. Could you please just get them away from here?" I asked, feeling exasperated and tired. Other children and social interaction, other teenagers were so exhausting!
But it seemed to be easy for Sokka. "Hey, the Duke. Have you seen this gigantic airbender weapon in the round room yet?" he asked, leaning down, supporting his hands on his knees.
I kept myself from saying that the airbenders never had any weapons, when the Duke's eyes lit up, as he almost smiled, springing to his feet.
"Let's take a look on it, shall we?" Sokka made an excited and adventurous hand gesture, then marched off, the Duke right behind him, and Teo rolling after them, waving once at me.
I awkwardly waved back.
Nonetheless, the Duke and Teo came back, and after four days, Sokka didn't know what he could do to make them leave me alone.
Aang had heard of it, and had tried to talk to the Duke, but he played pouty, mute child even with Aang, who in the end asked me to join him, Toph, Haru, and Katara with their practice. They used Appa to get to a faraway place, where no one could get hurt. I had really tried to avoid Katara, and until now had managed not to sit with her in Appa's saddle, but after Sokka couldn't help me with the Duke anymore, I took on Aang's offer.
Katara always sat on the other end of the saddle or at the front with Aang, just as far enough away from me as possible. I wasn't contagious, she just didn't trust me. Or that's what I had thought. But maybe she also couldn't stand me. Or found that I smelled bad.
Haru and Toph always talked about earthbending while we were in the saddle, Katara glared off the saddle, and I laid my chin on the rest, looking at the landscapes underneath us. The Western Air Temple truly was the most curious one. The land looked so much like the Fire Nation and there were no high mountains whatsoever, which made it different than the other three temples.
The practice went well, I was undisturbed and could work on my bending as much as I wanted to. I always practised summoning larger balls of fire from my hands, just with one shot. It got exhausting quickly, but the oftener I did it, the bigger they became. It was like training a muscle, and along with the breathing exercises, I felt like I had more access to my fire than I ever had before. For the first time in my life, I felt like a good firebender. Of course, I had been one of the best of my nation before, but being worse than my younger sister would probably always be a sore spot, where self-doubt was emanating from.
When we came back, Sokka told me that the Duke had sat himself in front of the ashes of our campfire for the whole afternoon and hadn't said a word!
"So?"
"So? Well, you have to talk to him. I think he thought you were dead or something, and therefore gone!" Sokka whispered way too loudly, not actually wanting the Duke to hear this.
"What has that got to do with me?" I asked in a foul attempt of getting out of this situation.
Sokka only gave me a dry look, before I groaned and walked over to the little guy.
I sat next to him, crosslegged, trying to smile. "Hi."
He stole a look with wide eyes at me, before quickly looking away, sniffing.
Oh dragons! Please don't let him cry!
"What's the matter with you… buddy?" I tried, cocking my head to the side, looking at him.
He frowned at me for a moment, before skidding closer.
I tensed, grimacing in Sokka's direction, who grinned and gave me a thumb's up. I glared at him and made a cutting motion across my throat.
But I hadn't noticed Katara standing behind him, until she quickly reached for her water flask, while Sokka was silently cackling.
Oh no. Had I just signed my own death sentence? But Toph grabbed Katara's arm just in time, saying something to her. She seemed to growl, before she glared at her, and yanked her arm free, storming off to probably start on dinner.
Aang quickly ran after her.
Well… I wouldn't pretend to know I knew everyone's role in this group or even their relationships (I just found out two days ago that Sokka and Katara are siblings!), but I suspected that the most important person for Aang here was Katara. He didn't seem to like it how she coiled away from everyone because I had intruded. I didn't like it, either. It wasn't like I was forcing her to stay in her room, retire early, or spend all her time preparing food.
My thoughts were interrupted when the Duke grabbed my hand, slipping his tiny one in mine. Dragons, his skin was ice cold! I almost shivered.
He seemed to slump a little, almost in relief, and then he… Well, he crawled into my lap like some dog cat, turning around, trying to make himself a bed, before curling up.
Just now did I notice that he was shivering. Or not… he was shaking.
"I miss my friends," he said in a low tone, his voice still very high, but shaking with emotions a child his age shouldn't feel.
I felt my facial lines harden, and my muscles tensed, but not because a child was sitting in my lap, but because I hated why his voice sounded like that.
"That's okay," I assured him.
He shook his head. "No. I miss my brother, but he was bad, but I still miss him."
I took a deep breath, looking down at him, but could only see his helmet. "My family isn't good, too."
When I looked up again, I was met with Sokka's, Toph's, Haru's, and Teo's gaze, all wearing similar expressions of disbelief and curiosity. I would have liked to shout at them to go away.
"Haru said you were bad," the Duke suddenly said, turning his face up at me.
I raised my eyebrows, but nodded. "Yes, I was."
"And now you're good. Do you think my brother can change, too?" He blinked at me, bogey dangling from his nose, and he wiped it all over his freckled cheek.
"I, uh, I don't know. It depends on how far gone your brother was. If he hadn't crossed a certain line, then I think he can still change."
The Duke seemed to think about that, but then pouted. "I haven't seen him for half a year. I don't know how he is."
"Are you talking about Jet?" Sokka interjected, his voice surprisingly soft.
The Duke shifted in my lap to look at Sokka. "Yes," he sniffed. "Pipsqueak is a great brother, but he's not talking much. Jet was always funny."
I grimaced at hearing the name of the Duke's brother. Seriously? Jet? Urgh, I hated that name.
"Until he wanted to flood a whole village and kill hundreds of innocent people," Sokka said dryly, and I first glared at him, but the information didn't seem to disturb the Duke. Maybe he had already known.
"What the magma?" I mouthed at Sokka, wanting to know a bit more about this village flooding brother of the Duke's. It sounded like the Duke had spent his childhood around psychopathic, violent adults, which sounded quite similar to my childhood, now that I thought about it.
Sokka gave me a Later look, and then suddenly smiled widely. "He-hey, the Duke! You know what? You can have new brothers here! Honestly, who needs Jet? That guy was an idiot. But you can have me, and Teo, and Haru, and Zuko? I suppose."
The glare I directed at him was answered with gestures pointing at the child in my lap. Well… he might have had a point there.
"Yeah?" the Duke wanted to know. "Zuko reminds me of Jet."
Sokka grimaced, staring at me with a frown. "Really?"
Oh, I hoped this Jet was totally different from the one I had met!
"Yeah, their hair is falling down and it's unruly. And I saw Zuko practise with two fire swords! Jet had two swords, too," the Duke added quieter.
Well, what the Duke told us about his brother didn't seem so bad, but it was too similar to the Jet I had met, in my opinion.
"Zuko even fights with two real swords!" Sokka leaned back on his hands, and then produced a dark grey sword from right under his butt. "And I have a sword, too!"
The Duke's face lit up, and he quickly crawled out of my lap to walk to Sokka. "Whoa! Can I touch it?"
"No touching!" Sokka brought the sword behind his back. "This is a really sharp sword, and it's very special."
My eyes narrowed at the blade, but what was most intriguing was the hilt. It looked awfully familiar, and I only knew one sword master well enough to be familiar with his swords' hilts. To have a better look, I got up and walked over, dropping down next to Sokka.
"First, that blade is really badly treated. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt the Duke. Secondly, is it possible that your sword is a Piandao sword?" I cocked my head to the side, frowning at the hilt.
Sokka examined the blade with a pouty expression that turned panicked when he probably noticed that I was right. "Um, yes. It is a Piandao sword. But I made it myself," he announced proudly, grinning like a fool.
"So you were one of his students then?" I probed. Only his students were allowed to forge their swords themselves.
He nodded. "Yes, I was. He taught me a lot."
"When?"
"Oh? A month ago?"
I snorted. "You should practise more often. The blade is blunt, and I've never seen you with that sword before. And it's way too beautiful to be lying around."
Sokka leaned in my direction, a little too close for my taste. "I practise every afternoon with Swordy, when you interrupt our time together to take care of your kids!"
"Don't call them that!"
"What? 'Your kids'? You don't want me calling them 'your kids'? Because they are your kids?"
I pinched the bridge of my nose, begging the slight headache to go away and not to get stronger, as I took a few calming breaths.
"Man, I can literally see how you count to ten," Sokka chuckled.
"That's a false use of the word 'literally', Sokka," Teo commented, and everyone turned around to him. He immediately blushed.
"Why?" Sokka wanted to know.
"Because you can't really see how Zuko is counting to ten. You could have said 'practically' instead," he explained, but his voice got quieter and shier.
While everyone seemed to think really hard on that, I got up and went to my room, not in the mood for any further interaction with kids until dinner.
When I entered the corridor, I could hear Katara's voice ranting, coming from her room.
"Aang, for the hundredth time, I was only trying to protect Sokka! Making death threats is not how someone gets my trust!" she cried.
I grimaced, sure she was speaking about me, and quickly walked on, not able to hear Aang's response, but Katara's was loud enough. "Toph! Ha! Well, honestly, sometimes I wonder what side she's actually on! She's taking too quickly to him! Until we don't have proof, he can't be trusted! And no, Aang, teaching you firebending is no proof! It's his entry ticket to our group!"
Closing my eyes, I already felt the headache hammering, and let out a deep sigh, when I closed the door to my room behind me.
I could still hear Katara, but I couldn't make out her words anymore.
Since I didn't know what to do, I lied down on my bed, bringing one of the Advanced Firebending scrolls I had brought with me.
The scroll taught Sozin style, something I had never felt comfortable with. As a child, it had felt wrong and unnatural to me to base my bending on my anger or hatred, and I had always known there was another place, but I had always been too afraid to actually draw firebending from there. Not anymore, though.
The Sozin style katas were all violent and aggressive, and although I didn't want to try to learn them, it was important to study your enemy. These were the moves that Azula and Ozai would pull in our final battle.
I knew how these moves felt like. While studying the moves, I imagined I was making them, and I imagined where the weakest point of the fire streaming out of me would be. Where the best point to attack would be.
But although I was highly absorbed with my reading, I couldn't shake the small voice telling me that the Duke's Jet could be the Jet I had met. What if this was true? Jet had been imprisoned because of our fight. Was it now my fault that the Duke couldn't see him anymore? Well, I wouldn't have wanted to leave any kid in Jet's responsibility, though, so maybe it wasn't actually so bad.
During dinner, I sat next to Sokka again, waiting for a moment to ask him about this Jet. Aang told everyone about what he had learned today, and although I would have wanted to tell him that his stance was still not wide enough for the hot squat, when he proudly announced he knew now how to do it, I couldn't. I couldn't become part of the conversation, when I wanted to start my own one.
When Sokka leaned back a bit, I quickly turned towards him. "Hey, er, can I ask you something?"
His gaze became curious, as he nodded. "Sure."
"Well, er, about this village flooding Jet guy…?"
A groan sounded from Sokka's throat, as he threw his head back in annoyance. "That guy was after Zhao the craziest idiot I've ever met. So, you know. Veeeery crazy. This kind of fanatically crazy. Hated all firebenders with the energy of a thousand suns. Wanted to kill them all, and honestly, he didn't care if soldiers or civilians. He wouldn't even stop at killing children, old people, or some Earth Kingdom people, if it meant ridding the world of the Fire Nation." He rolled his eyes. "Completely nuts, that guy. But… Well, apparently he told Katara, he had to watch how his family was slaughtered and burnt right in front of him, along with his whole village, but they let the children live. And I think seeing that would make everyone go nuts. I mean, you already had to be nuts, if you wouldn't go nuts then!" He had started gesticulating a little, and some of his food fell to the ground, since he gesticulated with his bowl still in his hand.
Momo jumped from Aang's shoulder to where Sokka had dropped something and immediately put it in his mouth.
"No! Bad, Momo! Bad!" Sokka scolded, and Momo ducked, and scrabbled off to me, climbing my back in an attempt of getting away from Sokka.
"Ouch… Hey!" I complained, trying to snatch the furry animal away. I cautiously turned my head to the left, looking that closely at Momo's face that it was all blurry. Dragons, his eyes were huge!
His ears jerked, before he jumped down onto the floor again, sitting in front of me and staring with huge eyes, his ears tense and paying attention.
"I think he wants something," I murmured to Sokka.
He nodded. "Yeah, your food. Don't give it to him, or you'll never get rid of him."
Humming, I nodded, thinking about what Sokka had told me about Jet. I still couldn't be sure it was the same Jet.
Scratching my head, I took a deep breath. "Okay, listen. On my way to Ba Sing Se, I met someone called Jet, and I just want to make sure that wasn't your Jet."
"Our Jet? It's not our Jet!"
"Whatever. Just… er…" I tried to think about something specific about Jet. Something that could identify him to Sokka. But honestly, a lot more than his general shape and annoying face didn't come up in my mind. "Tell me about how that Jet you met was. Like, what differentiated him from everyone else?"
"The lack of a brain?"
I gave Sokka a dry look.
"Okay, okay… Well, he wasn't exactly stupid… But, okay. He always had this stupid straw in the corner of his mouth. Made me crazy. Like, why did he have this there? Did it taste good? And his eyebrows looked strange. He was wearing some makeshift armor in blue, red, yellow, fought with two hookswords, was very athletic. I mean, he managed to fight Aang in the trees. An airbender, in the crown of trees!" He shook his head. "Well, and there was of course his merry little gang. Called themselves freedom fighters, but were only terrorising a civilian Fire Nation town that couldn't defend itself." He snorted, his face turning dark and serious for a moment.
It always surprised me when Sokka looked like this. In the beginning, I had thought he was the leader of the group, and although that still seemed possible to me, I had noticed that he just loved to be ridiculous and to make a fool out of himself. Maybe he was just trying to keep everyone laughing and happy, like Uncle had done.
Okay, well, that was definitely the Jet I had met. Freedom fighters. He had wanted me to join them! Like magma, I would go terrorising innocent villages!
Yeah, it took circa two seconds for me to realise I had already done that. Maybe Jet and I were more alike than I had thought.
Ew, no! I had never flooded a damn village! What maniac floods a village?
What maniac burns a village?, a self-righteous sounding voice asked me. It sounded an awful lot like Kilara, and I leaned back to pout at the fire.
Momo was still sitting in front of me, not begging for food, uh-uh.
Sighing, I picked some vegetables from the rice and gave them to him.
After he swallowed them down, he crept closer to my legs, and I watched him cautiously, not knowing if he already accepted me as a part of the group. But animals should have a good intuition, and I didn't want to harm anyone here, so Momo should be okay with me.
He perched himself on one of my thighs, rolling together, head on my knee.
I grimaced. These were definitely too many living beings in my lap today!
"Aaawww!" Sokka gushed. "What would I give for some paper to capture this moment for eternity!"
I glared at him, but calmed myself with the knowledge that Sokka didn't have any paper with him, and considering his penmanship, he couldn't be a very talented artist.
Sighing, I gathered my bowl of food back in my hands, eating with my thoughts all over the place, but mostly thinking about how Jet had met these people here. It was almost funny how I had met Kilara and Jet, and both of them had met some of the people sitting around a campfire with me now.
Given how small the world was… Jet had been in Ba Sing Se at the same time I had been there, or Kilara, or Aang and his friends.
"Can I ask you something now?" Sokka said before I could voice my thoughts.
Swallowing, I nodded. "Sure."
"There's something that doesn't add up to me." He turned his face towards me, and whatever he was thinking, seemed to be grave. "You said the Fire Lord ordered you to catch Aang. But you were already in the South Pole, before Aang woke up, right?"
I clutched my bowl tighter, as my chest felt like it was crumbling.
"You couldn't have got to us this fast from anywhere else. What did you do down there?" Sokka asked, his eyes a little narrowed.
I cleared my throat. "Looking for Aang."
Sokka shook his head. "You didn't know he was there! How could you have been looking for him?"
My hands tensed even more as I rejected the urge to coil in myself. "Er, well, everyone in my family had to look for the Avatar in the last hundred years. I was sent away when I was thirteen, a little over three years ago. I had already searched most of the world, before we came to the…"
"What?" Sokka shrieked. "Honestly?"
"Yeah?" I shrugged.
He sighed. "Aw, man! I always wanted to do that, too."
"Looking for the Avatar?" I asked, not feeling convinced, but unsure.
"No, travelling the world," he said like I was an idiot.
"Er, you did," I pointed out. He had been to large parts of the Earth Kingdom, the colonies, the Northern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation!
He rolled his eyes. "Not like that. Just for… fun and research, maybe."
"It wasn't funny, and I didn't research anything! It was a serious mission!" I objected.
He raised one eyebrow. "Okay, but the Avatar hadn't been seen in almost a century! How could you have believed you would find him?"
I shrugged. "There didn't seem to be another solution. Besides, I did find him, didn't I?" I added, grinning.
"Technically, Katara and I found him," Sokka said, smirking.
"Is it true that he was asleep in an iceberg?" I looked over to Aang who was talking animatedly to Toph, now being able to believe what Kilara had told me. "And that his first question was if Katara wanted to go penguin sledding with him?"
Sokka gasped. "Who told you that?"
"Oh, I met someone who met someone who met you guys. Apparently, Katara told them about it," I said nonchalantly.
Sokka rolled his eyes again. "Oh, Katara. Well, she being too trusting is at least something I don't have to worry about anymore," he joked, but then he seemed to understand who he was talking to, but instead of looking aghast, he simply cleared his throat. "Thanks for that. It clams me to know that Katara's level of paranoia is normal now."
I flinched and shook my head. "Don't thank me for that. She shouldn't have changed like this. That's my fault."
"Na, I wouldn't say fault. She'll come around, eventually. At last when we defeated the Fire Lord." He clapped his hand on my back twice. Now, I knew it wasn't meant as a threat. I had seen Sokka do this to Aang, Toph, and Haru, too, so I interpreted it as a sign of sympathy or solidarity.
"Have you ever seen Jet again?" I asked Sokka a few minutes later.
The look he gave me didn't look good, but I couldn't make out the meaning behind it. "Yes, we have," he said, almost with a hoarse voice. "He… changed."
"But isn't that what the Duke wanted? You should tell him!" I said indignantly. How could he withdraw that information?
"It's not that easy." Sokka took a deep breath. "Jet caused some disturbances in Ba Sing Se, back when they were all 'There is no war in Ba Sing Se'. He was arrested and brainwashed. He changed after that, for real, I mean. He did some good things. I don't know how he felt about the Fire Nation, but the Dai Li became his enemy, too. He had been brainwashed to lead us to some place where we thought we would find Appa, but it was a trap. The Dai Li waited there, and Jet… He was wounded. He said it would be alright, but Toph felt that he lied." He swallowed. "We're not sure if he survived."
Horror, fear, and terrible guilt struck me, making me completely motionless for several moments. I didn't breathe.
"You said you met him?" Sokka asked, sounding concerned.
I opened my mouth to tell him… I didn't know. Would I even have told the truth?
But I was saved by the Duke. He had red cheeks, and was sniffing again, pouting when he pointed at Momo. "I wanna sit there."
Oh dragons, lend me your patience and strength!
Sokka snickered.
I patted my left thigh instead. "You can sit here." Or how about on the floor?
It's not like I didn't like the Duke, or that I couldn't handle children. I liked children, but I didn't like how being nice to them made me. If everyone would act as if things were normal, I would be totally fine, but everyone acted as if it were a scandalous discovery. As if someone like me wasn't meant to get along with children.
The Duke glared at Momo. Honestly, he glared, but did as I said.
Now, I had two little, cute things sitting in my lap. That was definitely a first. Except for the turtle ducks, maybe.
The Duke leaned his head on my chest, and I frowned down at him, as I noticed that he was shaking again. Did he want to talk about his brother again?
Without thinking about it, I grabbed his hand, feeling again how ice cold it was. Frowning, I lifted my hand to his forehead.
"Katara!" I shouted.
She stopped in the middle of her conversation with Haru, glared shortly at me, and then just continued talking to him!
Cradling the Duke in my arms, I stood, making Momo jitter in annoyance as he jumped down from me. "Katara! The Duke isn't feeling well! You have healing powers, right?"
"I'm feeling well," he murmured.
Almost groaning, I rolled my eyes. "You feel like a volcano about to explode."
Katara apparently noticed how bad the Duke looked, or she thought I was sounding sincere, whatever it was, it made her stand up and walk over to us. The look she aimed at me was wary, and I tried to keep an open face.
"What's the matter, the Duke?" she asked, bending down to be on the same level with his face.
His one side was leaning against my chest. "I'm fine. Maybe tired. But today was fun."
Katara frowned at me, and I quickly said "He's got a fever, and his hands are ice cold!" She sucked in a breath, and immediately bent some water from the flask she always wore at her hip, touching the Duke's forehead with the water. He moved his head away from me, trying to drink the water.
Katara quickly pulled it away. "Okay, erm…" She gnawed on her lip. "He's ill." With a deep breath and a rubbing of her own forehead, as if she would get a headache, she turned around, starting to bellow orders. "Haru, find any scrap of fabric you think no one is using! Sokka! Go…" She trailed off. "Er… go through my stuff, and lay every cooking ingredient from the Water Tribe out here. Aang, get water! Lots of it! And contained! Teo, Toph… Don't do much."
Toph snorted and crossed her arms, while Teo actually looked a bit pissed, too. He rolled over to Aang, tugging at his sleeve. "I can help you. We can put some buckets on my lap. That'll make things easier."
"Awesome idea!" Aang shouted, before jumping behind Teo, pushing him down to the fountain. As if he couldn't just bend the water back to us.
"I'll get him to his room," I said to Katara, when she had finished ordering everyone around like some general. She even stood there with her hands on her hips and feet wide apart, in the moment reminding me of Azula, which was freaking crazy.
"No." She shook her head. "He sleeps on a sleeping mat there, and he needs a proper bed right now."
"Okay, so I'll get him to my room."
"Definitely not." She stomped her foot, snarling.
Slowly, I turned my head back to her, trying to convince myself that she had to be joking. Clearly, she didn't think I would freaking harm a child!
Like you tried to harm Aang, a twelve year old pacifist.
Aaaarrrrggghhhhh!
Well, the Duke was much younger and couldn't fight! Plus, he was not my enemy!
"What?"
"Well, he's not going to sleep in your room!"
"Why?"
"Because… I don't trust you!"
My eyes narrowed. "Well, that is your problem. The Duke is ill and he needs a proper bed! Supervise me if it makes you feel better, I don't care!" I snarled, almost spat at her, and although I had told myself to be nice to Katara, because she was right, and I had been wrong, and her reason to be mad at me was justified, I just had enough! It was clearly a wonder I hadn't exploded on her before with the way she always looked at me with this death glare! And yes, it felt really good to lose my patience and be cross with her.
Her mouth opened to retort something, but I turned around and left, before she could say something, heading towards my room.
"Wait! Are you deaf? I said wait!" she shouted, and it sounded like she stomped her foot .
"Just follow me! The Duke needs your powers!" I barked over my shoulder.
"How do I know you didn't use your firebending to raise his body temperature, and will… kill me the moment I enter your room?" Her voice was dripping with contempt and suspiciousness.
I stiffened. I got completely stiff and hoped I had imagined her words, before I turned on my heel and almost growled at her. I hadn't been this angry and furious since… Shit, I didn't know, but not even during Mai's and my fight had I felt this rage, not even during my banishment, when Uncle clearly didn't take my mission seriously, or the crew didn't follow my orders!
My mind was still working well enough to cover the Duke's eyes, before I started shouting. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Have you got any idea how often I could have already killed you? Killed all of you? And no, not only since I'm here, but a dozen times last winter! And I was your fucking enemy then and still didn't kill you, because firstly, you're children! And secondly, I'm not a fucking murderer! I don't know what I have to do to get it into that thick skull of yours, but I'm not going to betray you! I'm here to teach Aang and to defeat the Father Lord, because he's the most evil and craziest person alive, who should not rule an entire nation, and I fucking know I've made the wrong decision in Ba Sing Se, okay? I realised that, and that's the only reason why I'm here! And you can hate me all you want, but I would really much appreciate it if you would keep it to yourself, and at least accept my presence here. I don't need you to like me, I don't need anyone here to like me, really. But I'm fucking sick of your constant contempt and snarky comments, so just shove it, at least for the time when a sick child needs both our help, or do you even hate me more than you want to help him?!"
My nostrils were flaring, and I think my hold of the Duke had tightened some due to my anger, as I, for once, was the one staring at her with narrowed eyes, annoyance and contempt contorting my face.
During my shouting, she looked like she was vibrating with anger, and the dark look on her face looked so wrong on a girl her age, but it was probably more because of her personality that I thought this. I knew Katara was nice and caring towards the others, critical, but encouraging. She sometimes reminded me of my mum, and the way she looked at me was only like my mother had looked at Ozai sometimes when they fought, and it made me hate Katara's contempt towards me even more. I was not like my father, and I hated being like him to anyone.
The moment I mentioned the Duke, her face crumbled a little, suddenly looking unsure, but still not convinced. Honestly, I would have just marched straight to my room if I had any idea of how to treat a flu or cold or whatever the Duke was having.
"And can't you do that waterbending thing where you're controlling my body? I couldn't even attack you, if I wanted to, okay?" I asked, now only feeling annoyed and tired.
But apparently, I had said the wrong thing again, because she stiffened, as she stared at me with wide eyes. "C-c-c-contr… controlling your… b-body? What…?"
"Oh. Er, well, I don't know. I thought maybe you could do that? Or maybe it's like with lightning bending, and it's a very rare talent?" I mused.
"It's not a talent, you idiot!" she suddenly snarled, and I blinked.
"So you can do it then? Because if you can, you really got nothing to fear of me, do you?" Impatience seeped through my voice, as I stared at her.
It took her way too long to answer. Biting down on her lip, she slowly nodded, before sighing. "Alright then."
I didn't waste another single moment and hurried to get to my room.
Katara's behaviour changed immediately, and she became something I could only call a professional healer. After I had laid the Duke down on my mattress, I let Katara walk closer, leaving her enough space so that she would be comfortable enough not to feel threatened by me. It was annoying, but I would do anything.
She applied water to the Duke's forehead and started healing.
I leaned against the wall, watching her with bated breath, waiting for Sokka and Aang to come back.
"Oh no," Katara murmured.
I practically jumped. "What is it?"
"His fever isn't going down through waterhealing. It's not even the least bit responsive," Katara explained, turning her face towards me, her brows contorted. "Can you check where Aang and Sokka are?"
Glancing at the Duke's small head, I nodded and left the room. I ran to the grand platform and quickly took a look around. Everyone was gone, and I settled for the only thing I could do. Air filled my lungs and then I let it out. "AANG! SOKKA! HURRY UP!"
Two seconds later, Aang came out of a corridor, scooting on an air ball, impossibly fast, jumping down in front of me.
"Where's the water?" I bellowed.
His face crumbled. "Er, well… Teo has it."
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Teo can only transport water in a bucket on his lap. You can waterbend!" I growled.
He gasped. "Right!" he said, face palming and groaning, looking at the ceiling. "I'll be right back!" He turned around and left again, scooting away on another air ball.
I scowled at him, and then heard the ragged breathing of Sokka coming from behind me. He ran towards me, practically falling over his feet, carrying several folded papers in his arms. "This is all I could find! I hope something will help."
I just nodded sharply and ran towards my room.
Katara bent some water along the Duke's calves when we entered. "Cooling his calves should lower his fever. When Haru will be here, we can wrap wet, cool fabric around his legs. That can help, too." She looked up to us. "Sokka, what have you got?"
He went through the papers, opening them, and finding dried herbs rolled in the paper. "Well, we have heather, juniper, elder, willow bark…"
"Yes!" Katara shouted. "Brew a tea from willow bark! That could help him!"
"But… But I don't know how to make tea!" Sokka whined.
"Give me that!" I snarled, grabbing the willow bark. "I'll make the tea."
"You can make tea?" Two identical tones of disbelieve met my ears.
I frowned. "I lived with the most tea loving man on earth for years! Of course, I know how to make tea. I even worked in a tea shop!"
Sokka laughed, like I had made a good joke, but Katara's eyes simply widened a little. "That was real?" she asked quietly.
"What do you mean?"
She bit on her lip, turning away to watch the water she was bending. "I saw you there once. You and your uncle. I wanted to have tea, but I left when I saw you. I thought the Fire Nation had infiltrated Ba Sing Se."
I didn't know how to react to that, so I simply shook my head. "No, we were really only working there. We were refugees like I said, and we thought Azula wouldn't be able to find us in Ba Sing Se. But you can't hide anywhere from Azula."
On my way to the platform, Aang ran past me, this time with water, and I asked him to bend a little bit into my tea pot. I knew that Uncle always said the best tea was made when the pot was seated above a small flame, and whenever I had just warmed the water with firebending, he had noticed and said that it made the tea taste bitter. I wanted to argue that tea was always bitter, but I let it be. There was no objecting Uncle when it came to tea.
But now, the taste wasn't important. Only that the Duke recovered was important right now. And the water heated faster through firebending.
When I went back to the Duke, Aang just left the room, frowning. "She's throwing everyone out. Says that too many people in there are bad for his health."
"It might induce stress," I argued and shrugged.
Aang sighed. "I know!"
Katara immediately took the tea away from me, muttering "Thanks, Zuko", which had me stop and blink in surprise. She went back to the Duke, Haru wrapped the wet cloths around the Duke's calves, and Katara sat herself behind him, so that he could sit up, lean against her, and she held the tea gainst his lips.
"Is there anything else I can do?" I asked, feeling uncomfortable.
Haru glared at me, while Katara looked thoughtful. "Not right now. Though we might need some more tea in a few hours."
I nodded. "Just say something then," I said, and left.
Kilara
Eleven meals and sixteen guard shift changes had already passed.
I was growing restless. Something needed to happen, didn't it? Why was no one coming and telling me what to do? What was going on?
None of the guards knew anything about the rest of the rebellion, or they were all good liars.
But maybe my counting wasn't right, as I drifted off to sleep sometimes, and it became hard to stop myself from doing so. Because what else did I have to do? Nothing!
I had been thinking of training, keeping my body strong, but without a help for my leg, it was impossible. All the forms that I knew required weight on both my legs, and I simply couldn't do that. So I slept, dosed, was awake, ate, drank, healed myself, peed, and shit.
I never saw any daylight. I never saw anyone really. I couldn't even look at the guards, as they stood too far away from the hatch in my door to get a look at them.
I kept myself occupied with moving my finger on the floor as if I would write something down. That helped me to keep my thoughts in order. Mostly, that is. They were still all over the place, but when I wrote them down, I felt a little more in control.
The guards usually didn't talk to me, not even provoked me, but there was that one guard who always said "Hello, crow,", "Food for you, crow", and "Bye, crow." I never said anything in return. Because honestly, knowing I looked horrible, ugly, and dirty was the last of my problems. It didn't help, and more often than not did I dream about a bath or a shower, but it was certainly not my top priority. It was funny how irrelevant my vanity became, wondering what the people above decided to do with me. Let me rot, kill me, or try to use my powers for their own benefit?
If my throat had produced a sound, I would have sung to kill time. But with the little water I had to my disposal, and only being able to heal myself while swallowing, my progress with healing my vocal cords was very slow. I didn't want to irritate my voice with useless sound making. I tried to be as silent as I could, waiting for when my voice would he fully healed.
But after my twelfth meal, things changed. The next guards who approached my cell seemed to be too early for a shift change, and they were more than two. I could hear their footsteps, and I knew that a large group of people normally didn't walk through the corridor out there.
They stopped right in front of my cell, but I couldn't hear a word they were saying. Did they even talk?
Leaning against the wall, I pushed myself up to be in a standing position, when they would come in.
It all happened fast.
The door opened, and two guards with helmets and masks rushed in, pressing me against the wall. I would have screamed or whimpered, if I could. But like this, only my mouth opened in fear and surprise, just like my eyes widened.
My hands were still in shackles, but they still pressed my arms to the wall, as if I could do anything.
Again, two guards came in, holding something of the upper part of an armor between them, without sleeves o even holes. There was only one hole for a head. My eyes widened when I understood, and I started to struggle against the two adults holding me.
"You're being transported. You'll have to wear this, because you were deemed to be dangerous," one of the guards in front of me drawled, obviously not believing that I was dangerous.
I snarled at him. They should just keep me in a cell for a few more months, and I know I wouldn't have any inhibitions using my bloodbending to free myself! Then they'd see just how dangerous I was.
But now, the guard just chuckled, as they opened the armor and pressed the front part against my chest. The other guards pulled me away from the wall, then they closed it behind me. It wore heavily on my shoulders, and ended at my waist. My hands were permanently forced behind my back, and I couldn't even lift my legs over my hands now. It would have been difficult anyhow, but now it was just impossible. I wouldn't even be able to lift my arms a little bit.
Although I theoretically knew what this… thing meant, I still squirmed and struggled, but when they suddenly let go of me, I didn't think of keeping my weight on my right leg, and fell face first to the floor.
The guards laughed.
I had turned my head, but my cheekbone hurt like tsunami, and I think my skin on my eyebrow split open. If I wouldn't get the opportunity to bath, and my shackles wouldn't be removed soon, it would scar. And if I wouldn't be able to keep healing my vocal cords… Trying to heal while swallowing was the most tedious work I had ever had to do.
"Stand up, crow."
I narrowed my eyes and snarled against the floor.
He was right in front of me. I put my right foot on the floor, pushed myself away, while I turned on my back. With this metal straitjacket, I didn't make myself any more vulnerable, as my belly was protected this way. My right leg swept out and I managed to kick him swiftly under his armor, right in the gonads.
The fire soldiers' protection for the area between the legs resembled a skirt of metal, making attacking it from the floor easy enough.
He gasped and cursed. "Fuck! Stupid bitch!" His hands went down, finding a way under the platters of his armor to hold his bruised anatomy part.
One of the other guards immediately seized my legs.
"They said she was dangerous!" a female voice complained, almost as if she wanted to say 'You should have better listened'.
"Yeah," a man's voice grumbled.
The guard, holding my legs looked up in my face.
I tried to keep my face contorted in anger and not to show my fear.
"Her leg is crippled. I bet she can't walk. We have to carry her," he said, looking up at the others.
"I'm out!" The guard who had always called me 'crow' groaned, stumbling backwards and out of the cell.
"She can still kick. I'm not carrying her," the man who was still standing objected.
"Good thing I brought some extra shackles," the guard holding me down said, moved down my legs and grabbed my ankles, until I felt the weight of metal around them.
The two behind me shoved me into a sitting position and then they all pulled me up. I lifted my left leg a little, so as not to put any weight on it.
"Potato sack then," the guard who had held my legs said, and before I knew what was going on, I was dangling on a shoulder, my eyes looking at an armor clad bottom.
My teeth pressed against each other, while I grew more angry and more frustrated with every second. Where were they taking me? Why didn't anyone tell me what would happen? Why couldn't I just ask? And would I survive another day?
Zuko
It was late, and normally I would have already gone to bed, but my thoughts didn't stop whirling around in my head. I sat on the cliff, my legs dangling, trying to sort through my thoughts.
I had brewed tea again for the Duke about half an hour ago, and then I had done my evening exercises to get to bed, but my head wasn't calm enough. It was strange, worrying about anything else than the Avatar or my father. I worried for the health of a small child right now.
And if I was maybe still more of a villain than I had thought. Most of the things I had done, I could somehow defend (at least in my head), but until today I had thought that I was innocent of the crime of murder.
But I was my father's son. Maybe more so than I had thought.
"Zuko?" Aang appeared next to me.
"Yeah?" I kept staring at the abyss.
"Are you okay?" He sounded worried.
"No."
Then he sat down. I hadn't told him he could sit down!
"I'm sure the Duke will become healthy again!" he offered cheerfully, but I just frowned deeper and kept staring ahead, dangling my legs.
"Or is this about something else?" he asked worriedly.
I didn't respond.
"You can talk to me, Zuko, you know. I can listen to your problems and help you find a solution. It's good to talk about the things weighing you down," he said, as if I didn't know that.
I mean, theoretically I knew that, but practically, I wouldn't say it had helped me at all.
But I knew that Aang wouldn't leave me alone, until I talked about it.
"You know, when Appa was missing – he was abducted by sandbenders in the Si Wong desert – I felt so angry all the time. I didn't talk about it, I just focused on finding him again, but I completely lost who I am back then. I hurt my friends by pushing them away, and I attacked innocent people, simply because I was angry." He shook his head. "And when I noticed that I wasn't myself anymore, I suppressed my anger and didn't feel anything at all anymore. Katara tried to get me to talk, but I still pushed her away. And in the end, I just hurt myself by doing so. I didn't help Appa by keeping everything contained." He took a deep breath. "But then something remarkable happened, and I could finally talk about my feelings and let them out. I immediately felt lighter and better, when I remembered the good things I still had left in my life."
I had turned my head to look at him halfway through his story, and could just stare at him for a few moments, my mouth slightly open. He had just basically described how I had felt for three years!
I shut my mouth, swallowing. "Okay, I understand. I know talking helps, but you won't be able to help me with this."
"We can at least try," Aang offered, shrugging.
"It is… It is my fault that Jet died."
He stayed silent for several seconds, until I heard him shift on the floor. He sat with crossed legs, now looking directly at me. "Why do you think that?"
I sighed. "I met him… on the way to Ba Sing Se. On the ferry for the refugees. We got very bad food on it, while the captain kept all the good food to himself. Jet asked me to help to steal the better food to distribute it to all the other refugees." Jet had done it to help poor people, I just hadn't wanted to eat like a beggar anymore. I think I had even cared more about my sensitive, royal palate than Uncle's stomach. "We were a good team, and he asked me to join his Freedom Fighters. I rejected him. My uncle had bought a tea and had complained very loudly that it was too cold. He heated it with firebending while Jet and I talked. But Jet saw the steam from the tea cup after our talk, and started to suspect we were firebenders. He kept trying to force us into situations in which we would have to firebend, sometimes he even followed me around, hinting at burning things or how much he hated the Fire Nation. Then, one evening, he entered the tea shop we were working at, and accused us openly of being firebenders. No one believed him, but he attacked us. I borrowed some swords and then we fought." I sighed again. "We destroyed a bit of the shop, but then the fight went out on the streets, and… Dai Li agents appeared. I didn't know what they would do. That they were brainwashing people and all that. I was just relieved that he was gone, and that Uncle and I were safe. Sokka told me what happened to Jet," I said in the end, growing tense, waiting for a temper tantrum, accusations, crying.
"Zuko," Aang said slowly. "You surely didn't fight him, wanting him to die, did you?"
Frowning, I whipped my head around to him. "Of course not!"
He shrugged. "Well, then it can't be your fault that he died!"
I sat up straight. "What?"
"You didn't mean to lock him up, you just defended your Uncle and yourself. Jet was the one who insisted on exposing the two of you. But you didn't do harm to anyone, so he hardly had to do it. The laws of the city said that you weren't allowed to mention the war, but Jet violated that law, willingly. He risked himself."
I bit on my lower lip, thinking his words over, a part of me knowing he was right. But I shook my head. "This may be, but if it weren't for the war, Jet wouldn't even have a reason to hate us. And…" I stopped myself, noticing that I had completely lost myself. What was my point?
"Zuko, you're not responsible for the war!"
"I didn't do anything to stop it either!" I argued, but I knew that of course he was right. I was stupid, thinking I could take the blame for so many things.
Aang scooted closer to me, lying a hand on my shoulder. "You are now. You teach me firebending. That's the best thing you could do. I believe everything else wouldn't have made that much of a difference. You might have just endangered yourself, trying to stop the war from your side. Here, you're at least safe." He smiled at me, and I blinked, feeling surprised. Sometimes Aang said very intelligent things.
"That's probably what my uncle would have said," I said quietly, turning around to look at him, smiling.
He grinned. "I guess that means it was wise. I was taught by monks, after all."
I chuckled. "Thanks, Aang. You're good at this stuff."
oOo
The Duke was feeling better the next morning, but I still brewed him another cup of tea. He didn't want to drink it, said it was disgusting, but Katara forced him to. Even when she was apparently caring for someone, she was terrifying.
When the Duke didn't feel much better after lunch, we all agreed to stay at the temple, do minor bending exercises, and just be around in case the Duke needed something. After breakfast, instead of training Aang, I had to spend my time reading to the Duke. Sokka and Katara could read, but reading a coherent story was difficult for them, and they often stopped, trying to figure out what a character could mean. The characters they knew had mostly something to do with travelling, food, danger, war, and the life at the South Pole. When Sokka explained this to me, Katara glared at him, clearly not pleased about me knowing that about them. However, Aang was unable to sit still to read to a kid, and Haru apparently had a way too monotone voice for making the story interesting. Teo was the only one who seemed made to read stories to kids, but the Duke insisted that I should do it. I refused, however, to read one of Sokka's sappy love stories to the Duke, and instead read to him Hiroko and Hiroto, the play in which I had first seen and taken to the hair style of the phoenix plume.
A tale about a hero and an adventure was much more to the Duke's liking than a love story, which I could totally understand.
After lunch, I was waiting for Aang to do some training, since we already left out the morning. But the Avatar had other plans, as Sokka informed me. Apparently, he was off rolling rocks around with Toph.
Sokka wanted to spar with me. At least, I think that's what he wanted. He called it 'swordbending kai'.
But after I came back with my swords, Sokka was already showing off in front of everyone who had gathered around. Katara was drawing some cheering posters, handing Toph one with my face on it. Toph held it up the other way around. I didn't say anything.
Katara held a poster which showed the Water Tribe sign of the ocean, a sword underneath. I wondered why my poster hadn't got a sword.
Well, with Sokka stretching there, I thought showing off myself might not be the worst of ideas. I planned on defeating Sokka quickly, thoroughly, without hurting him.
He might have been trained by Piandao last month, but I had trained under him for years.
I didn't doubt my skills for one second. Which was why I loved my swords so much. This was something I was confident with.
When I took a position in front of Sokka, Aang got up, walking towards us. "Okay, well, I'm the referee."
You're the runaway student, I growled in my head. I would so make him do fifty more hot squats for just going off with Toph and still be here now.
"Finally! Some action around here!" the Duke cheered, and I had to bite back a grin.
Looking at him from the corner of my eye, a corner of my mouth lifted. "Don't get your hopes up, Sokka," I said, turning back to him. "I started training with Master Piandao when I was just a kid… So I think I can take a beginner like you."
"Alright, you guys, I want a good, clean swordbending match!" Aang's tone sounded worried. He was the only one out of all of them who knew what I could do with my swords, after all. Defeating Zhao's little stronghold? Fighting off arrows of Yuyan Archers? And then, if I couldn't defeat Sokka. It probably wouldn't even last three seconds.
I was still angry at him. "There's no such thing," I said, grinning, before locking eyes with Sokka. I knew I was worrying Aang even more now, but I didn't care.
He whistled, his fingers in his mouth.
"So you think you're hot stuff, huh?" Sokka yelled, while swinging his sword at me.
And he was already making a mistake for a beginner. Too much talking. But when would Sokka ever stop talking?
"Go Water Tribe!" I could hear Katara shout, as my swords clashed with Sokka's.
He moved away to have more space for swinging his sword again. His foot work seemed to be fine, at least. "Lemme show you how we do things down south!" he smirked, full of confidence, but I easily parried his beats and made him lose his balance, "Like I said…," one final parry on my behalf, and down he was. "…don't get your hopes up," I finished.
Toph and the Duke cheered loudly.
"Zuko wins," Aang said, sounding relieved, but one look at Sokka's face told me this wasn't over.
Maybe I was being petty, but after having to feel bad for my bending and just my general existence around these people (although they seemed to accept me, at least, Sokka, Aang, Toph, the Duke, and to a lesser extent Teo did), I was craving for a good win. I was craving for showing them what I could do.
I was a bit insulted at how Sokka had even thought he could spar with me. I was way beyond his level, and that he had even thought… Urgh! Besides, Katara clearly wanted Sokka to win, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to annoy her. She had been relatively civil since my shouting last night, but I still couldn't forget all the glares and snarky remarks.
"Rematch now," Sokka grumbled.
I shrugged, although I felt myself brimming with excitement.
It was funny, it was easy. And disconcerting in hindsight, how much I enjoyed humiliating someone else. I tried to tell myself it was Sokka's own fault for not thinking straight. Everyone could see that I was better. What was he hoping for? That the sun would blind me, and he would have an opening?
But I also knew that it wasn't so much the fact as making someone else loose than winning which I enjoyed. I am a very combative person, always was, but I had lost way too many times for my pride to remain unhurt. I had actually never won anything, I think. I hadn't even won again anyone in sword fighting yet. Piandao had trained me alone, so there hadn't been any peers who I could have fought. Firebending spars against Aang didn't count, as he was still a beginner and I his teacher. Therefore, the victories against Sokka shouldn't count, too, but it was him insisting on rematches and everything. I would have been happy to stop. And just enjoy the feeling of being better at something than someone else.
After the umpteenth time of winning, I pointed one sword at Sokka, who was still lying on the ground. "This is ridiculous. I'm obviously better than you. Why don't you just give up?" I said lazily, grinning.
I knew I was just making him angrier, and for once it felt nice to be the snarky person who is getting a rise out of someone with a temper. I was usually on the other side of that, and more often than not it was Sokka who was riling me up.
But Sokka seemed to be undisturbed. "This from the guy who unsuccessfully hunted Aang for three years?"
"That was totally different!" I shot back.
Sokka brushed some dust off his shoulders. "Sure…"
My stance was wide and open, inviting. I knew I didn't look like I was expecting anything. But being prepared for an attack, whatever I was doing, was definitely one of the things I had learned in my life.
So when Sokka got up to swing his sword at me like a madman – this time he didn't even seem to care about foot work or proper stance – I was quick to react.
"…'cause it'll only take three minutes to beat you!" he yelled, his eyes twitching.
I easily disarmed him, his sword flying metres away, clattering across the stone floor. I grinned. "You were saying?"
For a moment there he looked lost, an expression I didn't think I had seen on Sokka's face before. But then it changed, very quickly, and I knew it was important, because he was going to do something, but I didn't know what that face meant. However, I tensed, ready to move, before he drew out his boomerang from his back and threw it at me. I quickly ducked.
"Hey, no boomerang in swordbending!" I snapped, before realising what I'd just said. I had said the word! It wasn't even a word, it was just Sokka's dumb invention. "What… I mean…"
And then I noticed the lack of a pling sound. The boomerang had to fall to the ground somewhere behind me. Everything fell to the ground!
My eyes widened when I remembered correctly. How exactly Sokka had hit me last autumn. I didn't react fast enough.
Klonk!
It hurt a lot more without wearing a helmet, and even my hair didn't do much to cushion the hit.
"Umpf," I groaned, as I bent in my knees.
Sokka jumped up to catch his boomerang. "Yeah! I win!"
"You cheated," I growled.
"Zuko is right, you know," Aang said. "You did cheat, so he still wins the match."
"I may have lost the battle of swords, young Avatar, but I won the battle of words!" Sokka objected, still cheerful. He looked three years younger when he was grinning like that.
I was still clutching my head, poking around and wondering if I bled. That boomerang was made of bone, after all.
"Go, Sokka!" Katara cheered, grinning wildly at her brother, ignoring me completely.
I snorted. But then again, I really should have learned from that first time. Being hit by a boomerang twice… That was even more humiliating.
Thanks for reading!:D
Wow, that chapter became super long! I actually wanted to finish part one of this story with chapter twenty-five, because it is a nice number, but I think it will more likely be twenty-six, or twenty-seven even.
The bold, italic words are like this because they are like this in the comic, too. I know I left out the beginning of the comic, but the chapter would have got too long. I also added some sentences to the direct speech, which are not in the comic.
So, in my headcanon Zuko is great with kids. They take quickly to him and they like him, even though he does nothing, nor is he funny in any way. I probably think that because of the boy Li, who was so curious about Zuko, and I always liked to think Zuko would be great with kids. A little uncomfortable now and unsure, due to the lack of experience, but this will all change. Just another reason for why I made the Duke act like he did.
I hope you liked this chapter!:D Please let me know your thoughts!
Answers to reviews:
To uchihaNaruto247: Yeah, I know. I sometimes feel bad for the shit Kilara has to go through... But it leads somewhere good, don't worry. Hm, I don't know yet, actually. I mean, Toph met her, Suki knows her, maybe she could come up. Or not. I really don't know yet. Thanks, writing Zuko interacting with the gaang is exhausting, because I have to think so much and worry if it is still in character... Well, you read it. He exploded. Loudly. Thanks for your review!:D
To UltraAsterous: Thanks so much for your review! I really have to say it made me work more and faster on this chapter to get it out! I know it still took some days, but it would have definitely been longer without your review. I understand that, I also don't always review, but just follow, so thanks again that you reviewed. It really means a lot!:D Well, I wouldn't say I changed anything about the series, but I think I know what you mean. I read some OC stories, in which still the exact same dialogues as in canon were spoken, just with the OC sometimes saying Katara's or Sokka's text. And I didn't want to do that. But this story should have actually started after the war. I thought I'd just write a prologue about how Zuko met Kilara before, but then the story just went away, and all I could do was write it down. And although I didn't want to change canon, I didn't want to repeat it, either. So I thought about adding new things. And wow, you really read my story in one day? I mean, I read a lot, and I don't think I could do that. So, I'm impressed. Thank you, thank you, your review really made my day, and it means a lot! I hope you'll like the rest of the story, too!:)