"I'm bored."
"I know."
"Let's do something."
"I'm working."
"So?"
It was about a month after the wedding and life in the Fire Nation had returned to normal at the palace. Zuko was far less busy than he was when the war initially ended but he and all his friends were still pretty busy. Over the past few years, more and more of his companions had taken jobs with him in Caldera City. Suki and Ty Lee were here because the Kyoshi Warriors now served as guards to the throne, Mai was here because Zuko and Ty Lee were here but her sharp mind for politics quickly landed her a position as advisor, and Sokka had taken the role of Southern Water Tribe Ambassador before deciding he liked it here and took a more permanent position at Zuko's side.
Zuko liked having his friends around but also that meant he didn't get nearly as much work done. They were fantastic but they were equally distracting.
At the moment, Mai was leaning against the doorframe of Zuko's office. To be honest, she kind of reminded Zuko of an outdoor cat-owl, drifting in and out as she pleased. It was a nice change from Ty Lee's happy polar bear dog personality, Sokka's badger falcon-like drive when he wanted attention, or Suki's… speaking of which, where were they? He'd just spent nearly two hours working uninterrupted. Normally one of them would've come to bother him by now.
Sighing, Zuko rose from his seat. "Fine. Did you have anything in mind?"
Expectedly, Mai just shrugged.
"Let's go find the others," Zuko decided and Mai didn't protest.
Dramatically, Zuko offered her his arm like a lord would to a court lady. Mai just snorted and flicked him in the side of the head. Zuko laughed and the two began floating down the palace's halls at a leisurely pace. Both were familiar with it from their childhoods but it had changed a lot since that brief time they returned during the war. With Azula and Ozai gone and new friends in their place, it felt much more like home. Still, sometimes it was nice to walk down these red clad halls and remember the good times, however rare they were.
They found their way to the courtyard. It wasn't the same one with the fountain Mai and Zuko had fallen into as children nor was it the one that Zuko had spent countless hours feeding turtle ducks. No, this one was marked by memories of sparring. Not with Azula though, with Sokka and his sword, Suki and her fans, and Ty Lee with her acrobatics. And now, apparently, with dancing.
"What are you doing?" Zuko asked as he and Mai came to a halt at the entrance. "Is that one of Aang's staffs?"
"Yup!" Ty Lee said and swung the staff around to demonstrate, forcing Sokka and Suki to duck to avoid being boxed in the head. "Ooh! Mai! We were just going to come looking for you. We need your knives."
Mai already had them out. "What for?"
"So you know how it was super fun dancing at Aang and Katara's wedding?" Sokka asked, toying with his boomerang absently. Zuko suddenly noticed Suki had her fans out too. What were they doing with weapons? And why did they need so many? "We were just talking about it and Ty Lee mentioned she got her hands on some scrolls awhile back with some dances so we decided to look through them and give 'em a shot."
"And what do you need me for?"
"I found this dance the Avatar used to do with his teachers," Ty Lee explained, grabbing Zuko's interest. "It's this dance that combines all the elements. It looks really fun so we're trying it!"
"Wait, then wouldn't you need me for that?" Zuko asked, confused. "Since, y'know, I'm the Avatar's firebending teacher?"
Ty Lee giggled. "No, silly. We've only got firebenders in the palace. You can't do a dance with four elements if you just have fire."
"Which is why we decided to try it with weapons instead," Suki said, flipping her fans around. She shot Zuko a teasing look. "See, nonbenders can do everything just as well as benders can."
Zuko matched her look, not missing a beat. "You know I use swords, right?"
"Oh hush." Ty Lee shuffled him off to the side and rolled out the scroll for Mai to look at. "See, look. Everyone kind of does the same dance but everyone represents their own nation. They bend their own element in their own style but then when the music changes, they switch to another style."
"So that's why you have Aang's staff? We're going to represent each element with weapons instead?"
"Yup! The only problem is that we don't have any music."
"We've got that covered," Sokka said and shot Zuko a look the firebender couldn't quite catch the meaning of. Zuko stared back and tipped his head slightly, confused, before he noticed Suki pushing something across the courtyard.
"Where did you get that?" he spluttered in surprise. "How did you get that? And who told you about that?!"
"Your uncle," Suki purred in a teasing tone. She leaned on the instrument casually, careful not to put too much weight on it, and smiled with the same look on her features that Sokka had. Zuko suddenly understood it's meaning. "Last time we visited him, he said you're good on the tsungi horn. When we got back, I just had to find one."
"No, no, no. No."
"Yes."
"No…"
"Yes…"
"Come on, Zuko." Ty Lee looked up at Zuko, hands clasped behind her back, with the most endearing look on her face she could muster. "Please? It'll be fun!"
Zuko felt himself caving. By Agni, he was so weak. "Fine…"
"Yay!" Ty Lee sprang up and clapped happily while Sokka and Suki whooped and clapped their hands in victory. Zuko found himself smiling. He could stomach some embarrassment to make them happy for a little while.
He tried not to sigh as he settled down on the stool next to the tsungi horn and prepared to play. It had been a long time but the feeling was familiar and the tune came to him easily. Plus, he was a much better firebender than he had back when he'd played for his crew on the ship so he could hold his breaths much longer and steadier. It wasn't perfect but it passed as music and that was enough for Zuko.
He played a tune his mother had taught him. She'd been a beautiful singer, he remembered. Noren had told her she loved musicals back when the two performed together. Zuko hadn't particularly liked her musical instruction as a child but now he looked back and wished he'd been a bit more keen to spend those moments with his mother. Music was one of the few connections she had to her time in theatre and those hours spent with Zuko were her way of showing him her old life without revealing the truth.
He should visit her soon. He wouldn't bring a tsungi horn but maybe he could teach Kiyi some of his mother's favorite songs, if she didn't know them already.
Her favorites were always romantics. Ballroom dances for young lovers, songs from dramas telling the tale of two lovers, melodies to play in the background of celebrations- He understood why but none of them felt appropriate for the moment. He wished he knew more songs. Those songs were all he knew so his choices were limited. Still, he played.
Ty Lee, Sokka, Mai, and Suki began dancing. They were slow, getting a feel for the dance. Occasionally, their eyes would flicker back to the scroll. They couldn't read it from that distance but Zuko could see the heistance on their faces. None of them were dancers, except maybe Ty Lee, but they were warriors so with weapons in hand, they didn't hesitate for long.
Zuko had long suspected Ty Lee had some Air Nomad heritage with her grey eyes and flighty movements. Right now, holding Aang's glider, he had no doubt. She was light on her feet, toes barely skimming the ground as she leapt. She didn't seem terribly familiar with the glider and she treated it more like a bo staff than anything else but she quickly found the opening mechanism and soon the glider was paralleling her airy motions.
Sokka was normally a truly horrible dancer but he always danced with boldness. That didn't waver with a boomerang in hand but right now, he looked a lot more confident and peaceful than Zuko had ever seen on the dance floor. His movements were fluid, his boomerang spinning out of his hand with an easy flick of his wrist. He turned and caught it with his other hand like he was born to do it.
Suki always fought with sharp, aggressive movements and this dance highlighted that part of her training. Her golden fans gleamed in the sunlight and her heavy steps kicked up dust. Where Sokka's arms were loose, hers were tense as she jutted her fan out in a way that would slice an enemy's throat clean open. Zuko thought she never looked more beautiful.
Mai had even less time to prepare than the others but she looked just as stunning. Her knives flipped through her fingers with lightning speed as she shifted into new stances, punching her arms out as if driving her knives into an imaginary foe. Her feet moved with the steadiness and skill of a firebender, never losing her balance, as she weaved around the others in perfect harmony.
It was kind of hard to watch them all while he was so focused on his song. They danced in a circle, mostly not bumping into each other. Zuko guessed the Avatar would normally be in the middle but they looked perfect with just the four of them representing the Avatar cycle. Their brows were furrowed in concentration but they looked like they were having fun and Zuko suddenly realized how inappropriate this song was for something like this.
What was it that Ty Lee had said at Katara and Aang's wedding? By Agni, that felt like a long time ago. Fast music was freeing. Slow music was romantic but fast music was supposed to be fun. Something you could dance to with your friends.
The Fire Nation had never been a country of creatives, not now and not in Zuko's youth. They were always traditional and taught their young to stick to those traditions flawlessly. But now, in this moment watching his friends float together in such a wondrous way, Zuko felt the overwhelming urge to deviate from tradition and make the song his own.
The spark of creativity pushed him to take shorter breaths. The tune came out louder and the notes were faster. His feet moved, adding the soft sound of his boots hitting the earth in rhythm with the song. It drifted away from a slow romance to something livelier and more spirited.
His friends seemed confused by the change in music but didn't let it stop them. They shifted their stances, somewhat surprising their musician. Ty Lee had said earlier that the benders in the dance would change their style. Zuko wasn't really sure what she meant by that but he was glad he hadn't messed up their dance by changing his manner of playing.
Ty Lee became less bouncy and more flowy. She stopped skipping around and kept her feet on the ground. She snapped the glider open and began twisting it overhead, letting it ride the air like a boat on the ocean's waves. Her muscles seem more relaxed and she let the music guide her.
Sokka's movements became more rooted. He stopped throwing his boomerang, instead wielding it more like an axe. He stomped, like Suki had before though he wasn't as aggressive as her. He was passionate, like a Water Tribe warrior, rather than fierce like a Kyoshi Warrior.
Suki's dancing gained more of an edge. Swipes and stomps were replaced by kicks and punches. Equally powerful blows, just different. She closed her fans, wielding them more like blades before snapping them open to arch widely over her head, and lashed out with sweeping kicks.
It was strange seeing Mai move like Ty Lee but it suited her. She shifted onto one foot, balancing carefully, and she waved her knives. They still looked just as deadly as she jutted them out but the motions leading up to them were a lot more relaxed and less conformed.
Smiles had appeared on their faces, making that flitter of nervousness in Zuko's chest melt away. He hadn't even noticed it was there until it was gone. Knowing that he was doing something right, Zuko put more of himself into the tune.
Ty Lee's feet fit the ground, hard and flat. She let her arms spread far apart, muscles rippling in a way Zuko rarely saw. The glider, for the first time, looked like a true weapon. It closed and began moving erratically with each step its wielder took, like it was ready to box someone's nose in.
Sokka seemed to swell up like a flame as he became more explosive. He wielded his boomerang like an extension of himself, flipping it quickly between his hands. His feet slid across the surface of the ground, leaving slick prints in the sandy earth, while he swung his arms with the power and grace of a komodo flamingo.
Suki became more nimble and she waved her fans the way a court lady might to cool herself rather than like a sharp edged weapon. For the first time in the whole dance, she leapt and let her feet leave the floor. It was almost like she was skipping on chunks of earth, which she had done before with how much Toph liked flinging things around with her earthbending.
Mai began flipping her knives again but this time it flowed through the air alongside her movements rather than sliced. She toed the ground seamlessly, steady in her motions, and seemed to drift alongside the others like a piece of wood in the sea.
If they were benders, this probably would've been harder for them. They were dancing in the styles of their opposite elements: Ty Lee like an Earth Kingdom native, Sokka like a Fire Nation man, Suki like an Air Nomad, and Mai like a Water Tribe warrior. Inexperienced and a bit unsure of themselves, they were still a bit awkward but no more than they were in the previous element of the cycle. It was still balanced and even in a way that benders could never hope to achieve. Something could be learned from this but Zuko didn't dwell on it. It was time to change the music again.
Zuko tried to focus on the harmony he saw before him. His beloved friends, the four people he loved more than anyone or anything in this world, were representing the four elements as one. Truly, it was beautiful and brought warm feelings to his chest. He didn't have the skill to wander from his roots and lessons too much but he took a few liberties and tried playing in a more foreign style, mixing in notes he knew traditionally came from other nations' songs.
Ty Lee took to a Fire Nation style easily, swinging the glider like glades and crouching into elegant yet deadly poses. It looked kind of odd to see someone normally so sweet poised in such a manner but it suited her well. Her grip on the staff changed and she let the wings flare at the peak of each jab.
Sokka's leaps weren't nearly as graceful as the others with his heavier, stockier build. He let his boomerang fly far with each jump and landed neatly each time, never failing to catch his beloved weapon.
Suki waved her fans, open this time, in a way mimicking the current. She spread her arms wide, fan in each hand, and walked backwards, synced with the rhythm. She never tripped, trusting the flow of the others to guide her.
The heels of Mai's shoes left deep imprints in the ground with each step she took. The aggression of this new gait suited her. She was always cunning and she really seemed to be owning it right now. She fisted her knives, thrusting her hands down in unison with her feet, and showed off the power in her body that she rarely had the chance to display.
Zuko slowed down a bit, the tsungi horn's noise becoming softer and quieter. It wasn't slow or sluggish but it was still steady and strong. His friends changed their style for the final time. Ty Lee once again became light and airy, Sokka became fluid and flowy, Suki became bold and aggressive, and Mai became sharp and ruthless. They'd returned to normal but they'd proven normal wasn't all they are.
The song ended and Zuko lifted his mouth from the instrument to take a gasp of air, letting glorious oxygen fill his lungs. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to go for that long, even with the lung capacity of a firebender, but it was worth it to see the dance come to an end and his friends break their formation to cheer and hug each other.
"How'd we do?" Sokka asked, turning to Zuko. He padded over to him and sat on the ground in front of him. Zuko suddenly noticed how out of breath he was and that his sweat had plastered his clothes to his skin. Who knew dancing could be so tiresome? Not Zuko. "I know I slipped up a few times there but I feel really good about it!"
"You guys did well," Zuko said, matching the other man's smile, and he meant it. Yeah, none of them were dancers. Their dancing wasn't elegant and it wasn't smooth and they looked lost sometimes but in Zuko's eyes, they were perfect. "You adapted that dance so well. It's hard imagining what the original was supposed to look like."
"I think the scroll said it was supposed to represent balance," Ty Lee said, looking around for the discarded scroll. Suki found it first and picked it up for her. Ty Lee blinked gratefully and took it from her. "I bet it looks really pretty with all the fire and the water and the earth and the air and everything all mixed together!"
"It looked, um, pretty with the weapons," Zuko told her, stumbling over his words a bit. He wasn't used to complimenting people but sitting here with so much affection in his heart, he couldn't bear to hold back. They deserved to know. "Maybe even better. I know the nations are usually remembered for their bending but I think it's important to remember nonbenders are just as important. It really shows you guys understand the different countries if you can change the way you use your weapons."
"It does, doesn't it?" Sokka said boastfully. He shuffled on the ground a bit so he was leaning against Zuko's knees. Zuko let his hands rest in Sokka's hair. "Man, wait until Aang sees this! Who needs the Avatar when you've got us!"
Suki and Ty Lee laughed while Mai smirked. She looked a bit thoughtful. "Maybe it would be beneficial for the four nations to see a dance like this. With bending. Maybe we should revisit the Fire Nation Dance Restoration Movement."
"Really?" Zuko exclaimed, jostling Sokka slightly as his back straightened. "You of all people are interested in dance?"
Mai shrugged. "You think it's a bad idea?"
"No. I'm just surprised. I thought you didn't like dancing."
"I don't," Mai responded and sat down beside Sokka. "I just think… The dance is really beautiful. And I think it would be a lot more beautiful of the people who were actually meant to do it used it for its intended purpose."
"And if those people weren't a bunch of amateurs," Suki added, getting down to her level so she could knock shoulders with her. She reached out with one arm and knocked Zuko's stool out from under him, making him fall with a yelp. "You better get on that, Fire Lord!"
Ty Lee caught him before he could hit the ground. "Don't bully him into making him do stuff for him!"
"Yeah. Don't bully me!"
"Being nice is a much better way to get him to do what you want."
"Hey!" Zuko complained but didn't protest when Ty Lee plopped him down next to Sokka and threw herself onto their laps.
"It's true," Sokka said, shifting so his knees didn't dig into Ty Lee's back. She'd done this before, they were all used to it and even welcomed it at this point. Maybe she was the most catlike of the group. Mai never did anything like this. "You let all four of us get away with everything."
"Better not let your enemies know your weakness!" Suki cracked, playing with Ty Lee's hair absently.
"Yeah, well, if any of my enemies find out my weakness, they have to get through you guys before using it on me."
"Touché."
"Do you think the other nations were like this once?" Ty Lee asked, reaching up to poke Mai in the cheek. She didn't look amused but the quirk of her lips betrayed her. "Like us, I mean. Right now."
"Maybe," Mai responded. "I hope so. This is nice."
"It is," Zuko agreed. He looked around at his friends, all curled up together, and knew he'd savor this moment forever. "It really is."
