Okay this isn't the WHOLE last chapter. But I will update what my friend has! :) So, here you go! :)

It took a while to wake up the next morning.

Bangs plastered to my forehead and eyes plastered closed; I finally pulled myself up from the haven of my mattress, silently noting the empty space beside me with the palm of my hand. My eyes snapped open as I surveyed the space around me, looking over the room around me in search of any sign that Zuko was still around, eventually giving up with a sigh and pulling myself into a standing position.

"Seriously?" I muttered almost silently to myself, walking toward the door to the hallway, fully awake now. "Does he ever just sleep in like a normal person? I mean-"

"I'm sure he would, L. Today wasn't the best day for it, though. Obviously."

My hands clenched into fists, my nails drawing blood from my palms as my muscles clenched. "Can't you spot rhetorical question? Or are you just that thick?"

I turned just quickly enough to see his shoulders pull up and fall gently. "Always expect the latter," Zack said, smiling gently from the other side of my bedroom.

"Unless I'm in the mood to mix things up a little," he said to me, re-catching my attention just as I turned my back on him and took a step toward the door. "I can be serious."

"Oh, I'm sure," I snapped, starting my advance toward the door, picking up my pace forcefully once again.

"Why do you do it, Lu? You could drown me… crush me… blow me away. You could probably even burn me to the ground," he pondered, a smile forming as I turned toward him again. "Why do you always turn back around and hang on my every word."

Ice shards struck through my chest.

If I was really trying to lie to myself, I could think of a few reasonable answers.

… actually, scratch that. I couldn't have gotten my brain to form a sentence if my life would've depended on it.

Doesn't it?

Still frozen from the inside out, I managed to take a necessary breath and a step forward.

"Care to enlighten me, Lu? The suspense is killing me."

All the while he was speaking; I was making a steady advance towards him, my bare feet striking violently against the concrete of the floor, eyes burning a hole through his forehead.

Metaphorically.

"Stop. Calling me that."

I got just close enough to him so that I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to when a loud bang came from where I had just left. My advance halted, and Zack reached forward and grabbed my waist, pulling me forward against his chest.

A small smile appeared on his face just before he leaned toward me, pressing his forehead against mine. "I apologize for the whole in the wall."

One of Zack's hands fell from its grip on my waist, and thrust out from his bent elbow, palm parallel to the wall. Fire shot out from his hand, burning out toward the wall opposite from my bed, and tore through the wall, forming an arch way big enough so that I could probably walk under it without ducking.

"Lulu!" Zuko yelled from the other side of the room, running after Zack as he let go of me in a flash and dashed through the opening he had created. "I can't let it go this time!"

I regained my self-awareness, and began dashing behind the both of them, answering Zuko the only way I knew how. "You have to! This time it wasn't even me!"

An argument.

We both heard Zack's scoff from a few meters ahead of Zuko, which just propelled me even faster toward them. Realization crashed down on me as I first tried using air to bend to my will and propel me forward, that I wasn't able to summon anything. What was once perfectly natural now chose not to come to me.

I put everything in the back of my mind, and ran.

I soon caught up to Zuko. "Why don't you just blast him with fire or something?" I panted, already tired from running at full speed for so long.

Zuko looked in better shape than I was, and managed an "I can't" from the back of his throat.

"Why don't you just do it?" He barked, gaining another ounce of energy and propelling himself past me.

I caught up in a last attempt to show I could hold up in a storm. "Because I can't either!"

Zuko halted mid-dash, falling onto his palms and knees, barely catching himself from falling onto his face.

I, on the other hand, turned my head to watch him fall, while continuing my rapid pace, and ran right into to Zack, my palms smacking against his chest as I steadied myself.

Again.

"Whoa," he murmured gently. "Careful."

The soft, gentle tenor of his voice almost broke me, but I pushed myself away from him, and ran toward Zuko, standing next to his form, preparing to battle.

REVIEW! And get a high-five! :D