"Do you deserve a promotion? Do you really? Ask yourself if you are meant for it, and if you can answer yourself you are a liar."

-Admiral Sozin to Captain Lihoung, Flight Bridge of the F.L.A Crowfoot

In my dreams, a warm power flows through my blood. I feel it enter me, right above my heart. My heart beats with each surge of the energy, and it invigorates me with a strength I never knew could exist. It's like something from another world, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I love the sensation.

"Ok, last time I'm going to say it. One of you is going to wake up, because we do have things to do today."

The voice is commanding, and I'm not sure I know who it belongs to. It may not even be real, and it could just be a figment of my dreams. I ignore it, and return to my dreamworld.

Then the voice pulls me back out. "Damn it you two, I would really appreciate some cooperation right now."

I open my eyes. The first thing I notice is Aelius's comforting muscled arm around my chest. His hand is right over my heart, and I move one of my hands to cover his. His hand is warm to the touch, and I love how it feels against me.

Then I notice Iulia, wearing a plain white robe, standing in front of the couch that Aelius and I fell asleep on. Her hair is pushed behind her ears, and I see that she is wearing her silver circlet with the pulsating purple gem. The light of the gem entrances me, and it glows softly as if it knows that is has grasped my attention.

"About time." Iulia pulls my attention away from her circlet. "We need to get moving. Busy day."

Her words confuse me. "Huh?" I ask.

Iulia closes her eyes. "Princess," she says. "You leave for the Fire Nation today, and you still have to pack your belongings and meet Master Marcian at the airfield by noon." She rubs the bridge of her nose.

Slowly, I begin to recall yesterdays events. My mind works backwards, starting with the amazing kissing session that Aelius and I had and ending at seeing the Regia. Then I remember that in the middle of all that, Master Marcian asked to see me and told me something. What did she tell me again?

"Princess Cathra?"

"Huh?" I ask. I shudder when I realize how un-royal I sound. A princess should never say huh, and I just said it two times in a row.

"You need to get your things together." Iulia says. Her eyes are still closed. I can tell she's trying very hard not to get frustrated with me. She doesn't seem upset to find her twin brother and I sleeping together on the couch in the living room.

Aelius's hand moves slightly, and I realize that all the talking woke him up. I feel his chest stretch behind me. "I guess I had better pack too."

His words light a small flame inside of me. I turn around and look at him, a smile wide across my face. "You're coming?" I ask eagerly.

Aelius smiles sleepily. "Of course." He moves his head forward and gives me a quick kiss on the lips. Before I can return it, he moves back. "It's about time I went on an adventure."

I feel my heart beat as though electricity was running through my body. "Well then we had both," I move closer to Aelius and rub my nose against his. "better prepare."

I hear a cough behind me. "Gods, at least have the decency not to do this in front of me." I can hear Iulia's eyes roll in her voice.

Aelius pushes himself into an upright position. "Iulia, could you do me a really big favor and fix something for breakfast that we can eat on the go?"

I turn and look at Iulia. I move into an upright position, and Aelius puts his arm around my waist. My heart pounds again.

Iulia shakes her head at her brother. "I had breakfast ready an hour ago." She says. "And I ate it. All of it." Iulia smiles.

Aelius sighs. "Fine." He lets go of my waist and gets up off the couch. With one final look at me and a warm smile, he turns and walks out of the living room. I watch him go longingly. His muscles move under his muscle shirt with each lively swing of his arms.

"Well, that's new." Iulia says from behind me. I turn around to see her looking at Aelius as well.

"What is?" I ask, clueless.

Iulia visibly snaps out of her thoughts with a shake of her head. "Nothing its just…" she tilts her head in the direction Aelius just left in. "He never moves his arms that much when he walks." Iulia seems to ponder her words for a few moments, and then she looks at me. "Two rules, Princess Cathra." She says sternly.

Iulia holds up one manicured finger. "One, no sex. I will not have my brother sire the next heir of the Fire Nation."

I feel my mouth drop open, but before I can say anything Iulia has already held up her second finger. "Two, you break his heart and I'll break your body. Now," Iulia smiles, and unlike some of her smiles before, it is genuine. "You need to get packing."

The elevator ride back up to the Regia is much different than the one that brought me down to Elysium. Aelius is with us this time, and he makes a point to stay close to me. In return, I make a point to stay close to him. Iulia is much kinder to me, telling me all about the most recent fashion in Elysium. She was pleased, in a weird sort of way, when she saw me walking out of my room before we left wearing a white skirt with a crimson red top. "Oh!" she had said. "That's a perfect mix for you!"

When the elevator opens out into the white halls of the Regia, Iulia is in the middle of a sentence. "-But you never want to wear too much silk in Elysium, because then people think you're trying to show off. Grey fabrics are all the rage."

"I don't see why people care so much." Aelius says from behind me. His soft and deep voice sends a warm shiver down my spine. "We all wear robes anyways."

I step out of the elevator, and Aelius and Iulia follow suit. Iulia takes the lead, and Aelius and I follow her through many winding hallways. Some people are bustling about the Regia, but a majority of them are Energy Guardians. A few people hurry past in white robes, but we pay them no attention. They all move out of our way.

Iulia finally leads us through a large set of double doors. We enter a bright parking garage with several white cars parked inside. One of them is a medium-sized white van, and two white-armored guards are standing outside of it. An attendant wearing matching grey pants and a dress shirt is waiting outside of the van, a grey cap under the crook of his arm. He bows at the waist when he sees us approach.

"Princess Cathra! Lord and Lady Impera!" The attendant says energetically. The two Guardians do not share his attitude and remain silent.

The attendant scurries over to Aelius and I and takes our duffle bags from us. "I'll just take these." He says with a smile on his face. He has no trouble with my bag, but he grunts a bit when he picks up Aelius's bag. He puts Aelius's bag in the back of the van first, and then puts mine in.

"What did you bring?" I ask Aelius when he helps me up into the van. He doesn't need to, but I appreciate it. He is a gentleman.

Aelius grins as he pulls himself into the car behind me. "Armor, some weapons. A few other things."

Iulia opens the front passenger door and gets into her seat. "Gods, Aelius, you brought a quarter of your armory with you."

Aelius just laughs as the attendant closes the door behind Iulia and then the door Aelius and I entered. "Always prepared." He says.

The attendant quickly moves around the front of the van to open the drivers' side door. He hops up into the seat, buckles his seatbelt, and puts on his grey cap in one fluid motion. He turns the ignition, and we begin backing out.

I realize that we seem to have lost our Energy Guardian escorts. When I ask Aelius about it, he points out the front window. "They are right there," he says. "Look for the bright light."

Puzzled by his words, I look out the window. As soon as I do, I hear two low hums, and I see two white shapes appear out of nowhere and speed out of the parking garage. They both take up positions on either side of the van, and I look out the window closest to me.

A Guardian is sitting on what appears to be a motorcycle. Instead of wheels, however, the front and back of the bike has a large circular disk that cups a large white energy sphere. The hover bike, for that is the only way I can possibly describe it, floats at least a foot off the ground.

"Whoa." is all I can say. Aelius and Iulia laugh.

We pull out of the Regia through a large gate that I didn't see before. The two hover bike-riding Guardians move to the front and back of us and lead us through the busy city.

Iulia speaks after a few minutes of silence. "We're going right now to the Crescent Moon district to look for the Admiral that the Fire Lord wants to bring back to the Fire Nation."

"Admiral Sozin?" I ask.

"Yes." Iulia says. "Apparently he runs a teashop in the Moon district."

This surprises me. "Admiral Sozin was one of the greatest airship commanders in the latest years of Fire Lord Zuko's reign. He has to be old by now."

Aelius grins and pokes my playfully in the side. "People typically get older as time goes on, Cat."

I grin when he calls me by the diminutive. The little things count. I poke him back. "I won't." I joke. "I'll live forever and ever."

Aelius and I both laugh. I find his hand, and I grab it. After a few moments hesitation, he closes his fingers around mine. I smile.

We ride in the van for about ten minutes when we enter the Crescent Moon district. Aelius points out the dirty buildings as we go by them. "The Crescent Moon district," he tells me. "Used to be one of the best places to live in the city."

"What happened to it?" I ask.

Aelius shrugs. "No one really knows." He says. "It pretty much started going downhill when the war started."

We drive by a few men fighting on a sidewalk. One of the man hits another with a glass bottle. We go past before I can see how the fight turns out. "Some place." I say.

After a few minutes, the van comes to a halt outside a bright building. It seems so out of place in the grimy district. The attendant opens his door and rushes around to open the passenger's side door, and then the back door so that Aelius and I can get out.

Aelius gets out of the van first, and I can see him turning his head and scanning the street. A few people have stopped what they were doing to look at us. Some of the characters seem a bit shady, but when the Energy Guardians take up positions flanking Aelius, the shady ones look away quickly.

Aelius holds his hand out for me and helps me down out of the van. "Such a gentleman," I say. I give him a quick peck on the lips and a smile. Aelius's silver eyes are warm and glimmer in the morning sun.

Iulia gets out of the van. "Enough kissing, you two." She says. "I think I might puke." Her voice is joking, and I can tell that she is happy for Aelius. I just smile.

We follow Iulia around the van and into the teashop. A sign on the door says "Golden Dragon Café." Inside the shop is a good-sized main room with wooden chairs and tables scattered around it. I can see an empty spot of the cafe that looks like a table was there recently. Why they moved it, I do not know. Considering the surrounding area, it was probably stolen.

A girl, wearing blue shorts and a blue vest over her sky blue shirt, approaches us. Her hair is long, and two brown strands of it are braided to either side of her head. Her eyes are a bright blue, and they contrast oddly with her dirty face. She is a little bit taller than I am, and she looks like she has been in a lot of fights and came out on top of most of them.

"Can I help you?" She says. She asks Iulia the question, but her eyes glance over Aelius and I. She spends a little more time looking at Aelius than I am comfortable with. I distract her by adjusting the topknot on the top of my head.

"We're looking for Admiral Sozin." Iulia says. She clasps her hands behind her simple white robe. "We were told we could find him here."

The girl takes a step back. "We don't want any trouble," she says. Her voice takes a hostile note to it. "Whoever sent you, just tell them we don't want anymore trouble."

I look at the girl quizzically. "We're just here to see the Admiral," I say. "That's all."

The girl looks at me. "What are you, some kind of royalty?" she asks, her eyes on my topknot and the Fire Nation symbol holding it in place.

I bow to the girl. "I am Princess Cathra of the Fire Nation."

The girl snorts in derision. "And I'm Terumi of the Crescent Moon People."

I ignore the girl's sarcasm. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Terumi."

An old man wearing a gold apron steps out of a door in the back of the café. "Oh, customers!" He says. He takes a few steps forward, and then his eyes dart to my topknot. He immediately prostrates himself on the ground. "Princess!" He exclaims.

Iulia takes a step forward. "Are you Admiral Sozin?" She asks. Her immediate reaction surprises me. I am the one supposed to be acting like royalty. Maybe royalty is supposed to be silent. I would not know; I have always been bad at acting royal.

The brown haired girl, Terumi, steps in between Iulia and the old man. "So what if he is?" She asks. Her voice sounds like she's been yelling her entire life. It's a rough voice, but from the way her eyes dart around the room I can tell that it's only rough because she is afraid of us.

"I'm sorry for coming to bother you-" I start.

"Good." Terumi says, crossing her arms over her chest.

I do not pause. "But my father, Fire Lord Ursan, requests Admiral Sozin's presence immediately back in the Fire Nation?" I look at Terumi with an expression I hope is commanding without any hostility.

Either its too hostile or Terumi doesn't care, because the next words out of her mouth are "So what?"

"Terumi!" The old man barks from the floor. He gets up from his deferential position and approaches us. "That is no way to speak to a guest, let alone the heir Princess of the Fire Nation, let alone about her father the Firelord!"

Terumi visibly softens. She looks at the floor. "Yes, Admiral." She mutters under her breath. I look at the old man again. He still has an aura of command and wisdom around him that I assume come from his many years of experience. It is no wonder why my father wants him back in the Fire Nation. I wish, though, I knew what I was going back home for.

Iulia starts talking to the Admiral about travel arrangements. I don't pay attention to what she's saying, because my eyes have started drifting across the café. Scattered around the walls are paintings and loose sketches. My eyes focus on a painting of the Fire Nation Capitol. It makes me homesick, which is not a normal thing for me.

My eyes slowly move to the next picture. It is an ink painting of a dragon twisting through the silver clouds while fire rolls down the back of the creature. The entire sketch looks as though it was painted right on top of a body of moving water, and the lines and curves of the ink just happened to go into the right places. The ink looks as though it is painted in waves.

"That's an amazing picture," Aelius says from behind me. I turn around and realize I had walked away from the group while Iulia was talking.

"Ya." I say softly. I turn back to the painting. "It's as though the ink just decided to go to the right places."

"You like it?" Terumi comes up behind us "I drew it myself." I turn around to look at her and I can see pride in her eyes. She is standing close to Aelius and looking up at him.

Aelius turns his attention to Terumi, and I feel a fire rise up in my chest. "It's a masterful work." He says.

Aelius turns around and returns his focus to Iulia and the Admiral. Terumi, however, does not turn around. She remains facing my direction.

I glare at the girl's light blue eyes as a small smirk grows upon her face.

A/N: These past two chapters have been odd. I'll admit it. More than one reader has PM'ed me referring to the "speed" of the last chapter and the relationship between Cathra and Aelius and how it seems artificial. Part of the theme of this story is my opinion on teenage romance; it is a complicated thing for the parties involved, especially if it is their first time having a romantic relationship. The relationship between Aelius and Cathra is one of those awkward first-time relationships.

As always, feel free to either message me your questions or comments or feel free to review! I appreciate anything and everything!