disclaimer: Mike and Bryan own the ATLA universe; Mariko belongs to me (: enjoy!
Manliness
He darted around the blasts of fire flying at his footing and any other openings he might've left, twisting to deliver several bouts of orange flames at his opponent.
She panted slightly, keeping the neutral look present even though she felt like smiling at seeing his progress, deflecting four of the seven bouts with ease, canceling out the remaining three with blasts of her own; at seeing an opening at his right flank she dove for it, creating a large blast of flames that screamed at the opening.
He grunted slightly and formed an orange shield of flames to protect from the blast, dispelling the flames sharply to let the smoke dance and billow around their training ground, panting slightly as he noticed she had straightened her stance to watch the embers die.
His teacher nodded her head, her neutral expression breaking out into a bright grin. "Well, Zu, what do you think?" She asked, tilting her head back to look at her boyfriend, taking in his casual stance aimlessly.
He peeled himself away from the pillar he'd been resting his back against, stepping into the makeshift training ground, a concentrated look on his face. "Your defense needs more work; Mari's fire blast would've burned you if you hadn't pulled that shield up at the last minute. But other than that, good." He assessed, refolding his arms across his chest.
Aang grinned, looking at the teacher's assistant, "So when're you going to teach me how to use lightning?" He asked in slight excitement, seeing her blink once.
"Lightning takes a while to master; it took me a few months. It's cold, precise, and deadly. Once you master firebending, I'll teach you. Until then," Mariko informed, reaching for her belt and pulling the scroll out, tossing it to him. "Feel free to look." She smiled kindly.
Zuko lifted a brow at her flippant end to the explanation, elbowing her. "Since when're you so calm about an ability like lightning?" He asked.
Mariko ribbed him in return. "Since I know if it took me a few months to master it, then it won't take so long for your talented student." She answered coolly, winking at her friend.
He rolled his eyes and pinched her cheek, sighing. "There you are." He smirked amusedly when she pouted at him.
"You're just lucky I don't consider zapping your ass when you're sleeping, princeling." She sniffed cattily.
At hearing the snort to valiantly hide a laugh from their pupil, he shot her a death glare. "…Bite me."
Aang stifled a giggle as Mariko grinned cheekily.
Even though she was never a light-sleeper, she couldn't deny hearing the tiptoeing passing by her. Lifting her head slightly she watched a figure in blue sneaking over to the sleeping bison; her brow furrowed as she recognized it to be Sokka. Inwardly sighing, the firebender slipped out from her makeshift sleeping bag to follow him, ducking behind the pillar on the left of the bison so he wouldn't know she had tailed him.
"Not up to anything, huh?" His familiar low voice asked from the bison's saddle, followed by a thud and slight yelp; she inwardly slapped her forehead.
Sokka hissed back, "Fine, you caught me. I'm gonna rescue my dad, you happy now?"
"Not this early in the morning." Zuko deadpanned.
"Look, I have to do this: the invasion plan was my idea, it was my decision to stay when things were going wrong. It was my mistake and it's my job to fix it." She peered around the pillar to see Zuko having dropped down from the saddle to face the younger boy. "I have to regain my honor; you can't stop me, Zuko." He lightly shrugged past him to get onto the bison again.
"'You need to regain your honor'? Believe me, I get it; I'm going with you." He stated.
"No, this is something I have to do on my own."
"How're you gonna get there, on Appa? Last time I checked, prisons don't have bison-daycares." At hearing the defeated sigh, she heard him add, "We'll take my war-balloon."
Inhaling, she heard them start to shuffle away before she stepped away from the pillar to put on the sleepy façade, yawning widely, stepping into the light. "Zuko? What're you doing up so early?" She asked drowsily.
Sokka froze in place and mentally swore, whereas the prince remained calm (not without shooting him a look). "Oh, Mariko! We, um, we…" He faltered.
"We're going on a fishing trip. You should be sleeping," Zuko shot the younger boy a look that said to meet him at the balloon, stepping away to usher her back to bed. "C'mon, Mari."
Once he had left she dropped the act and dragged him to where Appa was by the grip she had on his wrist. "What are you two lunkheads planning to do? And why are you taking your war-balloon?" Mariko hissed, releasing him to cross her arms and scowl pointedly into his gold eyes.
"Why did I have a feeling you were listening…? Damn it, Mariko." He hissed back, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking away with a groan. "It has nothing to do with you." He finalized.
"Sneaking out before sunrise in your war-balloon to pull a rescue mission to the Boiling Rock? That sounds like the ideal place to catch fish! Zuko you know how dangerous that place is… Both of you are insane to even go there." She snapped, glaring up at him, concern lacing her words even though stubbornness screamed in her eyes.
"Sokka's father is being housed there and he wants to rescue him. I'm only going to make sure he doesn't get himself killed in the process." He explained with a sharp exhale, glaring back even though a major part of him was firmly denying that she join them on this suicide mission… He'd never forgive himself if he let anything happen to her. "You're not going."
"Zuko…" She began before she glared again and looked away. "You're an idiot, y'know." She hissed.
"Like you're one to talk." He knew that look; exhaling quietly, he guided her face to meet his with a gentle hand, meeting her disgruntled amber glare. "I don't want anything to happen to you, okay? The more I think about, the more I believe Uncle was right in saying that I would need you…" A smile started to creep onto his features at seeing the blush slowly coloring her cheeks, her glare softening. "Do me a favor and train with Aang today; he'll need to do twenty fire-fists and ten hot-squats each time a badger-frog croaks." He added, trying to shift to normality even though some small part of him was enjoying seeing her tough shell crack.
Even though he disagreed with it at most aspects, right now was one of those moments he didn't.
Mariko cut her gaze away, exhaling. "Fine." She shook his hand off to return to her bed, pausing and squaring her shoulders before turning back to slug him. "You'd better come back or I'll kill you for leaving again." She vowed, flustered and irritated, amber daggers stabbing into placid gold.
Zuko smirked despite her threat, holding her fist in his hand and crushing her lips with a hard kiss, taking her by surprise before she wove her fingers in his shaggy locks and reciprocated just as fiercely; he chuckled when he drew back, his hands on her ribs. "Be good, spitfire." He kissed her again, gently, reluctantly letting go to follow where Sokka had left, leaving her alone in the waking dawn.
::::::::dOb::::::::
"… Yeah, war seems to run in the family." He mused.
He scowled slightly, "Hey, not everyone in my family's like that."
"I know, I know; you turned out… okay." He lifted his hands in defense.
His scowl faltered into a sad expression, "I meant my uncle. He was more of a father to me… And I really let him down."
"I think your uncle would be proud of you; leaving your home to come help us, that's hard." He countered thoughtfully.
"It wasn't that hard." He shrugged.
"Really; you didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?" He raised both brows.
He snorted, "No, she wouldn't let me leave without dragging her along." He smiled thoughtfully, recalling that kiss at dawn.
"Yeah, Mari can be pretty bull-headed. Some part of me is still surprised she came back… She kept her promise after all, I suppose; y'know, about teaching Aang." He smiled a little at the times when she would act like a smartass around him.
"That's one thing about her that hasn't changed, she never breaks a promise. Even when I put her in danger, she stuck it out and stayed at my side… I still hate that I dragged her with me because now her own parents think she's a traitor like me." He mused, his tone slightly bitter towards the end of his sentence.
"My first girlfriend turned into the moon." He admitted, if only to lighten his mood somehow.
He glanced at him briefly, "That's rough, buddy."
She sneezed.
"Oi Sword Girl, Kat said dinner is ready." Toph informed at hearing her sneeze.
Breaking concentration, Mariko sighed and straightened from her meditation posture, stretching. "Fine, fine." She shuffled over to where the earthbender was waiting, glancing at the first stars that peeked out from under the velvety blanket of dusk. I hope Zuko's doing okay, she thought.
"You've been dreary all day; don't tell me you're missing Prince Casanova already?" She elbowed her if only to break the silence that fell between them.
She stirred from her thoughts at the elbowing, smiling wryly and exhaling. "Nah, he'll be fine. He's a big boy." Who's considered insane at this point, she added to herself.
"Pssh, you know I can tell when you're lying. You're worried about him, admit it." She had been like this at another point in time, right before they'd lost Appa if she remembered correctly.
But unlike the previous time she chuckled quietly and shrugged. "Of course I worry; he's a quick-tempered lunkhead prince that gets himself in over his head half the time… And acts like an awkward turtle-duck with two left feet around girls." She contributed to her defeat.
"That's where you're wrong, actually; he only gets that way around you." At sensing she received an odd look, she lifted a leg and wiggled her toes. "Like I said, my feet don't lie." She slugged her affectionately, hearing a muffled 'ow' from her friend. "Stop obsessing over it, will you? Yer starting to make me nauseous." She added.
She puffed out her cheeks and exhaled, crossing her arms behind her head. "Then don't listen!" She griped.
Still, it did feel good to know he was an awkward turtle-duck only around her… It was cute.
::::::::dOb::::::::
It was only a few hours past lights-out that the chittering of the lemur awoke her.
Her eyes flew open and she lifted her head to see a large shadow coming into view near the edge of the balcony; everyone else seemed to wake up too because there was a shuffling of clothes and feet around her. Now that she focused on the shadow she realized it was an airship; she scrambled to her feet to join her friends as they welcomed the familiar faces that stepped off the bridge connected to the airship and onto the ledge where they waited.
"What're you doing in this thing; what happened to the war-balloon?" Katara was the first to ask, as surprised as she was.
Zuko shrugged, "It kinda got destroyed."
"Must've been a crazy fishing trip," Aang commented.
"Did you at least get some good meat?" Toph asked.
Sokka smiled happily, "I did: the best meat of all. The meat of friendship and fatherhood."
Mariko blinked once to see three more people stepped off the bridge, one a man that looked to be both Sokka and Katara's father, another a brunette girl that looked her age, and a second brunette man that looked taller than the siblings' father by at least a head. "So much for a suicide mission." She mused, smiling.
"Dad!" Katara beamed with tears rising to her eyes, throwing her arms around her father when he smiled and greeted her warmly, looking at her brother. "How are you here…? What's going on, where did you go?" She asked him alertly.
Sokka smiled sheepishly, "We kinda went to a Fire Nation prison…" He answered before being pulled into a group hug with his sister and father.
"Seriously, you guys didn't find any meat?" Toph inquired again out of disbelief, earning an eye-roll from Aang.
Mariko chuckled before turning to her boyfriend and smacking his chest hard, making him yelp an 'Ow!' before she embraced him tight. "You look terrible." She noted with a smirk when they pulled apart.
Zuko made a face that earned a giggle from her, smiling in reluctant defeat and hooking his arm around her waist. "You didn't miss me that badly if you're scolding me like usual." He chuckled.
"For the love of God, take that crap away from here! There's too many touchy-feely emotions going on!" Toph complained next to them, making both teenagers blink.
Both firebenders deadpanned before the prince smiled slightly and took his girlfriend's hand instead. "Come on, before Toph pukes rainbows." He advised, hearing a satisfied 'humph' sound behind them as he guided her on a late-night tour through the ruins of the temple.
Their walk through the deserted halls was quiet, silence stepping in, standing between them both it seemed, just waiting to be burst like a bubble…
"Aang finished his homework early." At the slightly odd look from him she felt her cheeks warm and she added, "Well I gave him a break after lunch. Eleven-hundred hot-squats, two-thousand fire-fists in that order. Plus a mini spar before dinner last night." She kicked at a pebble in her way, watching it quietly clatter away by a few feet.
Once listening to her detailed report regarding their pupil, he now noticed she had been blushing the whole time, and it obviously wasn't for the airbender; was she actually being nervous around him? And since when did she act… feminine?
'I still hate that I dragged her with me because now her parents think she's a traitor like me…'
"Do you hate me?" His quiet, usually-rough, voice halted her babbling, making her stop walking as they both came to a halt infront of a tall statue of a female airbender carved into the high-ceilinged wall on their left.
She looked at him in confusion. "For what?" Why would I hate him? He hasn't done anything wrong, not to me; he left three years ago, sure, but even so, I followed to go find him… Why would he think that? She wondered.
"You… I left you, three years ago, just to regain my honor because my father promised I would be able to come home with my honor and birthright once I captured the Avatar. And just recent, because of me you're a traitor to our country… and then the thing with Katara…" Zuko listed, expounding on what he'd been thinking of ever since the day of the eclipse, looking at the statue and pretending to find interest in the aged carvings into the stone.
Mariko pondered on his reasons for such a ludicrous question, rubbing the back of her neck with a hand, looking at him as he kept his eyes on the statue. "It shouldn't mean anything, not now. You left on false pretenses and I chased you because I was worried about my lunkhead best friend who was banished by his own father, and I came with you despite being labelled a traitor because I made a promise to Aang and to you, dummy. Katara will forgive me on her own time, I know this; so why are you bringing it up so randomly…?"
"Because it's my fault you're out here! You don't deserve to be damned like this, Mariko… I never wanted to let you be put in harm's way. You were this close to getting cut down by my father the day of the eclipse, and if I didn't redirect the lightning in time…"
"Zuko." She quieted him, having come to stand at his side infront of the statue, guiding his face to look at hers, his gold eyes burning into her placid amber stare; she smiled warmly, softly. "Stop worrying, okay? What's done is done and honestly, if you hadn't left, I wouldn't have made the friends I made and we wouldn't be standing here, together, right now. So stop beating yourself up over this, Zuko. Please." She whispered the last word, both hands holding his face in her grasp.
He let his stare burn into hers a second longer before cutting it away, eyes closing partly. "You're so stubborn." He whispered, his tone almost scolding, almost a growl.
Mariko smiled softly and lowered her hands to her sides with a shake of her head. "You're still a prat." She returned.
Zuko made a face before his hands tugged on her elbows to pull her into an embrace, his fingers weaving in her mane of hair as hers dug into the back of his prisoner tunic. "I still think you're insane to be so forgiving towards me for what I've done, but at the same time… I love that about you." He admitted quietly.
She blushed slightly and rested her cheek on his shoulder, feeling him squeeze her lower waist. "I missed you too, Zu." She smiled fondly, finding truth in her own voice and knowing that she had indeed missed him.
He brushed strands of hair from her forehead, smirking softly, exhaling. "I missed you."
A/N: not much to put, sorry gents. kinda starting to dish out what i have left, but it's still good, don't get me wrong. (: anywho, later.