Within a few hours Lu Ten realized he'd royally screwed up—pun not intended. He'd led them straight into a storm with pouring rain, flashing lightening, and frighteningly high winds. In his defense, he hadn't been trained in navigation in his time with the Fire Nation's army.
"I didn't ask for this!" Lu Ten shook his fist at the sky as he gripped the helm with his other hand. "I'm just a guy, from the Fire Nation, who enjoys living a nice, calm life on solid ground! I didn't ask for a war or for a lunatic uncle or for a storm like this!"
"Babe, please." Ayeshi groaned. She was green in the face and leaning over the side of the boat, ready to vomit at any second. "Can you just try to get us through the storm? Can we leave the dramatics for later?"
"I'm just saying!" Lu Ten said. "I just wanted to live a normal life. Augh!" He yanked the helm and tried to dive the boat out of the way of a large wave. It crashed over the deck, drenching both of them.
"We need to get out of this storm before it gets dark." Ayeshi said.
"I'm trying!" Lu Ten looked around. "We have two options. We either head for the eye of the storm, or we try to skirt around it. I think the first one is really dangerous given that we don't know what we're doing, so second one it is."
"Is that land?" Ayeshi pointed a shaky finger in the distance.
"Where?"
"That grey smudge on the horizon."
Lu Ten squinted at the horizon. Sure enough, a grey smudge was just barely visible.
"What is it?" Ayeshi asked. "Do you think it's safe?"
"Agh!" Lu Ten tried to steer the boat out of an oncoming wave, but the deck was soaked in a wave of cold water anyway. "You know what? Doesn't matter. Anywhere is safer than being on a boat in this storm. If there's hostile people, we cross that bridge when we come to it." He gritted his teeth and threw his whole weight behind it, fighting to keep them on course to the land, which looked to be some kind of island. This wasn't like the fights he'd previously known, the ones where he'd marched at his father's heels to claim something that didn't belong to them. This time he was fighting to protect his own life and Ayeshi's.
"Look out!" Ayeshi shrieked. A bolt of lightning arced down from the sky and struck the top of the mast, which splintered into pieces that rained down on the deck. Lu Ten muttered a string of Fire Nation swear words under his breath and squinted up at the mast. Thankfully it didn't catch on catch on fire because its remains were doused with another wave.
"What I'd give to be a lightning bender." Lu Ten muttered. "All right. Almost there." Despite their broken mast, the boat continued toward the island. The winds had changed direction and were now buoying them towards it. "All right. If this wind can just hold on a little longer . . ." Lu Ten clutched the helm as Ayeshi threw up over the side of the boat and the island came into view. It was nothing to write home about—small and scrubby, certainly no beauty like Ember Island, but also distinct from the frigid islands they'd encountered at the south pole. Lu Ten had no idea how far the storm had blown them or what corner of the world they were in.
As they approached the island Lu Ten guided them up the beach and they dragged the boat as far onto the shore as they could. Now that they were out of immediate danger, they stopped to look at the mast.
"That's going to be an expensive repair." Ayeshi muttered. "We'll probably just have to hand over all the money we have when we return the boat."
"You're right." Lu Ten replied. "Argh. That's gonna be a problem." No more money meant the end of their travels. Ayeshi began unpacking some of their things and setting up their tent while Lu Ten looked around the beach, desperate for some clue to where they were. The beach was an ordinary rain-soaked beach, but the trees beyond held a few clues: rusted Fire Nation helmets, the smashed remains of wooden crates, and a few rusted pieces of machinery. Better yet, the machinery was old and out of date. Lu Ten smiled, for he now knew where they were. "Ayeshi, I know this place! I think this is Po-Hai island! We're in the Fire Nation!"
Ayeshi recoiled. "The Fire Nation?"
"Yes. I'm back home." Lu Ten stopped and looked around in wonder. The wind was still howling and the rain pounding unceasingly, but this shabby little island had never looked more beautiful. It had been so long since he'd set foot in his home country, and despite its flaws he had missed it fiercely.
"Are we safe here?" Ayeshi's voice brought him back to reality.
"I think so. At least for now. Po-Hai's so small that it's uninhabited, at least it was before I faked my death. Way back in the early days of the war, my great-grandfather Sozin used it as an army outpost. But after the air nomad genocide it fell out of use. See the machinery in the trees? It's completely out of date. We don't use anything like that now, and that's how you can tell no one's been here for a while. Back when I was in basic army training there was a rumor that if you broke the rules you'd be marooned here with no one but the ghosts of soldiers who died here."
"So we are safe, at least for a little while." Ayeshi looked around. "We need to wait out the storm. Why don't you make a campfire, and I'll get out the food from the boat and see what we can make. We're running low on supplies, so we'll have to get back to civilization soon, right, Lu Ten? Lu Ten?"
Lu Ten was gazing up the beach into the dark trees. "If you go to the other side of this island," he said, "you can see the mainland Fire Nation. We're that close. Can you imagine? I could just go back, storm into the palace, face Ozai, and take the throne for myself."
"That's the stupidest idea you've ever had. You don't even have your sword."
"No, I'd be executed for treason before ever getting inside the palace. I can't actually do that. But one can dream." He sighed and turned his attention to setting a small campfire, using a steel and flint they he'd learned in Ba Sing Se. By now going without his fire bending had become a habit, a survival method etched into his daily routine. Once he had a good fire going, Ayeshi took some of their provisions from the ship and cooked some simple porridge and tea for supper.
"Do we want to talk about it?" she asked, passing him a bowl.
"Talk about what?"
"Your outburst on that boat. How you never asked for a war or a crazy uncle or a storm."
"Right." Lu Ten sighed. "I just . . . I don't feel right. All my emotions feel jumbled right now. This entire trip, everything since we heard about Zuko's banishment, just feels like someone is trying to yank the rug out from under my feet or mess with my perception of reality or something. I feel like the whole world's falling apart and everyone expects me to fix it, but nothing I do is ever enough. I can't do it."
Ayeshi set down her bowl and patted him on the back. "What do you mean, everyone expects you to solve the world's problems?"
"I'm Fire Nation royalty. My family is the one causing the world's problems. I'm the one in the family who is most equipped to solve its problems, but I can't even find my cousin who's probably traveling around in a giant warship and being anything but subtle. I'm backed by the support and goodwill of your family, but all I've done is spend all your hard-earned money. I mean, what am I doing with my life?"
"Perhaps it's time that we go home, then." Ayeshi said. "We don't have the resources to keep up with Zuko, who has a military-grade Fire Nation ship and a whole crew, and it's insane to pretend that we do."
"But we're just letting Zuko run around by himself! What kind of person am I if I don't try to fix all the problems my family has caused?"
"That's just it, though. You don't have to fix all the problems that are wrong with the world and I don't think it's productive to try. You've done a refugee family a lot of good by helping us make better tea, and you've helped a young fire bender get his abilities under control. You are doing good in the world, and perhaps you can do the most good at home."
Lu Ten sighed flopped down into the sand. "I know. I know that, deep down. But I still feel like a terrible son, and a terrible cousin."
"He's traveling with your dad. He's got adult supervision. He's probably ok."
Lu Ten nodded. "I still feel like I should be there for him."
Ayeshi flopped down next to him. "I know. I know. I don't have an easy answer about what you should do."
Lu Ten shifted a little closer to her and took her hand. "I know I want to stay with you. I know that much." He looked up at the sky. The storm had cleared and dusk was creeping out of the dark eastern sky, chasing the last of the sun to its bed in the west. As he watched the clouds clear, old memories bobbed to the surface of his mind. "I remember when I woke up in your basement in Ba Sing Se. I had no idea where I was, and my head felt like it had been bashed in with a rock."
Ayeshi smirked. "That's pretty much what happened."
"I had no idea where I was," Lu Ten went on, "but I remember you standing over me, your braid over one shoulder, and your eyes sparkling in the light. I could never forget that face."
"I remember you too." Ayeshi said. "I remember your face, all the bruises and the blood. I remember how my mother told me to kill you, but I couldn't do it, because I felt like I had to let you live. Slowly you got better and then you started helping us in our tea shop."
"How lucky it is that we're alive." Lu Ten said. "Your village was burned down by Fire Benders. I was severely injured, then taken in by a family who could have killed me but didn't. Then we journeyed all the way out here and survived this storm, too. How lucky." The clouds were fading away, and suddenly Lu Ten understood. "Let's go home." He turned to look her in the eye. "Let's go home and get married."
"Lu Ten! Is that a proposal?"
"It is. I'm sorry it's not more romantic, but, well . . ." Lu Ten gestured vaguely at the island. "It's not like we're doing so hot right now. Look, I can't promise you money or prestige or a family that's normal in any way, but—"
"I never wanted that." Ayeshi said. "Since the day you showed up on my doorstep, I wanted you. Don't promise me any of that nonsense. Just promise you'll stay beside me."
"I will." He leaned down until their noses were touching, then took her in a deep, tender kiss. After some time—who could say how long—they broke apart. Tears were glittering in the corner of Ayeshi's eyes, but when she spoke her tone was firm and practical. "Come on. Let's make sure we have the tent set up before it gets dark."
Lu Ten nodded. "Right. Although I can fire bend for light. I can do that safely here." He opened his hands and the flames rise into the darkening sky. "Still, tent up first. Then we can relax." He and Ayeshi worked swiftly to erect the tent, then as the flames died down they retreated inside and curled up together.
The next morning the sky was cold and grey, but it looked like they wouldn't have any rain for a while. They hurriedly packed their boat, planning to limp back to Kyoshi island as fast as they could and then likely hand over a hefty sum of money to Suki's father to pay for repairs to the boat. After that, the long walk back to Ba Sing Se.
Ayeshi loaded up the last of their bags as Lu Ten put out their campfire, then scattered and buried the ashes to make sure no one could find it the way they'd found the one at the air temple. This task finished, he stared up at the trees again, knowing that the mainland lay just on the other side. So close to home, and yet he'd never felt further from the Fire Nation.
"Lu Ten!" Ayeshi called. "Come on, you dreamer. We've got a long road ahead of us."
Lu Ten turned and took one last look at the soil of his home country. "Until we meet again, Fire Nation." He felt, deep in his gut, that he'd be back someday, but not just yet. He breathed deeply and turned around, his old home at his back. "Come on, Ayeshi. Let's go home."