Chapter 15

Being a light sleeper came with some serious downsides. Even more so, when Izara woke up hearing her name from outside the doorway, she shared it with Mika, Ming, and Kaina, whose voice was the one she heard. The voice got closer, and another unfamiliar one was much deeper. The footfalls got louder, and she realised there wasn't any choice anymore; she needed to get up. Not being a morning person didn't help.

She opened her eyes and sat straight up, startling Kaina, who yelped in surprise as she walked towards Izara's bed to wake her.

"Sorry to wake you. Warchief Sokka is here to see you." Kaina moved out of her way as she got out of bed and shuffled towards the hallway.

"Izara," Sokka said with a hint of urgency. "I need you to come with me. Dress for training."

"I'll be just a minute then." She replied with no hint of hesitation. Chances were that he was here on behalf of Suki, so she took it as an order.

After she zipped inside, she quickly changed into her training gear and thanked Kaina. Judging by the sunlight in her shared room, it was around 8am when Suki's classes began in the morning. Sokka led her to the training grounds, where everyone seemed to be waiting for Suki to arrive, but she wasn't there. She expected to be her demonstration partner or something, but she didn't like the feel of this.

They reached the edge of the training grounds, and Sokka turned toward her abruptly, stopping her in her tracks before she ran into him.

"Suki wants you to teach today. She isn't well, and both Luan and Guozhi are busy. She said she showed you the techniques she was going to teach today last week, so you're the only one who can fill in."

Izara immediately began shaking her head violently, showing her protest. Still, Sokka simply shoved a note into her hands before she could speak. He gestured to it with his eyes, and she blinked a few times before finally realising that she needed to open it. It was only a tiny piece of paper, barely bigger than her hand. She opened it to find only one word written there in tidy, feminine handwriting.

Please?

There was also a haphazardly drawn sad face next to it, and Izara could see and even hear Suki pleading with her in her mind. As she slumped her shoulders in resignation and nodded slowly, Sokka shoved another note into her hands.

She opened it and couldn't help but groan at its contents.

Thank you!

The drawing next to it was a happy face, and Izara stared blankly at Sokka, who simply shrugged and held his hands up to relieve himself of all responsibility. A wry laugh escaped her as she looked over to the other guards, who were starting to stare at them, wondering why they were standing there in silence.

Mustering up all her courage, Izara put on her game face and walked out in front of the guards. Some knew her, but most were on different shifts or didn't know her. None of them had seen what she could do either. They whispered amongst themselves before she finally spoke.

"Line up!"

No one listened, and she rolled her eyes. Of course, they wouldn't listen. She didn't have any authority over them. Even though it went against every fibre of her being, she would have to demonstrate why they needed to listen to her.

"Warchief. Could I borrow you for a moment?" Thankfully he hadn't moved from his spot where they were standing earlier, and he power walked out to stand in front of her. He seemed to be falling in line to help reinforce her authority. Everyone watched them but didn't do anything.

Although his expression didn't show it, his eyes understood what she was asking. They waited until she nodded before he attacked. It was simple; a left hook. Fast enough to look like he meant it, but it wasn't with the intent to hit. She knew that whatever she did had to be impressive enough to make them listen, so she went all out. She dodged the hook, fading back onto her right leg, and used her left to swing a roundhouse kick into his ribs. There wasn't enough power in it to do any damage, but it did stop him in his tracks, and he coughed before he continued his attack.

A proper straight punch, faster this time. No problems. She parried the punch with her left hand and put her right fist to his throat, barely making skin-on-skin contact. It would have crushed his windpipe if she had used full force. She stepped around to face her back against his chest in one swift movement. Locking his right arm in her grip, she moved so her weight was right underneath him. Despite having no idea what she would do, he worked well with her. She lifted up, pulling his arm further underneath her. His entire body flipped over her back, landing with a heavy thud directly beneath her. Since she was going all out, she didn't let go of his arm, instead twisting his wrist at a painful angle, and he yelped in pain, using his free arm to slap the ground. Izara let the wrist lock off but didn't let go.

She raised her fist and smiled as she gently touched it against his cheek. It was just enough to show the lethal intent behind the technique without hurting him. He had just had the wind knocked out of him twice within the space of around 15 seconds, so she didn't want to kick him while he was down. Literally.

Letting herself straighten up, she extended him a hand to help him up. He gave her a smile that said everything it needed to; a warrior acknowledging a strong opponent. She returned it and turned back to the dead silent guards.

"Who wants to learn how to do that?" The majority of them raised their hands without a second thought, and the others nodded in agreement. "Then line up!" She spoke with full authority, and they obeyed instantly.

"Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to learn how to fight like this; in a controlled environment. If I didn't defend myself, I wouldn't be here now. I would be dead. Simple enough. After this session, you will be bruised and sore. In fact, I suspect you will hate me..." A few of them chuckled at her joke. "But if it saves your life or the life of our Fire Lord...then I've done my job."

Gesturing for Sokka again, she slowly ran them through the technique, working on the throw. It wasn't too tricky throwing someone Sokka's size, which made it easier considering he was taller than her.

"The key is getting your weight underneath your opponent. This takes them off balance when you lift up." She balanced Sokka's weight on her hip, and everyone nodded in understanding.

After she let him down again carefully, she went and corrected a few people and observed as they worked through it together, taking turns so everyone got a go. They all picked up the technique quickly, being elite guards and all, so Izara moved on to the next step. She was flying by the seat of her pants, but the guards - her students - seemed to enjoy it very much. Izara had learned early on to use her opponents' weight, strength and velocity against them. She had always been smaller than her opponents in the past, so it was natural that she fought this way. Everyone got the hang of the technique well enough, so she moved on to a new one. It was the one that Suki had shown her last week.

Sokka performed a simple straight punch aimed towards her head. Izara blocked and grabbed his wrist. She grabbed the front of his shirt, simultaneously kicked him in the guts and pulled him onto the kick, causing him to grunt in discomfort. With the grip on his wrist and shirt, she kept the pressure on, forcing him to move his weight onto his front leg. Once she had him in the correct position, she moved to step her right foot directly next to his own. Her left leg swung around so that she was now parallel to him. Instead of completing the technique straight away, she stopped and looked up at her students.

"Please try and resist."

She said loud enough for them to hear and felt Sokka fighting against her grip. Unfortunately, he could not right himself, and she turned her hips to square herself. When she did, he gently came with her, his left foot no longer touching the ground, and she carefully let him fall over her right leg. Compared to the first throw, he fell significantly softer this time, and he looked up at her from his position on the ground with a smirk.

"Although he is bigger and stronger than me, the angle I put myself on allows me to use his weight and size against him. He can't resist and keep his balance at the same time. If he pulls away too hard, he will fall backwards with me on top, which isn't good for him. If he pushes forward, I can simply roll forward with him in the same grip and still be in a better position." She talked as she gave him a hand to help him up and gave him a moment to catch a breath.

She demonstrated the technique again, broke it down into several parts, and then moved among the group to correct everyone as they added each step. Sokka helped out where he could, having the advantage of feeling first-hand how the technique needed to be done to get it right.

Lastly, she went through an armbar technique that was her favourite. After using an inside block to avoid Sokka's punch, she stepped in to show the application of driving an elbow into the solar plexus. She didn't make contact and could almost hear Sokka's relief at not being winded for the fourth time during the session. She moved underneath his arm with small but quick steps to stand behind him. Keeping hold of his wrist, she snaked her free arm up underneath his own and grabbed onto the crook of his neck and shoulder. There was a pressure point, and she clamped down just enough to stun him.

"From here, you can easily pull the shoulder clean out of its socket." Sokka made a whimpering noise, and Izara stifled her laughter. "All you need to do is force their weight to drop by kicking the back of the knee. While you've got a hold of their arm and their body falls...pop."

Sokka winced at the 'pop', and she smirked and let him go, appreciatively patting him on the back as he stood up. Everyone laughed, but she was pleased that she had their full attention. She gestured for the group to try it out, and they got right to it.

"Would you mind giving me a hand with the rest of the sessions?" She asked him quietly.

"I had already planned to. Suki knew you would agree." They stood shoulder to shoulder and murmured as they watched everyone practice.

"She didn't have another note written out for me in case I didn't agree to do it?" Izara retorted but couldn't hide the amusement in her voice.

"Nope. She just scribbled those two and told me to give them to you in the order I did." Sokka shrugged when she looked up at him with a smile.

"You're a lucky guy," Izara commented simply, saying everything she needed to in that one sentence.

"I sure am." He said with a voice full of affection, and Izara found that it even made her chest ache.

The look in his eyes showed how in love with her he was, and Izara felt herself smile. The subconscious expression change surprised her, as she had never been affected by a display of love before. Maybe she was finally growing up, reaching the age that made her feel those desires. The desire to share your life with someone else, someone who was the other half to make you whole. Having a better outlook on life might have made a big difference since it wasn't something she had considered while she stayed with her Uncle. It was nice to see that someone like Sokka, who had done so much to help end the War, had found happiness. He deserved it.

Her train of thought was thrown off when she went to correct someone, and Sokka did the same until the end of the session. There were four one-hour sessions throughout the day. They had fallen into a great rhythm so that by the time the last session finished, Izara barely needed to tell Sokka what to do. He followed her lead perfectly and understood the techniques and how to execute them as well as she did, so he could give advice and correct everyone.

Once they finished up and the other guards filed inside, Sokka walked over to her with a smug grin. Izara raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head as his grin only grew in size when he stopped just next to her.

"What?" She asked in an expectant voice.

"Did you see how impressed everyone was? They were hanging off your every word." He answered with a melodic tone.

"Can I go now?" Izara rolled her eyes at him, and they began strolling back towards the palace.

"Suki told me you would do a great job, and you did! Isn't that a good thing?" Sokka nudged her with his elbow, and she let out a chuckle.

"I'm trying to stay under the radar, if I'm honest. I don't really like drawing attention to myself." She let herself open up a little bit, but not too much that he would pry further.

"I can understand that…" he nodded sagely but then smirked. "But now you get to rule them with an iron fist!" He shook his fist wildly, and she couldn't help but laugh at his antics. "Respect and fear!" He roared and ran circles around her as she walked toward the palace, laughing the whole time.

"Ah yes, they will soil themselves when I appear!" She went along with his joke, and they got stared at by the door guards in confusion as they entered the palace.

"Seriously, though. Thanks for helping out. Suki will feel better now. We also agreed to reschedule training with the whole group so she could rest. You'll be there, right?"

"I have been requested to attend, so I'll be there. Is Suki okay?" Izara asked as they headed towards the room Sokka and Suki shared, which was in the same direction as the barracks.

"Female issues, she said. She just needs to rest. Hopefully, she'll be feeling up to it." Sokka shrugged, and Izara nodded in empathic understanding. "I'll let you go. Thanks again."

Sokka held up his hand, and Izara blinked before she realised he was gesturing for a high-five. She smiled and high-fived him before he headed inside their room, taking care to be quiet. He was straightforward to talk to and get along with, and his humour was infectious. Izara kept smiling as she returned to her room and grabbed a change of clothes and toiletries. She wasn't working tonight, so she decided to wash up, go out and get some dinner, come back, and lay around until she went to bed later. The only thing she had planned had been rescheduled to tomorrow, so she had plenty of time to relax after her surprisingly busy day.

Meanwhile, Zuko had just finished a meeting and was finalising some paperwork in his office when his stomach began rumbling. He didn't have anything else booked this afternoon, so he decided to go for dinner somewhere in the city. He was fond of a small noodle place and got excited about eating there and stuffing his face. It wasn't often that he left the palace to go out and eat since he was usually so busy, but he knew that he needed to treat himself every now and then. He left his office and told Wen he was going to the palace. She stood up and bowed goodbye to him, and he headed to his chambers to change into casual clothes before he left.

Once he had changed, he felt more relaxed and headed toward the front of the palace. He denied the palanquin as he wanted to walk and enjoyed the fresh air as he strolled towards his destination. About 20 metres in front of him, he spotted a familiar figure and recognised that it was Izara from the braid that hung down to the small of her back. He jogged to catch up to her and called her name before he realised he was doing it. She turned to look over her shoulder in surprise, and her eyes widened as she saw him.

"Hey. How are you?" He asked her with a smile as he stepped next to her.

"Good afternoon, my Lord." She stopped walking and turned to bow to him, and he sighed exasperatedly.

"Please, it's fine. The Fire Lord is back at the palace, actually. I'm out for dinner." He spoke casually and nodded in the direction of the way he had come.

"Ah, you really look like the Fire Lord, though." Izara went along with his joke but was still trying to maintain some professional distance.

"Seriously, just Zuko is fine. Can you pretend I'm just a normal guy for a while?" He asked with a hint of shyness that he couldn't entirely hide.

"I'll do my best. So you're going to get something to eat?" Although her tone didn't change much, she physically relaxed a little.

"Yeah. What about you?" He asked her as they continued walking.

"Me too." She gave him a brief smile.

"Well, if I can join you, I'll take you to my favourite noodle place?" He realised it might seem like he was asking her out, but she didn't think about it like that and perked up, nodding when he mentioned noodles. He had technically asked her out already. "Alright. It's this way."

"Thank you. How has your day been, my-" She cut herself off and pursed her lips when she realised, and he huffed amusedly.

"I've been in meetings all day, but I didn't have anything this afternoon. Just some paperwork to finish off. So I thought I'd get out for a while and get some air since we aren't training. Aang and Katara are sightseeing, and I don't know where Toph went." Zuko offered and ran a hand through his hair, enjoying having it out instead of pulling it back tightly. "What about you?"

"I had a rather interesting morning, actually. I got woken up by Sokka asking me to teach Suki's combat classes today." Zuko snapped his head toward her in confusion, wondering why Suki wasn't there to teach. "She wasn't feeling well."

"Is she okay?" He asked quickly, realising that was why training got rescheduled. He'd just gotten a note from Katara, who must have checked on Suki to ensure she was alright.

"Sokka said it was 'female issues' and she just needed to rest." She answered with a shrug.

"Well, how did they go?"

"Uhh. It was somewhat challenging at first. They didn't really listen straight away. But I demonstrated a few techniques with Sokka and asked them if they wanted to learn them, and then they tuned in. After that, it was quite good, actually. I've never done anything like that before. Sokka was great to work with too. He's funny." It seemed like she was relaxing a little more as they continued speaking, and Zuko was enjoying it. He felt more at ease when those around him did.

"Glad it worked out okay. I'll check on Suki later. If she isn't feeling well, can you teach again tomorrow?" Zuko asked, although he had tried to keep the air between them friendly. He just wanted to make sure that Suki was able to rest properly.

"Of course. I was going to offer anyway so she could get some more rest."

Izara's tone was laced with concern for Suki, and Zuko couldn't help but smile at her. They had the same train of thought, and his smile grew at her kindness. She was genuinely compassionate, which was one reason he wanted to bring her to the Capital. She stared back at him silently as she noticed his expression.

"What is it?"

"I had the exact same thought. That's all." He replied, and she nodded in understanding before she smiled as well.

They shared a slightly awkward laugh, but Zuko noticed that Izara was beginning to relax more. They continued chatting casually until they got to the noodle restaurant, which was only small, and there were plenty of free tables. The staff immediately recognised him, but since he was in casual clothes, they didn't make a fuss; they just bowed a little longer and lower than usual. Once they sat down, Izara began perusing the menu excitedly, almost wiggling in her seat.

"You like noodles, I take it?" Zuko asked quietly and chuckled when Izara poked her head up over the menu to look at him.

"Mmhmm." She nodded vigorously and went back to looking at the menu.

A minute or two later, a staff member took their orders and disappeared out the back to hand them to the kitchen. It didn't take long, and Zuko continued asking about what they went through in the combat session today and talking about Sokka's antics. They were laughing about a story he told Izara when their food arrived, and they went quiet as they ate. Izara made a slight noise of enjoyment, and Zuko couldn't help but laugh. It was nice to see that she was enjoying her meal, and she would probably come back here again, which the staff would appreciate.

Once they had finished, Zuko was about to pay for them both, but she fully relaxed into the friendly vibe and mock-glared at him until he let her pay for her food. She abruptly realised what she was doing a moment later, and her jaw dropped in surprise, but he just laughed. It was good to finally feel like she had treated him as a friend, not the Fire Lord.

As they left the restaurant, she bowed, straightened up and then opened her mouth to speak.

"Do not apologise." He cut her off, and she closed her mouth tightly. "I enjoy your company, even more when you treat me like a friend rather than 'the Fire Lord'. There aren't many people around my age here. Most of the staff and guards are older, so it's nice to hang out with someone my age. Someone who gets me." Her expression fell into something he couldn't figure out, and he waited for her to sort out her thoughts and respond.

"Really?"

"Yeah! You're funny, and you're smart. I really like talking to you." It came out before he could catch himself, but he found her reaction was definitely worth it. Her cheeks flushed with colour, and she stared at her feet.

"Thank you. I agree, and I enjoy talking to you as well." She said just loud enough for him to hear.

"Are you going to call me by my name yet?" He asked with a smirk, and she looked up, realising that he was poking fun.

"Not even close, My Lord." She was smirking, too, and her answer was clearly out of spite more than anything else.

They laughed again and began walking back towards the palace. Zuko specifically kept his pace slow so that they could talk more. Even though he needed to return to his office and finish some things, he was enjoying his time with Izara and didn't want to rush. She told him more about the drills and techniques she taught in class. They discussed a little bit about firebending. He didn't even notice that they were standing near his office until Wen poked her head around the corner. She had obviously heard his voice which drew her attention.

"Sorry, looks like I'm needed." He said after Izara noticed his glance over her shoulder.

"Of course. Thank you. I will definitely go back to get noodles there again." Izara gave him a friendly smile and then bowed professionally. When she straightened, her expression was all business once more.

"Thank you for joining me." The urge to say more didn't overtake him as strongly as he felt, and they went their separate ways.

Unfortunately, since Wen was still here, something important was happening, so he didn't really have time to ask her if she wanted to go out with him again. In fact, he probably needed to ask her if she wanted to go on an actual date since he didn't know if she realised that's what he was asking her.

"My apologies, but the report from the scouts have come in. I thought you would want to check it immediately. I have also prepared to schedule a meeting tomorrow to discuss the contents. Shall I go ahead?" Wen was organised as always, and he honestly didn't know what he would do without her.

"Yes, please. 10am tomorrow morning?"

"Not a problem. I'll send the messages right now."

Zuko didn't bother to return to his chambers and change back into his formal robes since he had no scheduled visits this late. He simply took the report from Wen with a thank you and headed into his office. He sat on the couch to read it, flicking through and absorbing as many details as possible. It seemed that nothing significant had changed, thankfully. Still, it would be good to update the Generals on the situation. The slim chance they had to prepare for a fight was still there, and maybe it was worth increasing the guard in the Capital just in case. No need to be alarmed yet, but something would have to be done once they had tracked down the main Supremacist base.

Hopefully, a peaceful resolution would be possible…