Author's Note: Not much to say this time. Just a quick info: We're starting off in a dream of Lu Ten, I think anything else will explain itself. So, for now, enjoy this chapter and please review!
Lu Ten laid on his back on the grass. He had changed the uniform he usually wore against an elegant, yet casual tunic and enjoyed the smell of all the different flowers around him. His grandfather would probably burn the next unfortunate being out of existence if he saw him like that. But he did not care.
Officially, he told his father he had to speak with the admiral about their landing on Earth Kingdom shores. What his family did not know, everything was already clear about that. It was just another excuse, like he always found one to visit the admiral. Lu Ten liked the admiral a lot, he was a friend of his father's too, and he learned quite a bit about firebending from him as well. He had a different perspective than his father to it, which could come in handy at some point.
The main reason why he visited the admiral though, was not the man himself. The main reason just stepped onto the grass, clothed in a beautiful red dress, a tablet with tea in her hands. The first few times the old man had watched him from a window the whole time, but he ceased to do so over a year ago. Lian sat next to him and put a hand on his chest as she bowed down and kissed him, slowly, lovingly. She smiled at him as she broke away from the kiss, as well as he smiled at her, reaching up with his right hand, stroking her smooth black hair out of her face. "I've made you some jasmine tea, my husband.", her voice was soft, and he noticed, she still blushed, but yet he knew, she loved calling him her husband since they had married a few weeks ago.
Lu Ten sat himself up, took a cup, smelled at it and drank it slowly, inhaling the smell. "Hmm…", he said, grabbing her hands and pulling her closer to him, "You made me love this tea as you made me love you, my wife.", she laughed at him as he hugged her waist, basically pulling her in his lap. Then he cupped her face and kissed her, this time more passionately. His hands wandered over her body before she broke away from the kiss and cuddled into his shoulder.
She grazed his cheek with her hand, "Do you really think this plan of yours will work out, Lu Ten? Your grandfather is not exactly a warm-hearted individual."
He let out a small groan and fell back on the floor, pulling her with him, "I think it is the best shot we have. I'll go and join my father in the siege of Ba Sing Se, then we'll take this damned city down. I'll bring my father to rename it New Azulon. Hopefully, he'll then grant me whatever I want."
Lian ran her hand across his chest, "And what would you wish for, Prince Lu Ten?"
Lu Ten raised his head and looked down on his wife's face, "I'll tell him, I only have one wish in the entire world. I want him to accept my marriage to the most beautiful woman in all the four nations.", he then pulled her face up and kissed her again. He knew it had been risky to just go ahead and marry her secretly when his grandfather and father both had denied him this wish. But he wanted no other woman but her, and he wanted her to be his wife not just a girlfriend or concubine. So, he had made up this plan.
His father-in-law was not exactly thrilled about it. Not that he had something against their relationship, in the contrary, he wanted his only child to be happy, and if that meant for her to marry Lu Ten, then so be it. What he had not liked was that Iroh was a good friend of his, and he would have to lie to him for quite some time. Also, defying the Fire Lord posed a great risk to him and his daughter. If this was to come out and cause a scandal, all blame would probably be only on his daughter. And all punishment.
The only other person who knew was his best friend Zhang. He helped out Lu Ten several times, finding excuses and swearing to the General and the Fire Lord, he had been with Lu Ten the whole time, when in truth, he was with Lian. At their wedding it had only been the four of them, Zhang serving as his best man, he had also dug out a Fire Sage that would not tell anybody to marry them.
Lian's face above him shook him out of his thought, she said his name, time and time again, "Lu Ten, Lu Ten… Lu Ten… Lu Ten…", until her face changed. Black eyes turned into blue ones, black hair, smooth and straight turned into brown locks, red silk turned into blue material. The girl was still calling his name as he awoke from his slumber.
He remembered the girl, it was Katara, the waterbender. She smiled at him, yet she seemed very tired to him. "Good, you're awake.", she began, "I wanted to talk to you before I go and rest myself."
Lu Ten rose into a seating position. He was on a bed in a largely green colored room. Suddenly he felt pain, a lot of pain, mostly coming from his hands. He looked down at them and wondered. They were not as he remembered. They were completely bandaged, and he could not make any move with them due to a lot of sticks that ran through the bandages. Questioning he looked at Katara.
"Like I told you before, I had to break every bone that was healed in a wrong way again to be able to somehow get them straight. I'm sorry for the pain tough, but at least you have a chance to heal now. Heal the right way, I mean. I guess, you won't be able to do anything for today with them, maybe even tomorrow. Maybe it is best if you keep resting a lot. I'll take a nap now too, and tomorrow we're going to reattach the muscles in your hands. With a few more healing sessions, you'll be on a good way.", she said, standing up to leave the room.
Lu Ten's thoughts were quite chaotic for a moment, him just staring at the constructs around his hands. Just before she left the room, he spoke almost whispering, "Thank you, Katara, thanks a lot.", she turned back and smiled at him, wondering as she went out of the room if she really saw tears in his eyes.
He lied down on his back again. It was not like he was not used to not doing anything the whole time. But maybe tomorrow, he thought, tomorrow he would get up. He woke up another two times that day. Each time Katara would come in and bring him some food. It would've been great if she wouldn't have to feed him, since he could not use his hands. Lu Ten felt embarrassed about it, but she was right, he had to eat. Sighing, he put the thought of his dignity away for the day.
While awake for the second time he could hear Sokka rant outside of the room. The water tribe boy was clearly against keeping Lu Ten in their house. He understood him. To him he was simply the enemy, hurt or not, a danger to Aang's and the team's safety. Maybe, he thought, he should leave as soon as he could. He had no idea where to go, but he would find his way, no doubt. His thoughts wandered to Lian like they always did. Where could she be? Was she still in the Fire Nation? Probably, but considering their child and knowing his wife, she most likely was not. Too dangerous. If somebody would get behind the child's heritage it would be on his uncle's target list very quickly, and on the very top end. His wife, and not to forget his father-in-law, were not going to take that lightly. So, assuming she was still alive, she was most likely somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. He just hoped that nothing had happened to her. Even when he was not regarding her being held up by Fire Nation military, a lot of things could have happened to her. He could not clear his thoughts from the sorrow that she might've died in childbirth, like his mother did. Or she could've miscarried altogether, what if she and the child were dead? Lu Ten shook his head, all these thoughts just got him worked up, but they would lead nowhere. Sighing he concentrated on clearing his mind from every thought and sleep again.
The next morning Sokka got up earlier than the rest of the group. He dressed himself and went to the lower floor, where Lu Ten's room was located. He thought a moment about entering. Maybe he would be able to discover his secrets or his plans. But he needed a cover up story, just in case he awoke the firebender or any other team member. So, he walked into the kitchen first and made some tea. Just your friendly service, he thought with a mischievous smile.
Silently he opened the door to Lu Ten's room, careful not to make a sound. Shocked he let the tea tray fall to the ground. Sokka could care less at the moment and ran upstairs, banging on every door, waking all the others. Katara yawned sleepily before asking, "Sokka, what is it? Why are you acting like a panicked tiger-seal?"
Sokka stared at his sister with wide eyes, "It's Lu Ten, I told you he was evil. I went to his room to check on him, but he's gone.", now it was the team's turn to stare at him. Then they all stormed down. The room was empty, that was true. Katara quickly bent the spilled tea from the floor before they went looking for the presumed dead Fire Nation prince.
It was not a long search. When she took a step out of the house, Toph turned to the rest of the Gaang and pointed into the yard. A figure sat quietly on the cobblestones. Lu Ten faced the early morning sun, the group standing in the door a few meters behind his back. Without them seeing it, he smiled. As if I had not noticed them, he thought. Then he let out a content deep breath, fire and smoke emerging from his mouth, while he opened his eyes, ending his meditation. He tilted his head slightly, "Are you done watching me meditating?", he called out towards the teenagers.
The Gaang froze in place, all of them embarrassed by their own actions. Lu Ten stood up and slowly walked up to them, smiling whole-heartedly. "Good morning. I know, you told me not to do too much, Katara, but I thought meditating is ok."
The waterbender smiled back at him, "I think so. Ready for the next healing session?"
Lu Ten sighed but nodded and they went both back to his room. Like the last healing session, it was quite painful, but Katara assured him that the next session would be far easier. This one she found particularly tricky, since she had to reattach a lot of muscles to where they should've been in the first place. Lu Ten grimaced, but this time he did not black out, nor did he make a sound. Katara wondered how much control the firebender had over his body.
When she was finished, she wrapped his hands tightly in bandages. Lu Ten marveled at her work. Sure, he was told not to move them too much, only gradually more, bit by bit over several weeks, that if he did move them too much the reattached muscles could become loose. But they looked like actual hands again, and not like some weird mutations. "Katara,", he said, still staring at his hands, "you can't imagine how much I owe you."
The waterbender just smiled at him, "I'm glad I could help, I wasn't sure I would be able to. Besides,", she said, laughing while she turned to walk out of the room, "if you could not turn us in to the Fire Nation, that would be great."
He only laughed at that, "I'll try not to.", causing her to chuckle as well.
The following days Lu Ten slowly began training again. Of course, he would let his hands out of it, train them just a little under Katara's watch, but the rest of his body also needed to build muscle again. He also trained firebending, just with his legs and feet of course. Ever more often Aang would come by to watch him train. He was fascinated seeing a master firebender in peaceful training. What also stuck out to him was the quality of Lu Ten's fire. It had regained some strength over the past days, and it was unlike the fire he had seen e.g., from Prince Zuko, which was more or less red, nor was it blue like Azula's. It had a fine almost delicate consistency, shining more golden and less aggressive than what he had previously seen.
So, he one day asked, "Lu Ten, why does your fire look like this?"
The question surprised Lu Ten, the monk showed close attention, "Uhm, I don't really know, Aang. It just became that way at some point on my travels with my father. Maybe you're going to experience the same one day. My guess is that it truly is a mind thing, but I can't really put a name to it."
"Oh," the boy said, "but, can you start teaching me firebending soon?"
The older man sighed, but then nodded, "Ah, yes. I think we can start right away, if you like."
This made the teen beam and nod in excitement, "Yes, Sifu Lu Ten. Where do we start?"
Lu Ten blinked twice at this sudden new title. Then he smiled, knowing how to crush at least a bit of the boy's excitement. Sitting down in front of him he said, "Breathing Exercises", and really the shoulders of the boy slumped down. Lu Ten chuckled, "Don't worry, it won't take too long. But you have to understand that firebending comes from the breath and so, controlling your breath is the first step to controlling your fire. Otherwise, you can easily hurt somebody, and whilst there are some firebenders who really do not care, I don't think you're like this.", he explained, smiling down at the monk.
Aang looked at the ground, "I know, I tried firebending once, but I only ended up hurting Katara. Sifu Jeong Jeong was really disappointed in me because I had neglected his advice."
Lu Ten's gaze shot up, "Jeong Jeong? You've met Jeong Jeong?"
Aang looked at him questioningly, "Yes, he was sort of my first firebending master. Well, for a few days. Why?"
Lu Ten stared at the boy, and with a sudden glimmer in his eyes he asked, "Where is he? How is he? Did he have a woman with him? Or a child?"
Aang was surprised by this sudden outburst, "We've met him further south in the Earth Kingdom. To my knowledge he is the first one to have successfully deserted from the Fire Nation army. Yet, I don't know how he currently is, since the ships of Admiral Zhao attacked his hideout while we flew away. While I've been with him, I haven't seen a woman nor a child among his people. Why are you asking all that? Do you know Jeong Jeong?"
The firebender stood up and walked around a few steps. Then he said, "I guess I owe you an explanation.", he sighed, "The reason why I asked so much about the former Admiral Jeong Jeong is that he's my father-in-law, and since we've always had a good relationship, I've been interested in his fate. Also, I thought maybe my wife and child could be with him, but since you didn't see any, I guess they're not. Zhao's ships are no good news, but knowing my in-law, he probably managed to get away."
Aang was now curious, "You also know Admiral Zhao?"
Lu Ten closed his eyes for a moment, furrowing his brows, "I guess you could say so, though knowing is a bit much. He was Jeong Jeong's student and I think you could say we were rivals for some time. Geez, I detest that guy, I always have.", then he suddenly chuckled, "He wanted to marry Lian so badly, but her father always refused. Jeong Jeong knew at some point that that guy was no good. And Jeong Lian, who later became my wife, knew that from the very start. She has a very good understanding of people.", Lu Ten couldn't resist praising his spouse, even if it was pointless doing so in front of the small air nomad.
Then the firebender came back to Aang, standing now in front of him, "But I guess that is more than enough talking about my past. You said you wanted to learn firebending. For now, we'll proceed with breathing exercises, and afternoon I'll show you some defensive moves. I think they'll serve you best in case you face any firebenders in battle."