A/N: I never expected for this fic to receive as much attention as it did, and I am so happy so many people liked the first chapter!

Here is another.

I planned for this fic to have multiple POV from the beginning, so I hope you like the introduction of my OC

Flaming Fire Flakes With Bean Curds

Chapter 2

Jiéshí didn't hate fishing. Nothing compared to the joy of catching fish after testing his patience nor selling his bounty to his loyal customers in the small port of Zuko Village. Being a fisherman was quaint and stable work that filled his life with purpose and pockets with coins. But some days, the fish refused to bite and little got caught in his net. The silence of those times might have been deafening, but the mental chatter that filled it was worse.

Jiéshí slouched in his chair, staring at his empty fishing line. Today was one of those days.

"Dad. Liyu," Jiéshí sighed, tasting the salty morning air as the wind blew. "I wish you guys were here,"

Memories filled his mind of days with his family. His dad was a true angler. When Jiéshí was young, he and his little sister would sit next to him as he fished. Jiéshí would swing his legs over the boat's edge, the soft patting of his feet against the boat was the only sounds as they all waited for the next catch.

"No thoughts, only fish!" his dad would cheer.

They never went home empty handed thanks to him.

But, his family was gone, his parents dead and sister far, far away. They no longer occupied his dreams and eventually drifted from his nightmares. He tried to remember their faces, but they blurred with time. He put his hand over his left eye, it covering a trait that connected him and his sister still. A trait that gave him so much strife.

His dad would tell him how it was a sign that they were part of both the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, one eye as brown as his dad's and the other as green as his mom's. But the many beatdowns Jiéshí received from people from both sides told him otherwise. In the Fire Nation Colonies, one was either Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom, never both. Liyu was able to prove how the Fire Nation overcame the Earth Kingdom within her when she bent fire for the first time. Jiéshí wasn't so lucky. Unable to bend neither fire nor earth, he was forever stuck in the impossible middle. Forever an outcast unless he hid it.

The sound of thunder broke him out of his thoughts, and he noticed the black clouds forming up ahead.

"Ah sassafras," he cursed, setting his sails in the direction of this village.

The ocean had other plans. The waves became larger and began pulling him toward the storm. He knew that he didn't have much time. Pain spiked up his leg and he almost slipped on a fish as he rushed into the cabin of the boat to tie down the few things he had. Even with his limp, he was able to get rope and tied himself to the deck and knotted his hands to his oars in time.

In the blink of an eye, he was at its mercy.

The ocean smacked his boat in all directions and the rain pelted Jiéshí's chest and burned his eyes. It took everything he had to prevent the boat from tipping over and drowning him.

This was how his parents died. A storm just like this one destroyed their boat and laid them to rest beneath the waves. Jiéshí wasn't a true fisherman, he couldn't die like one. He remembered the promise he made to his sister before the Fire Nation Military snatched him away. A flute and pipa tucked away in a trunk deep within the boat was all that remained of it.

"I can't die like this!" Jiéshí shouted, setting a course to ride with the waves.

His life flashed before his eyes. The first time in a long time he saw his family clearly. The laughter, the pain, the grief. He should have fought harder. Everything the world threw at him, he let happen. He didn't resist when the authorities forced him and his sister to be taken to that orphanage nor did he fight back when people beat them down for their eyes. His sister protected him with her fire bending. She promised him that they would leave that place, become musicians, get rich, and travel the world. But, he let that wealthy merchant adopt his sister away from him and the Fire Nations Soldiers take him to boot camp. He only got out because he got injured in battle and discharged.

Jiéshí hollered at the sky.

Lightning struck in reply, temporarily lighting the dark. The wind roared in his ears, the rain spat at his face. The cold bit his body.

"I can't die like this, you hear me?!"

He should have fought harder. Not give up and resign as a fisherman.

"Agni, please!" he begged, tears mixing with rain.

Jiéshí looked up at the sky. The sun spirit never answered his prayers before, but it was all he could do. He never thought that his prayers would be answered. In the distance there was light.

"Thank Angi!" he cried, doing his best to maneuver his boat to it.

The eye of the storm, he was safe. There, the water was calm, like a sweet embrace.

"Thank Agni," he repeated.

Eventually, the storm died down and the clouds lightened. It was hours before Jiéshí felt comfortable enough to keep moving. Luckily the boat sustained only minor damage. However, he did not feel completely at ease.

All around him was water and he did not recognize it. No ships passed him either. The rain might have given him fresh water, but it was limited.

"You might have won the battle, but not the war," Jiéshí quoted his old military captain.

If he didn't find land soon, he would die. Jiéshí took out all of his stuff to the deck of his ship to dry after the storm. He found that his map would not help him on this journey since it was water damaged.

All he could do was continue forward. As he sailed, he saw a glint in the water.

"Is that…metal?" he asked as he moved toward it.

Jiéshí soon realized that it was a shipwreck. He scoured it and saw that there was no one. He resigned to there being no survivors, so he began holstering some of the floating remains to use or sell once he returned to land. It wasn't until he spotted something in the distance that made him stop in his tracks.

It was a girl hanging unconscious, floating on a piece of debris. Jiéshí rowed over to her and quickly hauled her on his boat. He had a bit of trouble lifting her onto the ship due to her tattered waterlogged robes. He felt her arm and found a pulse, but it was faint. Her skin was cold and clammy, her lips bluish. If he did not warm her up soon, she would die.

Jiéshí stripped the girl down to her undergarments and lowered his sail to wrap her around in. He then carried her into his cabin and laid her on his cot. He lit his stove to warm up the room.

He looked at her shivering body, realizing that he needed to warm her more. He remembered that the fastest way to warm someone up was through skin to skin contact, so he took off his shirt and hugged her under the covers.

"Please don't die," he whispered, snuggling her to his chest.

With only the sounds of the ocean as company, exhaustion took hold and he was lulled to sleep.

Jiéshí dreamed for the first time in ages. It was a pleasant one full of joy and music. The girl he saved was alive and well, singing his praises. The sky was bluer than it had ever been with Angi smiling down at them, leading them back to Zuko Village. There on the dock, he found his sister playing the pipa he wanted to give her. He waved at her and she smiled, beckoning him over. He took out his flute from his pocket and they began to play together. When he arrived, he ran to her to hug her only for Liyu to punch him in the face.

Jiéshí awoke and cried out, disoriented as to why the pain from his dreams carried over to reality. When his vision cleared, the first thing he noticed were her piercing bronze eyes.

"Who are you and what have you done with me?" the woman demanded.

Jiéshí realized that he couldn't move because she pinned him to the wall. The girl was petite, not one he would ever expect to have the strength to pin him down. Despite her round face and delicate features, her glare was like a predator honing on its prey. She pointed two fingers to his neck as if to use it as a weapon.

"I-I done nothing to you, s-sswear it on my mother's grave," he sputtered, flinching as she sunk her nails deeper into his neck. "Your ship was wrecked and I found you hanging on some debris. I had to warm you up or you would have died!"

The girl stared at him for a moment before and letting him go. Smoke leaked from her mouth, making Jiéshí go into a coughing fit.

"Where are we?" she asked, walking onto the deck.

Jiéshí stumbled after her, still getting over his shock of what happened.

"I-I don't know. I was caught up in the storm and my map is destroyed,"

"Based on the water color, we are in lukewarm waters, most likely still in the Mo Ce Sea," the girl grumbled to herself. "Hey fisherman, don't you have any knowledge on how to get to land without a map?"

"Uh, wind blows in the direction of land?"

"That is a start. Set the sails and take us there!" she ordered.

Jiéshí had to stop himself from saluting her. She had an air to her that reminded him of his military days. She didn't sound like one of his bullies nor of his fellow soldiers. She sounded like a superior who orders him to follow or he would die because her way was the only way to victory. She was that of a general.

He scrambled to lift his sails.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The girl haltered, her expression shifting from that of determination to one of dazed uncertainty. She fell onto her knees.

"I am…who am I?"