The wind howled outside. The wind was always loud in the South Pole but today the high-pitched whistle kept Flora up. She looked over to the side and saw that Miele had been sound asleep despite her shivering body. It had been so cold that night and Flora glanced over to the fire and saw that there was not much left of the embers in the fire that lit the center of the room. Flora sat up and stretched before shivering, knowing that she would have to tend to the fire.

"Flora..."

Flora turned back to her sister, "Go back to bed, Miele. I am just getting up to add more wood to the fire."

"Oh, okay," Miele replied sleepily before pulling up the furs higher up on her body and snuggling into them.

Flora went over to the stack where she had kept the firewood. Or the place where the firewood would have been. When Flora looked at the space where the wood would have been, she found the place empty. She sighed and reached for her parka, knowing that there had to be some more wood in the storeroom. When was the last time that a shipment of wood from the Earth Kingdom had come in?

Leaving the slight warmth of the home, Flora tightened the parka around her slender frame and slipped on her boots before making her way across the small clearing to the storeroom. She opened the door to the storeroom and the muscles in her body relaxed as she felt warmth hit her skin from the inside..

She stepped inside and saw Helia asleep under the furs that Miele had set out for him on his first night, much like children would place out a fur for polar bear dogs or seal pups that they would find out in the wild and ask to keep as a pet. Walking further inside, Flora stubbed her toe on the corner of a shelf and suddenly Helia shot up under the blankets, a ball of flame in his hands. Flora jumped back and Helia looked around, sweaty and breathless.

When he came back to reality, the flame in his hand lowered to a warm glow to illuminate the area in front of him.

"Flora?"

Flora stared at Helia, in shock by the fact that he had almost attacked her.

"Flora? It's alright, I just...I'm sorry."

Placing a hand on her chest, Flora caught her breath and blinked rapidly.

"It's...it's fine. I'll be okay."

Helia extinguished the flame in his hand before removing the furs from his body, revealing his shirtless torso and the thin Fire Nation pants on his legs.

"Are you not cold?" Flora asked as her eyes roamed over Helia's body.

"No," Helia smiled, "I'm basically a furnace. But what are you doing in here so late at night?"

"I came to get more firewood." Flora looked at her side towards the dwindling stack of firewood that had come into the port about a month ago. There hadn't been enough. Flora moved over to the wood and grabbed two thin logs, if they could be called that, and sighed. It would have to do.

"I don't think that will last you the night. You should grab more."

"I know that! You don't think I don't know that?!" Flora snapped back towards Helia.

"I...I..." Helia bit down on the inside of his cheek, "I know that me being here is dangerous but none of this is going to matter if you and your sister freeze to death. I can help."

"And how can you help? Can you make the Fire Nation allow more firewood?"

"No," Helia gave Flora a soft and comforting smile, "but as I said, I am like a furnace. It might be helpful to have a fire bender in your home on nights like these."

Flora narrowed her eyes, "What are you proposing?"

"I can help keep the fire going at night. I can even keep a stone or a seal bone burning throughout the night. And the heat radiating from my body would be able to keep the cold at bay and warm your house."

"No."

"No?"

"Miele and I have been fine before you and we will be fine without you. If you want to do anything, if and when you defeat the Fire Lord and place the prince on the throne, tell him to send more firewood and more often."

Helia sighed, "I was just trying to help."

"I have had enough firebenders in my house. I don't need another one."

"I thought that we had decided that I am not like other firebenders. Please, let me help you and your sister. I know that you are not one to ask for or accept help but you have already made an exception for allowing me to stay here, allow me to help."

Flora stared at Helia and she thought about her options. Well, option. Miele was freezing and would catch a cold. Flora was okay at handling the harsh winter and she didn't know if it was because she had experienced more winters but the one thing that Flora did know was that there wasn't enough firewood and her pride would freeze her sister.

"Fine." Flora replied, "But you are out and back in here before daybreak."

"I rise with the sun."

"Well, rise earlier."

Flora grabbed a few sticks of kindling as Helia rose slowly from his position on the ground, grabbing with him the pillow that he had been resting on and a pelt of fur. He winced and Flora reached out her hand, devoid of kindling, out to Helia. He held up his hand in protest.

"I am fine. Just sore from being on the ground and my skin is a bit raw still."

Flora looked around to Helia's side and at the bandage covering his wound.

"Nobody told you to burn yourself, you know."

"I know. And I wasn't asking for your pity."

Flora smiled, "Good, because I wasn't going to give you any."

Helia stepped closer to Flora and grabbed the kindling out of her hand and added it to the small pile of the cushion and fur pelt that he held in his arms.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Flora asked.

"Nothing...you'll just argue with me."

Flora didn't reply, knowing that whatever Helia said she indeed would have argued with him about it. Instead, she turned and left the storeroom, Helia following closely behind her.

Stepping outside, the wind and snow hit Flora and Helia's face. Helia winced and held his arm up to his eyes.

"When this war ends, I will send you a whole forest. If I am cold, I cannot imagine how everyone else feels."

"I am going to hold you to it. But I am not going to hold my breath."

Flora and Helia all but sprinted across the windy and snowy clearing between the store room and the house. When they had stepped inside of the house, it had not been much warmer.

Helia set down his cushion and fur pelt and got straight to work on the fire, placing the kindling in the small fire pit in the center of the small home.

Flora watched as he rubbed his hands together and inhaled slowly, the cold air stinging his nostrils. Slowly, a flame came to his hand. Helia placed his hand in the pit and a fire roared to life.

With the fire going, Flora turned back to her sister who was shivering and still curled up under the furs.

Flora dropped to her knees and gently rocked Miele.

"Miele, sweetie, can you try to get closer to the fire?"

Miele didn't respond but kept shivering as she slept.

"Miele, you are going to freeze if you do not get any closer."

When Miele didn't respond again, Flora sat back on her heels and smoothed back her hair in exhaustion. She reached forward and made an attempt to gently push Miele toward the fire but Miele had been growing larger and a diet of sea prune stew did not help build muscle.

"May I?" Helia asked as he held out his arms.

Flora backed away, allowing for Helia to help. She didn't know what he had planned but again, it was either accept the help or Miele would freeze.

Helia bent down and scooped Miele up in his arms. Flora quickly placed her hand on Helia's arm as he grunted when he lifted her sister. She wouldn't risk another setback to his recovery.

"She barely weighs anything at all. I am fine."

Flora stepped back and nodded, allowing Helia to bring Miele closer to the fire. Helia gently placed Miele back onto the ground and Flora watched as the tense shivers lessened and her body began to relax under the comfortable warmth of the flames.

This time, it was Flora who was saying thank you.

Helia looked over to Flora and grinned softly, "Like you said, it is time for me to start earning my keep."

Flora rolled her eyes as she sank down into her area of cushions and furs.

"Here." Helia said as he held out the fur that he had brought from the storeroom.

"But-"

"You need it more than I do. Human furnace remember?"

Flora reached forward and grabbed the fur and wrapped it around her body. But even the extra fur didn't stop the shivering. She sat down next to Miele and watched as Miele slept, Flora herself warming up by the fire.

She wrapped the fur around her shoulder and sank into the warmth. She inhaled and smelled the aroma of a burning fire. It smelled like Helia. Usually, the smell of burning anything had been a cause for concern and the signal that something had been wrong but right now, it was the most comforting scent in the world.

"Feeling better?" Helia asked as Flora

"Yes, and you?" Flora asked as she looked at a shirtless Helia.

"I'll be fine. Just get some sleep."

Flora nodded as she crawled over to the small pile of cushions and furs.

"I wish that I could keep you in the home all of the time. For your warmth that is."

Helia gave Flora a soft smile, knowing that this was probably the closest thing that he would get to a compliment from the proud water bender. But he frowned when he noticed that Flora was beginning to shiver again.

"Why don't you move closer to your sister?"

"I'll be fine."

Helia sighed, "No you won't."

"I said that I am fine."

Helia looked from the fire towards Flora who had been as far away from the fire as one could be.

"Well, I am not fine with you freezing. I know that you want to make sure that Miele is taken care of but you cannot take care of her if you are dead."

"I'm fine."

Helia rolled his eyes, "And you say that the Fire Nation always lies."

Flora didn't reply. What was she going to say? That he was right? Instead, she huffed and turned over in her furs, still shivering much to her dismay. She hated looking weak and worse, she hated looking wrong. But when she heard rustling she craned her head back and watched as Helia moved from his place and grabbed his cushion and a fur pelt.

"What are you doing?"

"If you will not go to the fire then I will bring the fire to you."

Flora's eyes widened as Helia came closer to her and sank down next to her.

"What are you doing?" Flora asked again, a look of shock on her face as Helia adjusted his cushion next to Flora. She recoiled as Helia came closer to her.

"I don't bite."

Flora still moved away from Helia. She had never done well with encroaching members of the fire nation. And Helia could see the fear in her eyes hidden behind the shock, so he backed away.

"I'm sorry," Helia said softly, "I didn't mean..."

"You were only trying to help."

"Don't dismiss your fear, especially not to me. I know how damaging that can be."

Flora relaxed back into her cushions and furs as she looked at Helia. She could feel the warmth coming from his body and just like with his shirt, she had welcomed the warmth. She knew that he was trying to help but a lifetime of Fire Nation attacks made her fearful.

"My grandfather taught me a trick to help manage the fear and return back to reality. A game actually, one that he had learned from a group of children in the Earth Kingdom. We would take turns looking around at our surroundings and then challenge the other person to find it. Would you like to play? You do play games don't you?"

Flora nodded.

"Good," Helia smiled before he looked around the small house, "I see something gray and round."

Flora looked around, "The hanging seal pelt?"

"Close."

Flora took another look around the room, "The water bucket?"

Helia chuckled, "That isn't round."

"Of course it is."

"I would have said a cylinder."

"Sorry, Mr. Fire Nation Academy. I didn't know how technical this game had to be."

Helia's chuckle turned into a laugh and Flora laughed with him.

"Try again."

Flora scanned the room and the gray, circular hair clip in her sister's hair caught her eye.

"Miele's hair clip."

Helia nodded, "Your turn."

"Um, I see something orange."

Helia sighed, "The fire."

Flora nodded.

"There is supposed to be some sort of challenge."

"Fine," Flora settled into her furs and without knowing, moved closer to Helia, "brown and square."

Helia looked around, "The wooden stool?"

Flora shook her head.

"Hmmm, the fur pelt?"

"Which fur pelt?"

"Mine?" Helia asked.

Flora shook her head again.

Helia looked around, "The fur pelt across the room, hanging by the water bucket?"

"Yes," Flora answered with a smile.

Flora settled into her furs, her body mere inches from Helia's knees as he continued to keep his kneeled position near Flora but doing her best to respect her physical boundaries, though it was hard when Flora unconsciously found herself moving closer and closer as the shock and initial fear wore away.

"I would play this on nights before battle and did my best to return back to reality after."

"War is our reality."

"Not for long."

"I know," Flora snuggled into Helia's knees, chasing the warmth that came from Helia's body, "and I am not going to forget the forest that you owe me. My father told me a tale that we are descendants from a group of water benders from a swamp in the Earth Kingdom. A very reclusive people that would bend the water from the swamp and the plants that grew in the dense tree line."

"I was wondering about the green eyes that you and your sister have. I never knew a member of the Water Tribe to have any other eye color than blue."

"And I never knew anyone in the Fire Nation to have blue eyes," Flora looked up at Helia, 'they are like the dark waters during a storm."

Helia smiled, "My mother comes from a long line of water and air benders."

"What about your father?"

It was now time for Helia's eyes to carry a glint of fear.

"Pure Fire Nation." Helia replied, "Saying that he was surprised when I came out with blue eyes would be an understatement. It is a wonder as to why it took as long as it did to hit me with a bolt of lightning."

"I don't want to begin to understand the Fire Nation and your practices because any nation that could condone what your father did and what the Fire Lord had done to his son is not worth my time getting to know."

"The Fire Nation is not all bad," Helia caught himself, "I know that it is hard to believe but if it were all bad, it would have been hard to maintain the indoctrination. I remember being on the beach with my mother making sand castles, and eating fireflakes from the old vendor who sold them about a block away from our summer home. I would go to the theatre with my family and looking back, the plays were never that good but I still hold the memories dear to me. I even heard rumors of secret dance clubs."

"I could not imagine anyone having fun in the Fire Nation."

Helia smiled down to Flora, "Battle and work all of the time would not bode well for the morale of the Fire Nation military."

It was silent for a moment as Flora lay close next to Helia. Helia adjusted from his kneeled position and sat on his bottom, crossing his legs in front of him, careful not to hit Flora in the head with his knees. Flora continued to find herself relaxing under Helia's warmth.

"Where are your grandparents now?" Flora asked, breaking the silence.

"My grandmother passed away a few years ago and my grandfather lives on Ember Island after retiring from his position at the academy."

"What do they think of the war?"

Helia sighed and Flora could tell that there was something wrong. She looked up and saw Helia's downturned mouth and his gaze seemed to be miles away.

"My grandfather worked in the capital at the premiere Fire Nation Military academy. No, didn't work, he was the headmaster. He was the greatest man that I have ever known but the man he was before I knew him is not someone that I would have ever recognized. He saw firsthand how the war destroyed so many lives and came to see that there was nothing to be gained from this war. He hates the war but understands and regrets that it has to be the young people who have to change it. As for my grandmother, she never saw the horrors of war so she never knew anything other than what the Fire Nation taught her."

"And your parents?"

Helia's eyes snapped down to look at Flora, "I don't want to talk about them."

Flora began to open her mouth to push forward but softly closed it as even she knew not to push the issue.

"I didn't mean to sound so harsh." Helia replied, "It's just...memories of my parents are not positive. You saw what my father did to me, it was not an isolated incident."

"I am sorry."

Helia scoffed, "Don't be. It's not your fault."

"It's not your fault either."

Flora didn't think that she would have ever said that to anyone of the Fire Nation. Everything had been the fault of the Fire Nation. The people who had taken her mother had been part of the Fire Nation. Her father was off fighting in a war that the Fire Nation started. The Fire Nation burned her village countless times, led them to dwindling numbers, starved her people, and left them to freeze. Nothing good ever came from the Fire Nation, but Flora was beginning to see that maybe not everyone in the Fire Nation was all bad, even if it was just one person.

"I think that it is time for you to go to sleep," Helia said as he grabbed his cushion and made a move to stand up and make his way to the other side of the house when he was stopped by Flora's small hand wrapped around his wrist.

"Stay," Flora commanded. "Please. It is too cold when you are away."

Helia sat back down on his cushion and Flora instinctually snuggled into him, her head resting against the side of his leg.

"You can lay down if you would like."

"Next to you?" Helia asked.

"Yes."

"And that is not too close?"

Flora could not believe the next word that would come out of her mouth.

"No."

She was cold and she was desperate for warmth. And she had a living and breathing source of fire right next to her.

Helia didn't say anything as he positioned himself next to Flora. Flora could feel Helia lay down behind her, still keeping a small distance between them. The heat that came from Helia's body seemed to envelop Flora's body as she lay on the frozen ground. She backed up into the heat until she felt her back hit his chest. His body was hard and hot. Flora had remembered the nights when it was so cold and when she and her sister were still small enough to fit inside the same sleeping sack. Now they had outgrown the sacks and they both shivered too much for either one of them to feel comfortable.

"Do you believe that you can find the Avatar and defeat the Fire Lord?"

"I wouldn't have turned into an enemy of the Fire Nation if I didn't believe that deep down I wouldn't be successful. Even if I am not successful, at least I can say that I tried. I followed what I believed to be right and I tried to make a difference."

Flora turned so that she was facing Helia.

"I am sorry for judging you so quickly."

Helia smiled as he brushed back a small piece of Flora's brown hair behind her ear.

"I understand the resistance to my staying with you and your sister. Does this mean that maybe you won't threaten to leave me for dead anymore?"

Flora smiled, "I think that I am done threatening you."

"Thank you." Helia replied with a smile of his own, "Maybe when I leave, we will leave as unlikely friends."

Flora's smile fell and she looked up at Helia. He was sincere and Flora did not like that. Flora didn't have friends. She didn't need friends. She didn't want friends. Everyone left her so there was no point in becoming attached. His fingers absentmindedly ran through the ends of her hair and Flora never felt so comfortable with anyone before. It had been a few weeks since Helia had come to her house bloody and barely alive but that had been enough time for Flora's view of the Fire Nation to change. There was too much change and it happened too fast. Flora was done threatening Helia but that didn't mean that she trusted him.

Or maybe it was that she didn't trust herself.

Would she be strong enough to say goodbye to another person? She had plenty of practice but he would be the first person outside of her family that she would need to say goodbye to. He would be the first person outside of her family that she might miss. She didn't want to get closer to Helia.

So Flora turned around and away from Helia before moving away so that her body was no longer connected to his. She closed her eyes and gave her short response to Helia's wild idea that they would part as friends.

"No. We can never be friends."