A/N: New chapter! Hope you enjoy! As always, let me know what you think. I appreciate any & all reviews

Word Count: 4666

13. The Hunt (As Expected for a Pyromaniac)

Azula saw the smoke rising out of the wooden structure before she heard the sounds ahead of her.

She went through her now practised motion of leaping off her ride and tying it around a nearby tree. Her multiple day long journey giving her the necessity of learning it. And she was nothing if not a perfectionist.

Peering through the bushes surrounding the clearing that she'd left, what felt like weeks ago, she saw Percy sitting on a log with his sword. He looked very different, being back in the clothes he'd been wearing when she'd first met him.

He seemed to be carving something with it, using his bronze glowing sword to shape the block of wood. She didn't know how it glowed in bright daylight, but that was the least of her worries in that moment.

The princess looked behind the man, only to see the full extent of his work laid bare. She couldn't deny it was impressive. The logs looked rigidly strung together, the frame built into and around the foundations excellently. It was scruffy, sure. Unfinished and unpolished, but solid.

Off to the side of the clearing lay a pile of broken and disused wooden things. Obvious failed attempts at some kind of furnishings, though none that she'd seen before. The designs seemed odd for what she'd grown up with, yet very consistent. Sitting in the pile of timber lay that stupid ostrich horse.

Azula was just finishing inspecting her surroundings and about to think about approaching when he spoke up.

"Are you going to come out?"

Azula looked over at the animal, only to see its head swivel and those dark eyes look directly at her. She could've sworn the chittering sound that it made sounded like laughter. Mocking laughter. She didn't like that at all, with everything she knew about the animal's apparent ability to talk.

"I am talking to you, princess."

Well, this certainly isn't going like last time. It was good to scare him before, but at least we're not having an attack… hopefully.

She stood up and walked around the bushes.

"I see you've been busy."

Once again, her tone betrayed her. She went for teasing but a little too much admiration came out in her voice.

"You like it?"

He turned around with a half smirk on his face, gesturing to his log cabin. She looked into his eyes and was just thrown back to that balcony in Ember Island. Seeing those eyes looking deep into her from the dark ocean. The traitorously soft voice came forward in her brain with much more power behind it.

When you wanted it to be me with you?

It was the first time the voice hadn't sounded like it was directly from herself. Azula knew it was, it wasn't him talking to her, but she couldn't exactly logic her way through that. She tried to subtly shake her head, but clearly, he saw it as his smirk faded slightly.

"What? You don't like it? I thought I did a pretty good job for a first time."

He didn't seem that worried about what she thought, more just pleasantly and surprisingly proud of his own work.

"No, that's not…"

She caught herself, realising she really didn't want to explain exactly what she was thinking to avoid the misunderstanding.

Azula couldn't really take her eyes off of him. The relaxed easiness of his posture just seemed so different and inviting. Even on her 'vacation', those kids had still been in line with the Fire Nations teachings. Of course they had been, they were Fire Nation noble families.

But this, it was refreshing.

"Okay, well, anyways." He continued awkwardly, and she realised she hadn't finished her sentence and had just been staring at him. "I see you've come back. Not needed anymore in the Fire Nation?"

"What?"

She looked at him confused and his smirk came back.

"You said you were needed. That's why you left, right?"

His tone was almost degradingly teasing, and she felt the need to stoop to such barbs rise within her. So she did the only thing she could think to do, throwing the advice she'd had from Ty Lee out the window.

"Oh yes, but I dealt with all the important problems, and that led me back here."

There was a sparkle that came to his eyes as he heard what she said, and it wasn't at all what she expected. She really shouldn't have expected anything by that point though.

"Yeah, I can see how you coming all the way back out here would make me unimportant." He replied, incredibly sarcastically.

Azula would've usually felt annoyed at losing the back and forth, but she found a smile working its way onto her face.

"Well, I was just about done with this any way, are you going to stand there grinning or do you want to hunt something with me?" He asked.

Azula desperately tried to pull the smile off her face, but a happiness bubbled within her at his offer.

"And why would I do that, exactly?"

"Besides you wanting to?"

She raised her eyebrow at him.

"Who said anything about me wanting to?" The princess challenged him.

Azula fought to keep the colour from rising to her cheeks, but she realised she was fighting a losing battle.

"Uhuh." He replied, unconvinced. "Well, besides that. I noticed a certain lack of fur after you left."

He looked at her, seeming extremely entertained, and it was at that point that the princess most certainly lost the battle with the blood rushing to her cheeks.

"So I might need to go out and get another one. And I'm sure there'd be absolutely no chance of me finding the missing one with you."

He had a shit-eating grin covering his face that just screamed confidence and she couldn't help but be pulled into it.

"Also, we need something to eat."

She looked up at him, hearing the assumption he put into his words and seeing his idiotic, challenging smile.

We?

"Unless you either don't want to eat…"

He paused as he walked up to her and directly past her. Speaking as quietly as he had when he'd drawn her in her first time she'd been there by the lake, he continued.

"Or you don't want to stay." He finished and she felt herself move into him as he brushed by.

Azula didn't know why he'd done that, but her heart was fluttering uncontrollably. And it wasn't like the attacks she'd had. This felt like it'd given her all the energy in the world as her eyes followed the boy out of the clearing.

Percy didn't know why he'd done that either. He hadn't exactly planned to, but he'd been prodding at her and challenging her to respond to his quips, so her doing exactly that just brought something out of him. He wasn't sure what that was either, what part of him it was.

He did know he didn't have to leave the clearing the way he did, so he was confused within himself. He could've walked out any other way, but why that way. The demigod disregarded it.

I've got dinner to hunt.

He'd just run out of food before she'd arrived, and it seemed to be perfect timing. Or terrible timing, depending on how well the princess could hunt. He suspected that it wasn't very well.

His portable freezer of meat was empty, after just keeping it out of the sun and humidity all day. He'd found it wasn't a perfect system, but it was far easier than defrosting stuff back in Manhattan. And he was much faster than any microwave he'd had.

'What are your plans with her, dumbass? She stole your good shit, are you sure you can trust her?'

Siosi trotted behind him and Percy felt her flicking her head around, always keeping one eye on the princess. He knew that the blanket wasn't the only nor the main reason she was hesitant towards the firebender.

Well, maybe it was the main reason, but definitely not the only one.

There were very valid reasons to be untrustworthy of her, and every logical part of Percy's brain was screaming at him not to let his guard down with her. Granted, there were a lot of illogical parts of his brain saying the same thing too. But even still, there was something different, something more relaxed, about Azula in that moment.

"You stay here, Sio." He said, deciding to ignore her well-founded questions.

'Why do I have to stay here?!'

She stuck her head out and ruffled her feathers dramatically.

Percy looked at her with an eyebrow raised, but she wouldn't meet his eye.

Dramatic little shit. Replaced one drama queen with another.

"Because you're so loud. They always hear you from a mile away."

'Well, I don't want to go anyway. Fiery bitch is going. I wouldn't want to be a part of the adventures of bitch and dumbass, that can only end badly. Some of my beautiful feathers might get burnt or frozen.'

She snorted, before strutting away back towards his house. The ostrich horse didn't spare the princess any kind of attention apart from some obvious side-eye after she passed her. Percy rolled his eyes at his companion and her protectiveness.

"Just don't break anything while I'm gone!" He yelled back at her.

'Got it. Break all the things.'

He heard Afosiosi snicker as she scratched up the stairs.

The demigod turned away to see that Azula had managed to come out of whatever was keeping her flushed and stationary. She stood a few paces to the side of him. Percy shuffled somewhat awkwardly after his last words to her. All his bravado disappearing quickly. With her standing there silently, he was suddenly a lot less able to be witty.

"So… hunting?" He asked.

"Hunting." She replied.

(-)

Percy stalked through the undergrowth of the forest. To be fair, it wasn't too dissimilar an environment to where he fought monsters and played capture the flag in, so he felt some semblance of being at home.

He didn't bring out his trusty sword because he found that the glow was sometimes his downfall. Plus, the princess was right there. Too many questions would be asked.

Speaking of said princess. She crept along behind him a little less silently. Apparently her royal teachings didn't include hunting, although, he wouldn't have expected them to. Her footfalls weren't loud, she was exceptionally light on her feet, but her movement through the loose branches and bushes left a lot to be desired.

Just after he delicately held back a branch from making any noise on his body, Azula walked straight through it. The leafy protrusion thwacked against her metallic red armour and then whipped back against the rest of the bush.

The demigod turned to her, and gave her a glare. He didn't try to make it intense but he didn't really have to try to do that. Percy saw her back off slightly, giving him a very confused look. He looked at her exasperatedly, only to signal her with a finger to his lips. His universal shushing gesture having also been used by this world, her eyes narrowed to slits and she glared back.

Percy turned and kept walking, coming up to the next point where it'd probably make sound. He moved dramatically to hold the twig for her, gesturing overtly to the fact that it didn't make sound. Azula's eyes narrowed further and the demigod followed after her, chuckling to himself.

After a few minutes, they came upon another stray branch on their trail. Percy passed it and saw the princess making no move to avoid it. His eyes looking at a bush just off to the side of their very thin path caught some rustling ahead of them.

Walking briskly but quietly, he got to Azula right before she ran into it. Percy caught her shoulder right as she was about to slap the bush. In the back of his mind, he respected how petty she was being, but it definitely wasn't the time.

When he grabbed her shoulder though, she flinched away from him and pushed him off her. His eyes widened before realising exactly what that meant, living with it for years prior to finding Camp Half-Blood. Percy knew it wasn't the time, so just nodded in acknowledgement and pointed towards the rustling undergrowth.

She nodded mutely back to him and he knew exactly how that felt too. Percy gave her a small smile, before holding back the branches for her to pass through. He made sure to keep his distance as she passed by him.

Thankfully, seeing that they had indeed spotted some prey, Azula seemed to be keeping herself as quiet as she could. Percy moved up to take the lead and they followed the rustling through the trees as a light breeze started to blow in from their right.

The demigod signalled that they move to the left of whatever animal was up ahead, and Azula followed. She didn't seem too happy about it, but he wasn't too focused on that at the moment. They circled around where he wanted them until the rustling popped out into an opening.

It was another boar-cross-porcupine that trotted out into the clearing, giving them a perfect view. It seemed in this area they were slightly more common. The two ducked behind the bushes and peered through at it. The animal was idly munching away at some grass or flowers.

He wanted a closer shot. It'd trotted around to the other side of the clearing. The last one he'd killed with an ice spear, and that'd been good, but he hadn't exactly been able to train too much with his range. His sword wasn't the best in long range and the biggest body of water was too far away to not make a huge noise as he brought it to him.

Percy raised his hand to try and signal for the princess to remain down and silent. Patience was something the demigod had found a lot of for himself in this new land. A sort of hyper focus that rose within him.

It seemed the princess didn't have such plans.

Percy heard the crackling of fire before he saw it. Sure enough, flickering to his right, the blue fire of Azula bounced light and sound between the trees. She stood and looked to be about to punch fire at the boar-q-pine. Without thinking, the demigod pulled some water out of the air and extinguished her flame, simultaneously pulling her down by the armour around her midriff.

He winced at the sound they'd made and Azula was glaring at him again. He ignored her and turned to see what their prey was doing. Its head had snapped over to them and was scanning the bushes. Percy looked over to his hunting partner and only too late realised the steam rising from her hand.

Not that it would've matter. The princess rose once more and threw a fireball at the now terrified creature. The warning it'd been given of the noise and steam evidently helped it spring away from the first blast. Without a second thought, it took off away from them into the denser forest.

Percy stood beside Azula, hands on his hips and giving her yet another raised eyebrow.

"Ugh!"

She aggressively turned away from him and sprinted after the animal in the forest, flames blazing on her hands.

The demigod chuckled to himself, pulling more water from around him to put out the small fire right where the boar-q-pine had been standing.

He then followed at a much more pleasant run, taking the path created by the rather quite large animal in front of them. And aided by the arsonist in front of him.

It really was the easiest track he'd ever had to follow, as he played fireman putting out all the fires left over from Azula. He could only imagine the scolding and name calling that some of the dryads would give to him, and more importantly the princess, if there'd been any type of chase like this back home. They would've been understandably… incensed, for lack of a better word.

At some point in their long chase, he'd felt them turn back towards the lake. Percy saw up ahead that the forest thinned, and Azula standing on the edge of the thick trees.

He broke through the rest of the tree line and into the more open space.

"Well, it seems we lost it." He said nonchalantly, barely out of breath at all.

Azula turned to him with a blazing fury in her eyes.

"WE?!" She panted in between sentences. "No, you lost it! Then I failed to catch it!"

"Eh. Better luck next time then." He shrugged his shoulders.

"What?! We FAILED! I don't fail!"

"Huh?" He looked at her, questioningly.

"Of course you fail. Everyone fails. We're all allowed to make mistakes." Percy continued calmly, although that seemed to just make her even angrier.

"That's exactly what a savage would say. That's weak!"

Her fire burned a little brighter on her palm and it seemed that Azula was looking for a fight the more he continued.

"There's a saying where I come from. You learn more from your mistakes than you do your successes. It's a little annoying having people repeat it to you, but there is a bit of truth in-"

A not-insignificant fireball landed just to his right, interrupting him. Percy just stared into her golden eyes, unflinchingly. She stared back equally.

"You really want to fight me?" He asked, challengingly.

The question seemed to throw her for a second.

"Right here?" He continued, keeping his gaze level.

It seemed her mind had been made up, probably helped by his little taunts. She slid her foot back into what he'd come to know as a firebending stance. Fire rose out of the fronts of her knuckles, hands balled in a fist to punch out at him.

Percy felt the shoreline of the lake only a few hundred feet off to his side and, stretching his senses, a river to his back. Smirking, he thought of another fun way to throw the princess off her game. He'd already done it before.

Slipping his hand into his pocket, he felt Riptide sitting there, patiently. He pulled it out, covering it from her view, and flicked the pen off behind his back. Percy heard the slight, distinctive sound of his sword leaping out of its magical sheath.

"I'm warning you. You won't win this." He said, slightly cockily.

The princess huffed in front of him and seemed to move to strike towards the demigod. Right before she did, he whipped the sword out from around his back. Azula hesitated once more, warily watching his sword. Her gaze rose to his own.

"I don't lose."

She let fire a ball of flames directly at his midsection. He rolled to the side, slashing through it with his sword.

Azula darted through the trees, shooting fire at him as she went. He kept ducking and diving to the side, letting her come towards him. His initial plan was to let her walk herself towards the river or the lake, where he'd have a clear advantage and hopefully tiring her out a bit. It seemed the princess wasn't going to let him have it that easy.

The girl leapt off of a tree to their side and landed in between him and both sources of water.

Well, there goes a defensive strategy.

He shrugged his shoulders at her knowing smirk before rolling once more to avoid the bright blue flames that traced the ground to his side.

It seems she's got her blue back.

He brought Riptide up and held it directly in front of his face to dissipate yet another blast of flames. Taking the initiative, he took some water from the air and brought it above his non-dominant hand. Using that and his sword, he began advancing on the princess.

She realised what was happening and began to send more fire at him. Percy looked through the growing mist surrounding him and saw what looked to be two ropes of fire. He didn't know how that happened but he remembered a flash of Zuko doing that back in the catacombs.

One rope flew at him first, with the other trailing behind slightly. He managed to get some water to cut off the initial whip, but his movement with his sword didn't dissipate one of them. Percy swung his sword again while sending more water her way.

He wrapped some water around his hand and sliced through the final whip. He raised his eyebrow at her and she smirked, narrowing her eyes. The fire whips had scorched the area and the surrounding trees looks about ready to turn into a full-on forest fire.

Percy pulled some of the rest of his water and hardened it into ice spikes. One by one, he threw them at her. He only fired at her extremities, remembering flashes of what happened back in Manhattan. He tried to push that out of his mind but found he couldn't.

Thankfully, his distracted mind wasn't a problem as the princess was too busy melting the ice shards to worry about attacking him.

Just beyond a line of more dense trees, he saw a tiny bit of blue flickering in between. It felt like running water, and he saw the big body of the lake off to his right, indicating that he'd managed to push her back far enough to make out the river.

Azula looked up at Percy, through her partially unkempt hair. Unlike back on the boat, with just a hair out of place, a fringe of hair had decided to disregard her various pins that held it up.

She'd only just managed to stop the last of his ice before it hit her. Now, his gaze looked over her shoulder and past her. The princess was about to turn and look, before she remembered.

He did this before. I used it as a distraction. Could he be doing the same, or manipulating me again?

No… trust that he's really distracted.

With a quick flick of her hair, she looked over her shoulder to her side. Sure enough, she saw the glistening blue expanse of the lake off to her left. As she looked behind her though, all she could see was a line of denser trees.

Away from the lake we go.

Azula turned and face Percy, right as his eyes landed back on her. She couldn't escape the feeling of excitement and adrenaline that coursed through her when fighting him. The same feeling she felt back by the drill, a desperate want to get the upper hand. But surprisingly, not for the reasons she'd usually had for winning a fight.

The firebender took a step, back and away from the lake. Yet another shard of ice imbedded itself in the ground to her right, forcing her back.

Good, away from the water.

She backed up some more. They'd just come from denser trees when hunting, so going back there was her best bet. The princess leapt into the air and swung her leg across, an arc of flames leaving her foot and following along its path.

Azula saw that glowing blade strike through it, and the rest of the arc parted around him. Deciding to change angles, she jumped again, but brought her leg directly down. This time, Percy rolled to the side and came up in a kneeling position. Her fire went past him, through some scattered trees.

His hand shot forward and water from all directions flew at her. The princess sprung backwards, cartwheeling end over end until she was well within sight of the dense tree line.

She heard some splashing behind and to the left of herself.

Maybe I moved closer to the lake?

She was starting to get slightly worried but Percy didn't give her the opportunity to think about it.

Azula was bombarded with blasts of water that she only just managed to avoid, using a wall of fire to turn it all into steam. Before she could even think, she heard the swooshing of a blade through air and she leant backwards.

The glowing form of his blade scythed over where her head would've been as she rolled backwards and away from where Percy had managed to catch up to her. She failed to notice the waterbender using the flat of the blade to swing at her.

As she kept rolling, her back hit the first line of bushes. When her head flung around, she caught a glimpse of a tree directly behind her and Azula threw herself to the side of it. Assuming there'd be ground where she landed, she braced herself, only to fall a few feet down onto a sandy riverbed.

Sandy?!

She looked up, through her now thoroughly messed up hair, to see a river. It flowed down and off to the right, towards the lake.

So that's what caused the sounds.

Not a hundred feet away was a rapid section of the river, littered with jagged, sharp rocks. Azula stood and tried to brush the sand out of both her clothes and hair.

There was a rustling in the bushes behind her and she turned to see the grinning face of Percy. The smile only seemed to get wider seeing her in her dishevelled state.

"I hoped that would work, but I didn't think it'd work that well." He said, gesturing at her.

He chuckled as he slid down the very embankment she'd just fallen down.

"Do you want to stop and admit defeat? Admit failure?" He said, with a bit too much sarcasm for her liking.

She gritted her teeth. It reminded her too much of her father's words to her. Azula twitched, her shoulder flicking up and down momentarily. It seemed Percy didn't notice that one.

"No. I don't fail."

"Alright then."

Percy's hand rose and the river shot out at her. Her punch of fire was quickly enveloped in water and she pulled as hard as she could to avoid the water completely encompassing her. She slashed down with her other hand, fire cutting off the water momentarily. Azula jumped to the side of water and she realised this was a losing battle.

I can't fail. Not at this. No, you can't.

She began her lightning form, unthinkingly, with the deep voice booming his approval to her. Her other thoughts lost in the darkness.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Percy react slightly surprised only to see both his arms raised, one with sword, one without.

"I feel like I've been here before." She heard him mumble.

As she finished, she heard the crashing of water flying at her. She looked up to see a huge wave cresting over the boy in front of her. She pointed her fingers right at him, looking at him down the path her fingers traced out for her.

The dark voices momentary control seemed to lapse and she thought about it. The Avatar, the stupid firebender she was betrothed to and, most importantly, this boy. The one who she'd never struck with lightning before. The one who she knew, deep within her heart, that she definitely didn't want to kill. Hurt, maybe. Kick, punch and slap, most probably. But definitely not kill.

She raised her fingers a little towards the sky right as the lightning exited her fingers.

Though it seemed slightly too late.

The last thing she saw, before being turned end over end into unconsciousness by Percy's wave, was the water conducting the lightning right down until it wreathed the body of the boy in front of her.

A/N: So, a bit of an Azula and Percy chapter, directly after the backstory chapter. For anyone interested in the story structure, there will still be a few chapters between this and the Day of Black Sun as canonically there are multiple episodes between the beach and then. We'll be getting a bit more of these two in the very near future, so I hope you enjoyed the beginnings of their interaction this time.

Some review replies:

GoofyTnT: Thank you. If you're comparing it to MoA then I think I've done something right. I appreciate it. I agree, I'm not the biggest fan of either of them dying, which is why I only did it in this because of very important character development, history and future plot/arcs that I was able to put into it. I have a lot planned for the invasion so hope you like it!

HellRaiderS/Death Fury/Jctherebel: Thank you all! Appreciate it and hope you enjoyed this one.

perachelmakesmepuke728: I'm glad I could get that reaction! I honestly didn't know if I'd write it in, but I found a whole lot of reasons to, so I thought I'd make it as emotionally impactful as possible. A nice, sad surprise is exactly what I was going for!

Artorias78: Because I find it entertaining *smirks evilly*. I'm glad I could make you cry... as bad as it sounds haha. And yes, Ozai hate is justified 100%, the possessiveness and emotionlessness is despicable. I wonder who wins this round? Thank you, and hope you enjoyed this one!

WildMan98: Thank you! The feels is precisely what I wanted. Thank you and hope you enjoyed!

Anvith Mithra: Well, I can't really answer that question, because it's still up in the air if they will, but... you reviewed on the perfect chapter for what you wanted. Fluff is great to read, agreed.

I really hope you enjoyed, see you in the next chapter.

-PS