two | Tui enjoys roast duck with Iroh

Once more, Tui found herself bundled up in coats, her healing bag next to her as she watched Zuko train on the main deck of the ship. She was only needed there as a precaution, in case Zuko went haywire and burnt a few of the guards. Iroh was kneeling on the other side of her, his eyebrows furrowed as he thought of something.

"Again," Zuko and the two other soldiers began to fight against one and other, going through the motions of kicks and flips, before coming to a stop, the flames dying out around them. It was impressive. "No! Power and fire bending come from the breath, not the muscle. The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire! Get it right this time."

Tui suppressed a shiver as her heat source stepped away once more. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, praying that they were going to be done with this training session soon. She wasn't built for the cold temperatures of the Southern Pole and she was longing for the warmth of her own room.

"Enough," She let out an audible groan at Zuko's tone of voice. It was the tone that he used when he was about to get into an argument with someone, and that normally meant burn victims for her to treat. Was it too hard to express his emotions verbally? "I've been drilling this sequence all day. Teach me the next set. I'm ready."

"Or, we could just go inside and warm up?" Tui suggested quietly, standing up so that she could get closer to the warmth that the fire benders created. "Jut a suggestion."

"No, you are impatient. You have yet to master your basics," Iroh sat down, as Tui pulled a face. "Drill it again!"

Zuko growled, glaring at the man as Tui sighed and got her burn remedies ready once more. It only took her a moment to turn around, by the time she looked back one of the men was already on the floor.

"Zuko! Stop burning people," She hissed, hitting his shoulder gently as she rushed past to get the man back on his feet. Reaching beside him, she pulled the man's helmet off and checked the wound, before placing a poultice onto the wound. "All right, this goes on there and then you're going to need to change it each day with cold water. Not salt water like last time!"

The soldier grinned sheepishly at her, before nodding and standing up, trying not to touch the wound himself.

"Thank you," She waved it away, motioning for him to walk back inside as she returned to Zuko's side, if only to glare at him.

"But first, I must finish my roast duck," Tui had obviously walked back in on a bizarre point in the conversation, as she glanced between the roast duck, Iroh and Zuko's face, her eyebrow raising in confusion.

"What is going on?" Iroh patted the floor next to him, as Tui sat down slowly, placing her poultice and bandages back into her bag.

"Have some roast duck, my dear," He replied, pulling another bowl of roast duck out from behind him. Tui's face lit up in joy at the sight of the food, her stomach grumbling in agreement. "It should help warm you up."

"Uncle...What about training?" Zuko spluttered out, as Iroh shook his head and continued to eat. Turning, Zuko looked at Tui who was starting to eat the duck with gusto. 

"Tui is freezing and the other soldiers are tired, we should rest," Iroh continued to eat as he spoke. Zuko huffed, before slumping down next to Tui, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you cold?"

"I'm not a fire bender like you are," She replied, as Iroh began to talk to one of the other soldiers, a shiver going down her spine. "Down here, in the south is far too cold for me. "

"Then we shall go somewhere warmer once we've captured the Avatar," Zuko murmured, shuffling closer to the small girl so that she could continued to steal his body heat. He reluctantly heated his body back up to a higher temperature. "Can I have some roast duck?"

"Of course,"

***

Tui ran on deck at the sound of whistling, running over to where Zuko stood with a telescope to his eye. She looked up at the object, that was hurtling through the sky, burning up quickly.

"What is it?" 

"Fire nation flare," Zuko hissed, his eyebrows furrowing as he thought. "The Last Airbender. Quite agile for his old age."

He glanced down at Tui, before pulling her over and focusing the telescope on the Avatar for her, watching as Tui's jaw dropped at the bright colours of the Air Nation.

"Wake my uncle!" The guards behind him ran off, as Tui turned back to the teenager next to her. "Tell him, I found the Avatar."

"Do you have a plan?" Tui murmured, raising her eyebrow at him. She knew that he probably had none.

"Flush him out of his hiding place," Zuko replied, focusing the telescope on a small village, before showing it to the girl once more. "Seems like he's found a home in the Southern Water Tribe."

"They don't have any fighters," Tui replied, shivering once more. Zuko noticed, leading her back into the ship. "I'm pretty sure that they all left years ago."

"How do you know that?"

"The healer I was training under talked about it once," She shrugged, sighing as they reached the warmer area in the ship. "In other words, they can not put up a fight."

"Tui..." Zuko trailed off, before nodding and opening her door for her. "I'll try not to harm any of them. But if they attack, I must retaliate."

"I see,"

Hiya,

So, this is kind of cute anyhow, I love Tui and Iroh's relationship, and Tui in general. Let me know what you think,

Thanks for reading, 

Love Li xx