༉˚*ೃ ¹⁷. 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒!

𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄, Luli had had two teachers to show her the path of what it meant to be a firebender. One had been cruel and disciplinary: taught her the rage and power of the flames she could explode into fury, as a vicious and ruthless member of the Fire Nation, where anger could unlock the unruliest abilities of mankind. The other had been gentle and affirming: taught her the precision and serenity of the flames she could bend to her will, how with patience and quick-thinking, fire could be like water if only you demanded so. Both lived inside her, those two sides of the same sword—the Fire Nation way, and an old way—and it was only because of the balance that she had gotten where she was today. The two pillars that should hold up firebending. One was vengeful fire, and the other was the flames of life.

          It had been her father who first taught her how to frighten. How to keep nonbender children trapped against the wall—he had showed her the stance and how to steel herself from her childish emotions, how to keep the flames a barrier between them. It had taken her a long time to figure out why that was wrong. How a nine-year-old partaking in the raiding of towns was something that shouldn't exist in the world. Longer than it should have. It still shamed her, a girl now of sixteen, that she did not understand sooner.

          There had been a lot of little moments of understanding that had led up to the horrifying epiphany that humans were not supposed to hurt other humans. As the daughter of a high-ranking Fire Nation commander, it had only ever been expected of her—when her father dragged her out of the house to small raids on Earth Kingdom towns, some of the small ones that now littered the deserted country, and her mother watched sadly from the doorway—, and took her off to war. She had been... excited back then. Excitement... now, the idea of that feeling disgusted her. In school, they'd been shown that the world needed fixing—that by exerting their nation's power, they were mending its issues, they were... saving them. It had been entirely wrong, but it was all that was imprinted into the heads of Fire Nation children.

          It had taken her a long time.

          But Luli learned that war hurts children young. 

          She learned it when she'd gotten the linear lashing burn scars on her hands; when her father had come back from a raid and given her a porcelain doll he'd gotten from somewhere, "for you," her father had said, and shoved the soot-covered object in her hands—it had been astounding to her, how something as delicate and fragile as a doll, with its porcelain face, could be covered in so much ash, and belong to a lesser nation than her own—; when her mother tried to drag her out of bed in the middle of the night; when she watched the Firelord grab his thirteen-year-old son by the face.

          And those faces of children the soldiers had kept screaming from their mothers and fathers, their dewy eyes and tear-stained faces, they'd kept her awake long into the night. Her father told her that it was because she had the weak heart of a girl, like her mother, and that soon she would stop fretting over such things like a child. But she was a child, and so were they. And that porcelain doll on her shelf, that seemed so fragile, and still had soot-stains on her pretty painted face, had belonged to a child too. Once, in time. She should have thanked her father for that doll, now, because in those years when she woke up from disturbed dreams, that doll would be sitting there, watching her silently and in lonesome—its features had begun to look more sad, after a while, although maybe it was just her realisations starting to creep into the way she viewed such things—and Luli would wonder all over again if they'd had any right to rip it away from a child she had never known, whether or not they had been Fire Nation.

          One day, she had confided in her mother with the same thing, as Luli had sat in her lap, and in turn stroked the porcelain doll's hair. "Why did I take the doll away from her home? She must be so lonely and sad here." Her mother had just held her close in her arms, and reminded Luli of everything she'd taught her. "Do you think I could give her back to whoever she belonged to?" Luli had asked. She had been little and naive—she hadn't understood, not really. Sometimes, now, Luli missed that naivety. Other times, she despised it.

          "I don't think so, my love," her mother had told her, as Luli looked up into her mother's pretty angular face and braided hair—Jie's eyes amber like Luli's own, but sad, too. "Not anymore." It had upset Luli at the time—while her father was out waging war—because she'd wanted to give it back so badly, because even at the age of nine she was already feeling that bite of guilt settling in. She hadn't asked her mother why, because it hadn't occurred to her. Some things were just out of reach.

          Luli had realised only years later, that it was probably because whatever child the doll had belonged to was dead.

          She cherished those moments with her mother, now, and she cherished the doll too. She wished she could wave it in her father's face—"This, do you see this? This doll that you stole for me as a victory of war, I looked into its eyes every night and saw a child, and everything that we had done, and I want to thank you, because you only have yourself to blame for the way I have become." It was one of the few things she'd taken with her when she'd abandoned her nation, her family and her home. Luli couldn't bear the thought of it rotting away on her shelf, its painted face shifting into misery as it collected dust and were to sit staring at the colours of the Fire Nation every day, never returned home. Something that she had so terribly stolen from where it belonged.

          Now, its pretty porcelain face was peeling of paint, and it had been cracked finely up at the brow, and one of its porcelain arms had broken and was hanging on by just a fraction. It was not rotting alone, but it didn't belong to her. She still had not found its home. One day.

          Sokka, who could absolutely never sit still and fidgeted every five seconds, had started going through the group's packs out of boredom, as Luli pondered and stared down at the land below Appa's soaring form—watching the forests, and plains, that were not yet The Waste Land. Towards the North Pole they headed, free of any Prince Zuko or Fire Nation or haunting ghosts of the past. How many times would Zuko be a problem?

          The Water Tribe boy was currently pulling stuff out of Luli's bag, peering at her water flask and other Earth Kingdom uniform that was short-sleeved. His voice sounded obnoxiously as he tightened his hand against the doll she kept in there and lifted it up casually into the air, "What's this thing?" He held it by its porcelain arm, so it dangled sickeningly, its painted face looking more and more sad each and every day. Something about the way it swung a bit in the wind—held casually between Sokka's fingers and thumb—with its small dress ruffling and its dark hair flittering, made Luli feel ill.

          Without even realising it, she'd snapped a, "Don't," her face serious and surprisingly sharp. The tone of her voice caught Sokka's attention immediately, confusion painting his features. "Give it back, Sokka." He offered it out a little, and she yanked it back harshly, quick to tuck the porcelain doll in her lap and check over its delicate figure. There was still that fine crack by its porcelain brow, and she'd never been able to get the soot stains off of its face. But it had mostly survived its years of travel at her back. It seemed it had even survived Sokka.

          He gave the girl a miffed expression, frowning. "Geez, what's wrong with you?"

          Luli gave him a hard glare, before glancing down and making sure the doll's hair and dress was all smoothed down in place. "It's one of the last things I have from home." She looked at its face now, and she saw a past stretched out before her, of childish shame. The crack on its face made it look so very fragile. She could not remember where the town it was from was—she'd been so very young, then—but one day, it'd go home too. At her words, the other boy's face went softer, a little apologetic. He tucked his arms behind his head and leant back against the edge of the saddle as Luli carefully pressed the doll back into her pack. She handled its brittle body like one might handle glass. There was a slight tremble in her fingers as she did so.

          "So..." said Sokka, once again ruining any chance she had for peace. His blue eyes scanned over her defensively hunched form. Luli gently pushed the pack to the edge of the saddle, out of her reach. "What's up with angry jerk fire prince?" He was yawning as he spoke, casualty lacing his tone. His index finger picked at his teeth.

          Luli glared at him again. "Nothing." She liked Sokka, a lot, but he seemed to be hitting all her current sore spots.

          Unfortunately, he seemed to know more than her in this moment. "No, so you saved from a falling rock and then he attacked you, but it's nothing?" goaded Sokka, way too intelligent for someone who on regular occasion said the most outright stupid things. It was like the boy could switch from total genius to unequivocal dumbass in the space of two seconds. Now, his brows were raised at her. Like he was turning something over in his head but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. The boy sat expectantly, waiting for an answer.

          Several emotions pulled at Luli's expression then, tugging at the muscles by her eyebrows. From a frown to a wounded look to something akin to determination and then unsurety. Her lip did an odd quivering motion. Despite how her mouth had parted, the firebender seemingly couldn't find anything to say. Then she snapped her teeth shut, exhaled through her nose, and hugged her arms around her chest. "Whatever. We knew each other in the Fire Nation. Briefly. Very briefly." Luli asserted this with a stoic tone and a sad-looking frown, voice not wavering for a moment. "That's all."

༉*ೃ༄

"𝐍𝐎, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 to feed them like this," he explained, taking the pieces of bread from her hand. The two of them had nicked them from the kitchen—with the help of Ty Lee—and made off into the gardens giggling with handfuls of freshly baked goods, pockets and skirt of Luli's dress full. And when the cooks had finally stopped looking, they'd crept out to the turtleduck pond, where Ursa liked to sit, sometimes, and where Luli liked to squawk at the animals, and sat at the edge.

          Zuko carefully broke off some pieces of the still-warm bread and scattered them to the small birds. The small birds which Luli was no longer afraid of, after all the countless hours Zuko had sat beside her, his hand in her own, as he taught her just how to pat their fluffy heads just right and how to not fear their beaks. The crumbs hit the water, much to the delight of the happily squawking ducklings, who swam forward with their tiny legs kicking and their small wings fluffing up, each trying to be the first to get to the bits of bread. They were the first birds that Luli had ever looked at and not thought: terrifying. Instead, the word 'cute' was on her mind—exacerbated by Zuko's soft laughter beside her.

          "We should name them," smiled Luli, peering over the edge of the pond so precariously that a single tap from Azula would have sent her falling right in. The baby turtleducks quacked at her and nipped at her fingers as she giggled. "Look, that one can be Zuko!" She pointed at one swimming towards them, fluff on its head puffed up into a funny-looking spike. Zuko pouted at her, while Luli—just seven—giggled to herself. "And that one's Luli," she gestured to a smaller looking duckling that had soft feathers, then to several others, "and Azula, and Mai, and Ty Lee!"

          "We are not naming one after Azula," grumbled Zuko, pouting as he crossed his arms. His nose was upturned in denial. Cute, cute, cute.

          "Yes, we are," Luli argued. She pulled at his arm. "Look how grumpy it looks! So CUTE!" she exclaimed with a squeal, throwing up her arms. The turtleduck squawked indignantly at her and she babbled a mixture of quacks and squawks back, though light laughter. Giggles spilled past her lips. "Come here, Azula," and made grabby hands. The turtleduck nipped at her finger. Months ago, that would have made her cry. But someone had taught her that the rounded beaks of baby ducks weren't a threat anymore.

          Zuko shouted, "Mine is swimming away!" as the fluffy hair one turned in the water and kicked towards the other side of the pond. With it, went the others. A pout pulled across both children's features.

         "Aw, Luli, come back!" shouted Luli, hopping into the pond despite her expensive dress and pretty shoes, splashing through the water to chase her turtleduck counterpart. Little Luli quacked and swum further away. Her small, glossy feathers ruffled. Just little bits of fluff. Complaining at the loss of their animals, Zuko jumped in too. The water was up to their knees, and with Luli in front the two splashed through its murky shade, reaching their hands out towards the now-spooked ducklings who managed to keep ahead of them with a growing distance. It was making her fancy clothes dirty.

          Firelady Ursa, looking as ethereal and gentle and as much like Azula and Zuko as always, had walked out to the other side of the pond, and now stood there calmly with her long regal sleeves draping down her arms and towards the earth. Said, lightly, "Zuko, honey. Luli. Get out of the turtleduck pond." Her hair was deep black, shining like expensive silk, her face slim but kind, eyes the same molten gold pools as Zuko's. The Firelady had her hands clasped nobly together as she watched her mischief son and his mischief friend splash about in the royal garden's pond. But there was a gentle smile stretching the edges of her lips and her gaze was so, so soft. So filled with affection. (In many years, Luli would wish she'd memorised that look more, that loving tone of voice, wish she'd acknowledged what she'd had before she lost it, that repetitive cycle). She did not step into the pond in her royal red gown.

          "No, we're turtleducks now!" proclaimed Zuko indignantly to his mother, as the two waded innocently. Just seven and not a worry in the world.

          Nodding with agreement, Luli giggled, "Quack, quack, quack." Luli stomped around in the pond flapping her arms like wings, joined immediately by Zuko as they quacked and waddled around, their knees raising high with each step. Ursa just watched them with a fond smile and shook her head. "Quack, quack." The both of them giggling, they continued to splash about until Luli turned and splashed right into the path of a short, white blob that she couldn't make out at first. Her amber eyes raised to see what had interrupted her joy.

          A swangoose, looking very displeased. It squawked loudly at Luli, raising its large white wings out and flapping them intimidatingly in a sign of pre-determined attack, who screamed. Loud and high. She shrieked out a short, terrified, "Ah!" and jumped on an unsuspecting Zuko's back, who staggered and shouted under her sudden weight, falling, sending the both of them toppling face-first into the water with a loud yell.

༉*ೃ༄

"𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐎𝐔𝐓, 𝐈'𝐌 coming down!" shouted Luli from atop the cliffside, the raging waterfall pouring into the lake beneath her—a warning to Sokka, who was lounging below and had the very real threat of being landed on—before she launched herself with a happy cry off the edge.

          Luli had a perfect kind of dive: her body arced in just the right position and her loose hair all long and trailing behind her, arms stretched out like an arrow. It reminded her of the holidays spent on Ember Island. When the water rushed up to meet her hands and head and body, it was cool, refreshing and sweet—encasing her from her face to her toes. Her long, unbraided hair trailed out behind her as she swam beneath the surface, lips sealed shut, cheeks puffed out with air. Above, Sokka was lounging on a leaf float, his arms tucked behind his head as one of his feet dangled lazily in the water. Sparkling with mischief, dark hair a solemn wave, mermaid-like, around her skull, Luli kicked upwards delightfully, hiding a giggle beneath the water, and shoved him off the makeshift float he was using.

          Sokka tumbled into the water with a yell. Peace ruined. Luli burst to the surface and grabbed hold of his leaf float, that had upturned, scrunching it under her arms as she laughed softly. Beads of water ran down her face, the soft curve of her nose and across her dark lashes. When Sokka came back up, flailing and spraying waves everywhere, shouting indignantly, it was at if she'd attempted murder. "Luli!? What was that for?!" Sokka exclaimed with a disgruntled cry, stomping up out of the water now drenched—his untied hair now soaked and framing his face. There was an angry pout on his face as he grumbled at her. His wet feet slapped comically on the muddy bank when he marched past Katara and Aang.

          Giggles slipping out of her mouth, Luli smiled, "It was a good joke!"

          "I thought it was pretty funny," added Aang with a grin. He was stood next to Katara in a fluid stance, arms held out in front of him and hands limp as it was obvious he'd been in the middle of practicing waterbending with his young master. It had been decided that until they got to the North Pole, Katara would at least teach him what she knew. They only had a year, Aang had told them, before the comet that would let loose the Firelord's wrath on the world was to come. As she thought of it, pushing her long, wet hair out of her face with her hand and laughter still light on her lips, Luli fell quiet. Why was it always her people screwing everything up? Her fingers were still bandaged up and nowhere near healed—ached as she soothed them through her dark locks.

         "How's the waterbending going, Aang?" she asked, following Sokka's suit in walking out of the water. Her toes left small footprints in the soft mud, and the underclothes of shorts and a cloth shirt she was wearing were soaked. Katara, positioned at Aang's side in the same stance, looked mildly frustrated.

          Aang beamed, smile blinding. "Look, look!" he exclaimed, rolling his hands softly back and forth in a flowing motion. The water on the lake in front of him began to rise. Soon, it was pulled into a wave motion, relatively large for a first-time bender.

          Eyes going big, Luli smiled wide, clasping her hands together happily. "Wow, Aang! That's amazing! Didn't you just start?" Luli's first attempt at firebending had just been little sparks and flames barely enough to light even a candle. (Azula's had been a blooming heartbeat of flames that was comparable to a small campfire).

         "Yeah!" said Aang cheerfully, dropping the water with a splash. "It's my first time!"

          Katara's mouth fell a little, mouth pulling into a slightly disgruntled pout. She crossed her arms against her chest. "That move took me two months to figure out." Her eyes were mostly sad and confused.

          "I still feel like it's not fast enough," worried Aang, nerves suddenly slipping through. "Roku told me I only have till the end of summer before Sozin's Comet arrives." Sozin's Comet. It didn't seem real, that the comet that she'd learned about throughout school, and in the Fire Nation's victory speeches, would be coming back again. Once, it had given Zuko's great grandfather enough power to raze the world. What would Ozai do with that? Luli had never met Firelord Sozin, she could not measure up personal interactions though she was aware that he was the one who had destroyed the Air Nomads—but she had met Firelord Ozai. And that man was insurmountably cruel, and evil, and ego-driven. And if the comet really would give him great power...

          Luli did not want to live in a world that was all ash.

          "I can try to teach you some firebending soon, if you'd like," she offered, stepping towards Aang on bare feet and wringing her hair. When undone from her braids, it was remarkably long, reaching her waist, and a wave of solid, thick black. It soaked up water like a sponge and would take hours to dry out.

          The process of teaching firebending before water or earth was unconventional—but Luli was much more advanced in her skill than Katara was, and it could still be weeks before they reached the North Pole. She was nowhere near a master, but Luli was sure she could teach the Avatar a thing or two.

          Aang seemed to ponder it for a moment, as Katara kept trying with her bending—obviously growing frustrated as her eyebrow gained that signature twitch again. "I still have to master water and earth, first," the young Avatar concluded, as Katara rolled a small wave of water back and forth.

          "You only have until the end of summer," reminded Luli, continuing to ruffle her hands through the top of her hair in an attempt to shake more water out. "I know it's not the common method of learning all the elements, but most Avatars take years of training and practice to master all the elements. You have less than one." She sighed, planting her feet in the mud and placing her hands on her hips. "And fire is... hard to control." Luli had never taught firebending before, but she was sure that if she implemented both sides of her own training she'd be able to do a concise job. As a natural firebender, it had always come easy to her—more so than Zuko, but never as much as Azula. For her, the hard part had been understanding the divide between firebending from anger (as is taught in the Fire Nation), and firebending from peace. All she could do was try.

          He looked suddenly nervous. "Okay, maybe you can try teaching me a few things. But we should get to the North Pole first." Luli agreed with that sentiment.

          She nodded along, extending a fake bow with her knuckles below the palm of her hand, in a mock Fire Nation gesture of respect. "Carry on, young Avatar, Sifu Katara," she joked, winking at the two of them. Katara was seemingly still frustrated at something, trying to get the small wave of water in front of her to move higher, greater. A frown was present on her young delicate features. "Katara..." Luli murmured, lips parting as she tried to figure out what to say. But when the Water Tribe girl looked her way with determined, miffed blue eyes, Luli dropped it. "Good job," offered Luli instead, smiling sweetly. She squeezed more water out of her hair and walked past to go bug Sokka again. "You're really talented."

          Luli couldn't imagine growing up in a place where she was the only bender of her people.

          Dropping her hands as the water splashed around, Katara's expression morphed into a small smile. "Thanks," she said, watching Luli splosh through the mud towards her older brother. Then, her heel pivoted to bring her back towards Aang. "Now, this is a more difficult move. I call it 'streaming the water'." Luli moved on as Katara focused on her bending, wrapping a ribbon of water from the lake shakily around her head, where it shone like pale blue silk, her hands moving in great, delicate motions. The firebender didn't want to distract her.

          On the stretch of land between the water and the grass, Sokka had sunk onto his knees and unfurled a map from his pack, held out and pinned by four stones he'd found. It showed the four different nations stretched across the world. As Luli approached with bare feet and unfurled hair, a sigh left his mouth. "The North Pole seems so far away." Despite the time they'd spent together, Luli still didn't know the boy all that well. She knew he was funny, the unstated 'leader', and simultaneously a hilarious idiot while also being the smartest one out of all of them. But if someone to ask her how to console him when she was sad, or what his favourite colour was, or how Sokka liked his favourite food, she'd simply turn up empty-handed. That was why it was, at least a little, softening on her heart to hear him express what Luli took as vulnerability. Worry.

          She crouched down next to him, joining the boy in the mud. Not even caring when her cream shorts got dirty. "You're worried about us getting there on time?" she asked, eyes big. Luli was the oldest here, and that meant she should also make an effort to lead them. Amber irises scanned the hand-drawn illustration of the world and the nations. "I know it's all the way to the North Pole, but we're halfway there, right? I'm sure we'll make it with enough time to spare for Aang to master waterbending before we move on." She sat down beside him, long hair tied around her shoulders so it wouldn't get dirty in the mud again. Perhaps she'd enlist Katara's help once more.

          "I'm worried about distractions," Sokka corrected, pointing at the map. "Not to be a stick in the mud, but we keep going off course, see?" His finger was held somewhere between Omashu and Full Moon Bay, the inland Earth Kingdom where they were positioned now. "If we'd just travelled in one consecutive line then we'd be there by now. The splashing around that Aang and Katara are doing right now is good," he said, refusing to just name it 'waterbending', "but we need to get moving. Who knows how far Zuko is behind us?"

          It still hurt, a little, to hear Zuko spoken about as an enemy. As someone they hated or feared. Luli's chest clenched—throat clamped up. "I can't believe he's been following you guys since the South Pole— no, I can..." she corrected herself, sighing. He was here on his father's orders, and clearly that was enough. "He's not going to stop chasing Aang, so we just have to keep ahead of him."

          Ozai... Ozai... He made Luli so mad, spirits... He'd gotten his claws into Zuko just like he had with Azula, and Luli wasn't sure she'd ever be able to shake them out. She'd tried to talk to him, on that cliffside with the sunset burning the sky around them the colour of their matching flames—two firebenders caught in the middle of a long and terrible war that had been going on for decades before they'd even been born. The war that they'd been born into... made into... from the moment they'd emerged crying in the world, that had been their destiny, hadn't it? The daughter of a commander... The son of the Firelord... So much had been expected of them. But had it always been their destiny to turn against each other, someday?

          Luli was thinking too much. She relegated herself to ducking her head solemnly, letting her brows pinch together, and listening to whatever Sokka had to say. Stop thinking about him, she kept telling herself. He's the enemy, remember? He's not your Zuko anymore. Your destiny is here, and now, with the Avatar, and Sokka and Katara. Another sigh left Sokka's mouth as he pressed his palm into the mud, displacing the wet earth. He looked conflicted. "Exactly, that freak is going to keep coming after us. But at this rate, with those two stopping at every town to help passers-by, Zuko's going to catch up to us every time." Sokka's blue gaze was lifted to focus on his sister and the Avatar, watching as Aang wound a stream of water seamlessly above his head, clearly having no difficulty with the element.

          As she sat there quietly, cross-legged, a divot appeared between Luli's brows, lips pursed. "Helping people isn't a bad thing, though," she insisted softly, her amber eyes big. She'd wasted months just trying to make a difference in her own, quiet way.

          "Of course it's not bad," said Sokka, removing the stones from the corners of the map and rolling it back up smartly. "But we'll be helping them all by ridding the world of the Firelord. Right now, we don't have time to mess around."

          Digging her fingers absent-mindedly into the mud, Luli nodded along slowly. The wet substance sifted through her hands. Cooled her firebender skin. Why did she have to be a firebender? Why did she have to be one of them? It soothed the light scars on her hands and got her bandaged broken fingers all dirty. Sokka would complain about that later. "You're right," she acknowledged, as much as the idea of leaving people to suffer dug at her heart. Luli pressed her tongue against the inside of her cheek, and her fingers rubbed the split skin of her lip which was still healing after the tumble with Zuko. Small bruises littered her skin. "I'll try to talk with Aang and Katara about it: with the new knowledge about the comet, they might be willing to—"

          The sound of rushing water met both Sokka and Luli's ears, and Luli pivoted around on her knees just in time to see the giant wave of water that had been brought up over them, Aang's hands raised in the air as Katara watched on with wide eyes. Then, he dropped it, right onto their heads. To be granted, it seemed like an accident. They just happened to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Momo, who'd slowly been inching towards Luli for her comforting warmth, skittered and ran, but Luli and Sokka had no such luck. She just had a second to hear Sokka's shout of, "Aang!" Then it was upon them.

          Luli cried out as the water crashed down over her, a heavy blanket slamming atop both her and Sokka's heads, and everything else surrounding their side of the lake. For a second, she was caught under the torrent as it rushed down over her entire body and the hundred or so meters around her. Then, air again, as Luli gasped and coughed a little—she'd been shouting when the wave had hit her—, completely wet once again. Droplets poured down her face, her arms that were held out in shock, her curved knees. Her hair was all soaked again. Crap, there was mud in it...

          "The map!" yelled Sokka, aghast, holding up the dripping length of paper with a single hand, mouth dropped wide open.

          "I've got it!" Luli shouted in response—her tone equally as panicked. She jumped to her feet, slipping in the mud, and lit up her hands, feeling the warmth of flames emit off of them. If firebending was good for nothing else, at least it was beautiful. Sokka stretched the map out horizontally as Luli frantically waved the small plumes of fire clutched against her palms beneath the parchment, careful to not let the orange flicks waver too close. Sokka seemed to trust her with it. Luli's teeth were gritted worriedly as the paper dried out quickly but crinkled from the water damage anyway. At least it hadn't totally fallen apart. Still, Sokka looked less than pleased, especially when water dripped from his hair and down his face.

          He shook the now-dry but creased map at them like some angry old man. "This was important!"

          Wincing, Aang glanced over at Katara, who was looking away from him and looking less than pleased. "Uh, sorry! Well, looks like I got the hang of that move. What else you got?" He was grinning widely, even as Luli slipped again in mud and almost undignifiedly fell on her face.

          Katara's body tilted away. Her eyebrows were stitched together in signs of irritation and her lip was curled, "That's enough practice today."

          "Yeah, I'll say," Sokka deadpanned, water dripping down him in small waves. "You just practiced our supplies down the river."

          On cue, Luli turned to watch with a blank gaze at where the lake pooled out into a river that they'd followed across the Earth Kingdom. "Oh," was all Luli said as she watched their sacks of food and other miscellaneous supplies get carried away by the current. Their personal belongings had been in the tree-line, but everything else hadn't been so lucky. Her feet moved to go after them, but by the time she reached the point where the lake funnelled out, the supplies were long gone. "That's not good," she murmured to mostly herself, pulling long, thick strands of her dark hair out of her face and spitting out other wet locks—any attempts to wring it out earlier had been proven pointless. Sighing and trying to wrangle her hair, Luli turned back around, and caught a pretty good look at the expression on Katara's face. Why...? "Katara, what's wrong—?" asked Luli, tentatively reaching a distant hand out as if to touch the girl from so far away.

          Folding her arms unhappily across her chest and turning away, the girl said, "It's nothing," in a way that absolutely proved it wasn't nothing. Luli sunk her teeth into her lower lip but didn't speak about it again—not wanting to infuriate Katara further.

          Instead, her arm dropped to her side, and she stared at the rushing river which most of their supplies had disappeared down. Unfortunately, that included the food ingredients they'd gotten from the village terrorised by Hei Bai, which meant no umeboshi onigiri cooked by Luli for the rest of them. She mourned silently, and vowed that she'd find the materials for it again. She was going to make meals for these kids whether or not they wanted it. Surviving off of nuts and random scraps of foraged food was not enough for the growing children supposed to take out the Firelord. "Where are we going to get more supplies?" she sighed, planting her hands against her hips in what some might accuse as a mother-like fashion, but all Luli could taste was the hopeful sensation of onigiri dissolving in her mouth. She'd been looking forward to cooking that, with the invisible hands of her mother guiding every motion of the folding and pinching of rice once again.

          Aang, bashfully, rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, and shrugged. "I'm sure we can find somewhere that can replace all this stuff." His usual pep was active in his words, crooked grin decorating his features.

          Sighing, Sokka let himself sink back into the mud, "My life was hard enough when you were just an airbender."

          "Don't be mean," chided Luli, giving Sokka a stern look, even though she was pretty sure 'disgruntled but caring brother figure' was in the boy's application when he applied for this Team Avatar business, or whatever. "Anyway, maybe wherever we find supplies will have ingredients for okonomiyake! That's super healthy for you, you know," she informed the other with an index finger raised importantly. Another meal she used to make with her mother. "I'll teach you how to make it," she promised, and was unsure of when exactly the moment had been that she'd become what Jie had been to her, to these three lost kids with no parents to call their own.

༉*ೃ༄

old family vs new family

i apologise if there are any continuity mistakes in these chapters, it's difficult to remember everything i've previously written about when i'm taking so long to update, so! sorry ♡ (⇀ 3 ↼) i was in a slump with this story for a while but i feel like i might have overcome that now and i really am going to try to write it more often! (weekly again, hopefully, if i can). i don't want to let my plagiariser win

i wrote the second half of this after four glasses of wine and damn i'm going to have to write while tipsy more often bc i finished it so fast SKJHGSDG

it's my birthday in four days !! i'm turning 19, i feel so old

thinking of how emotional i am rn about luli first joining the gaang to save the world, but ultimately staying to save the kids,,,,,,, i love them oh my god  ꒰˘̩̩̩⌣˘̩̩̩๑꒱♡

i would like to point out at this point in time that luli and zuko's relationship and art 'theme' song is "service and sacrifice", and will now attach the song here for purposes of angst and healing  ˚‧⁺(͘๑̊/﹏)⁺‧˚

https://youtu.be/sGmoDuepjUY

https://youtu.be/0R4xa9UvgWw

(both thomas stapleton's and samuel kim's versions have very different emotions to them but both portray without words what i feel like zuko and luli's relationship is,,, thomas stapleton's more sad, tragic and reflectory; samuel kim's more childish, grand and hopeful. i tend to listen to them on repeat while writing zuli content. it just reminds me of how far the both of them have come and will continue to grow, healing on their own and then together)

also, a reminder that if you like my hero academia i have a fic i'm currently updating weekly called 'love many things' that's also revolved around found family !! it's kind of flopping so if people enjoy anime i'd highly recommend checking my fic out  (๑'༥'๑)  ily !

word count: 6,269

05.04.2021.