༉˚*ೃ ¹⁶. 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒!

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘'𝐃 spent flying across Fire Nation waters had tinged the sky orange, a fiery haze over everything. They didn't have a lot of time left. Luli was, of course, trying to expel herself of her stress. She had Momo on her lap, was carding her fingers through his short fur and rubbing at his ears. Making a mental list in her head of all the meals she could cook. Considering what the North Pole would be like. All sorts of things that didn't relate to the Fire Nation which they were currently in.

          She was lying on her back, watching the clouds pass by, when Momo's head suddenly perked up at something in front of Appa, and Aang's voice sounded out, "There it is!" The excited call immediate made Luli's head snap up. She saw the others—who had been lying on their backs, bored and probably thinking of freshly cooked Winter Solstice meals, in a similar manner—do the same. Sure enough, looming into view below them was an ashen crop of island land. It was formed in an unusual crescent shape, like a slice of moon. Perfect for the solstice, Luli thought. In its curved centre stood an active volcano, laced with molten red and dripping hot magma down into the sea. "This is where Roku's dragon took me!"

          Luli's eyes widened, fingers gripping the sky bison's saddle as Appa soared down towards the island made of black rock and obsidian. "Looks Fire Nation enough." If the intimidating landscape carved by the spirits wasn't enough, the Avatar temple that stood just before the bubbling volcano was enough to be a truly formidable sight. Through its long winding bridge leading across pouring silken lava and down all the way to the stony beach, magma ran in hot streams.

          "This place looks like it's falling apart!" exclaimed Sokka. Heat wafted up in great puffs of steam towards them. "The volcano is ready to blow!" He pointed an accusing, panicked index finger right at the lip of the living earth, as smoke gushed up into the sky.

          "I'm sure it's been active for a really long time, Sokka," his sister assured him. Luli was fighting back twists of nervousness in her belly. This was fine. It was just the Fire Nation. Sure, not the grand tour Luli could imagine giving her friends, of all the best places to eat and where to hide from the Royal Palace guards, but this was still—begrudgingly, she supposed—part of the place she'd been brought up in. The Fire Nation is just a place. Places can't be scary.

          Appa landed just beyond the bridge, on an outcrop of rock safe from the magma and steam. The little flora that grew here was weathered and cactus-like: made to survive even the harshest of elements. Surprisingly, Luli was the first to hop off of the saddle and onto the ground below. She could feel the warmth through the soles of her shoes. The Fire Nation alright. "So how are you going to talk to Avatar Roku, anyway?" asked Luli, stretching her arms as the others followed suit, dropping themselves to the earth. "He's been dead for ages, right?"

          "Right," agreed Aang. He was stroking Appa's side. "All Roku's dragon showed me was the temple. There must be something or someone in there who can help." As he scratched his bison's nose, Appa rumbled in joy and flopped over onto his side with his six legs sticking into the air. "You did it, buddy!" he said, all his attention turned to the gigantic fluffy animal now. "Nice flying."

          "Maybe the Fire Sages can help," Luli offered out loud, flipping out the singular tessen Suki had given her and fanning her face with it. Apparently the iron fan was good at keeping cool, too.

          Sokka had been stretching to touch his toes. Now, he glanced up with a single eyebrow raised. "Fire Sages?"

          "Mhmm," she continued, glancing at her own reflection in the gold metal as she paused in her efforts to keep the air around her a decent temperature. "They dedicate their lives to the Avatar. Fire Nation Avatars, at least. Like I said, we didn't learn much about the others." With a sharp 'thwick', Luli snapped the tessen shut. The sound was sharp and sweet. The instant lack of cool fanning air was not so much. "But then again, the Avatar hasn't been seen for 100 years so I doubt they've been caring for the temple in all that time."

          Beside her, the Water Tribe boy glanced around with his hands on his hips. The fiery landscape was desolate. Burning waves of heat could be physically seen rising up from the hot depths of the volcanic matter. "It doesn't seem like anyone's been here in decades."

          Luli's toe kicked a rock and sent the small hunk of stone skittering down a steep cliff-face towards toiling magma below. "Would you want to wait around in a place like this for someone who the world thinks is never coming back?" Her words were soft like butterfly wings when the rock hit the lava and burst into brief flames before melting into oblivion. Its sludge returned to under the sea of red and orange.

          Considering Luli's words, it was only timely when Katara's gaze looked out behind the two older kids and the girl made a noise of disbelief. "Oh no."

          Her gaze was fastened on the ocean. So when Luli and Sokka and Aang turned around to follow the line of her eyes, it was a nasty surprise to see a Fire Nation warship steaming its way towards them, spewing black smoke, as an ever-growing dot in the distance. Just from the lack of red Fire Nation banners on the ship's bridge could they each tell who it was at the helm. Even as the transport cut through the water from such a far way away. Straight towards them. Zuko.

          A confused sound stuck itself in the back of Luli's throat. Something between an inhale and a scoff. "He can't seriously have followed us all this way."

          "What do you mean?" squawked Sokka indignantly. He threw out his arms towards the sea. "Some water and Fire Nation ships have never stopped him before!"

          Katara's blue eyes were big when she turned to Luli and said, "You mean he wasn't like this when you knew him?" Like what? thought Luli. Stubborn, reckless, dangerous, bad? It was like every descriptor hit a new nerve within her. A painful type of nerve. The kind that made her want to chuck rocks and scream at him and also maybe throw up and cry. Her head was a collection of several question marks that kept bouncing off different sides of her skull.

          "Well, I mean—" spluttered Luli. "I don't know— he wouldn't have tracked the Avatar through a Fire Nation blockade, that's stupid and suicide! What kind of idiot would do that?!" She threw both of her arms out in a wild gesture towards his distant ship.

          "That's Zuko for you," quipped Sokka as he finished stretching one arm over the side of his head. Luli spluttered out nothing close to words. How did these Water Tribe kids know this Zuko better than the girl who'd spent over half her life with him? "Now let's get going before he catches up!" Dropping his arms, Sokka raced past her towards the direction of a temple. Right, we only have a few hours. Luli shoved the thoughts of 'Zuko equals bad?' out of her mind, and turned from her gaze on the ship to follow the rest of her friends.

          "Good boy, Appa," said Aang, "just stay right here."

          First, they skidded down the rocky slope that would grant them passage to the bridge—a slightly difficult ordeal that ended with Luli smoothly sliding down on her feet, and Sokka sticking to sitting and scooting himself down the steep drop. If they so much as tilted the wrong way, they might fall down one of the volcano's cliffy crevasses that led to a bath of boiling hot magma. Not that Luli would let that happen: she had a cautious eye on both carefully-stepping Katara, hopping Aang, and nervous Sokka. One misstep and she was in arms' reach to catch any one of them.

          The absolute last thing they needed was the Avatar line needing to start back up again after a twelve-year-old took a slip.

          Then, they were down at the start of the long, winding stone bridge that led across the great river of lava moving down the volcano-side. The walk would be entirely uphill and tedious, based on how the temple was just a small fist-sized shape in Luli's vision. Not to mention, the bridge spanned right where the mountains fell away to the black beachside. They'd be in almost direct view of Zuko's ship. Forget about them perhaps having the chance to be stealthy.

          "Let's keep moving," said Sokka firmly, pressing through all their trepidation as they'd paused at the last semblance of solid earth before the bridge. He took the first step. It let the others follow suit. Luli just watched the stone structure with blatant apprehension. A bridge over magma? That seemed like the perfect way to have it melt and crumble. But there weren't any real signs of tear. It must have been standing for 100 years. It looked sturdy enough. Luli wasn't sure how any of them were to get out of the situation if it collapsed, but that couldn't really be helped. Aang, Sokka, and Katara had already walked on ahead—in that order first from last—and the young firebender hurried to catch up with them. It was hot up here, walking between shifting sky-high heat-lines rippling off of living magma. The whole island was hot. Luli could understand why this would be the perfect place for firebenders.

          (It made no sense, because she never wanted to go back to the Caldera, but she'd missed something about the heat of volcanoes).

          She was sweating a fair bit by the time she caught up to the others. Sokka and Katara were in an even worse state as perspiration beaded on their foreheads—cheeks flushed dark with heat, both siblings having rolled their sleeves up to their elbows—, the sticky heat far from whatever ice and snow the Southern Water Tribe had held. "The sun is going to set soon," Aang's voice was laced with stress as he walked quickly ahead of them, his face turned up towards the sky. He was right, of course. Why did Avatar Roku choose the shortest day of the year to try to talk to his successor? The threat of Winter Solstice loomed over them.

          The bridge still stretched out before them, and beyond them, just a little bit past the halfway point. "Let's hope that Aang's right about Roku," panted Sokka, wiping some sweat from his face with the back of his arm. "With that ponytail jerk following us." Mean, thought Luli, but said absolutely nothing to combat his point. From the view to the ocean here, she could see that Zuko's ship was nearing closer and closer to the shore. Any minute now it would land, and then they'd be in trouble.

          Luli scurried after the others, and after what felt like an hour of panting, the group finally made it back to solid ground. They'd traversed the rapids of lava. Now, Luli sighed and looked up. Avatar Roku's temple. It was built in classic Fire Nation style, tall and with each section of roof moulded by orange and red metal. The entire building imitated curling fire. Now, all they needed to do, was walk the short distance there. Up the remainder of the cut-out volcano stone, across a narrow ledge, and right up the final hurdle to the temple. They climbed it with pants, heat creeping up their skin, sweating bullets.

          When Luli finished crossing the narrow ledge—the right side of the path against a jut of upwards cliff, and the left falling into a deep drop of roaring lava below, the temple just a hundred metres ahead—an exhale passed through her lips. Her footsteps fell short, slowing to a stop. "I'll stay behind—to stop Zuko from following you." The way her shoes came to a halting draw in the dirt, a bit of dust rising before her soles, said that her decision was final.

          The choice was to the much alarm of her friends ahead of her. They all whipped around practically immediately, at the same time, like some kind of theatre comedy, faces disbelieving. The determined set of the firebender's features told them that her mind was made up. "What—? Luli, are you sure?" Katara's voice came out strained.

          Luli's expression faltered momentarily, brows furrowing in concern, but she did not budge. "I can talk to him. He'll—... I'm sure this is all just one big misunderstanding. If I get to talk to him I might be able to get him to leave us alone." She would not. The rational part of her brain told her that, no, she would not. But that silly little part of her said, this is Zuko, Zuko would never really hurt me. And I'd never hurt him. We just need to talk. Then she sighed, balling up her fists. "And anyway, I'm a firebender too. I can handle him." Her head turned back towards the ocean, where the small Fire Nation ship had long since docked, and overhead, where the sun looked dangerously low. If Aang didn't talk to Avatar Roku now, they might miss their chance. Her face turned back towards the group of three. "Now go! I can handle this. Just trust me." Luli's determined expression turned into a sweet smile, brows drawn in and upwards.

          They looked unsure—Sokka determined, and Katara with her brows twisted, and Aang wide-eyed—but the sun was starting to fall deep in the sky, and with Zuko in pursuit they wouldn't get far. In a way, he was Luli's responsibility. It was Katara who made the decision. She nodded slowly, her eyes flickering up to the setting sun, and said, "Be careful." The 'he's dangerous' hung unspoken in the air, but the dip of Luli's head in response and the clench of her fist told Katara that, yeah, she knew.

          Luli just smiled, "Hurry." She kept that smile even as her three friends turned away from her and hurried up the steps into the temple. The moment they were through the great doors, it dropped. Slipped right off her face. Her fists clenched a little more firmly, and with a strong stance she tilted her head to look back the way they'd came.

          As the sun sunk beyond the sea, Luli waited.

          She stood patiently, as distantly the raging water splashed in droves against the obsidian, fiery shores; as a glow of orange like flames cast across the structure of her face; as the heat that crept up her skin beaded sweat upon her forehead, and felt like home, but not entirely in a good way. She stood, like that, for what seemed like an eternity, but was really just merely the span of a few minutes. Time was funny like that, sometimes.

          When Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation, and her enemy, and her friend, reached the ridge before her awaiting figure, his skin slick with the same sweat and his brow descended heavily in determination, there was a kind of electricity that passed between their met eyes. She was the shield—the rock—keeping him from his goal. The goal that would please his father. Both of their eyes, amber and gold, shared that tell-tale Fire Nation stubbornness. Luli watched the dusk reflect off of Zuko's armour and his ponytail shift in the wind.

          He said nothing as his feet came to a stop before her. All around them the sun was setting, and it bathed them in embers of warm colours, like they were wrapped up beside a bonfire on the sand. Like—... Stop.

          Why could just seeing his face send her down a rabbit hole of memories?

          He stood there, and she stood opposite from him, and it was like Kyoshi Island all over again. So close she could take a step forward and reach out and cradle his scar in her hand—but far, far away; further than they'd ever been apart. Even when she was off traversing across the Earth Kingdom, and he was roaming the seas on a Fire Nation ship, they'd been closer than in this moment.

          "Zuko?" begged Luli, and sounded so very wounded. "Please, we don't have to fight— just listen to me—" She could try. She could try to get through to him, this once more time. If he could just understand.

          He looked at her, really looked at her, and beyond his firm scowl, that was the Zuko she knew. His gold eyes were the only part that gave him away. The only feature of him that didn't look like it hated her. His right fist twitched, clenched. "How could you turn your back on the Fire Nation?" Luli knew what he really meant: how could you turn your back on me?

          "I had to, Zuko." She still sounded so wounded. Like she was a kicked polar bear dog puppy. Her eyes all big and her lips downturned, a statuesque image of hurt. "I didn't want to leave you." She said it with such earnest that her heart could practically be heard ripping in two. That had never been what it had been about. If she would, she would have taken Zuko with her. Run away somewhere. But it just hadn't worked out that way. "It was never about leaving you. I just couldn't stay there anymore. And after what they did, Zuko—"

          His face tilted away from her with the curl of his upper lip. "I know what they did."

          "I'm not just talking about you, Zuko," pressed on Luli, her amber eyes big and wide and hurt. "The Fire Nation has hurt me in so many unforgivable ways. They—... I couldn't have stayed—not with just my dad. With you gone it would have been just him, and— and I decided to act. I turned my back on them because they're a terrible nation filled with terrible people and I wouldn't have survived there another year."

          Another twitch from his dominant fist. Even though his face was half cast into shadow, the scarred side, she could see the way his scowl deepened. Luli knew his loyalty lay with their home, but he'd asked, and Luli was not about to lie about the horrors of the Fire Nation. Instead of addressing that point, the edge of his lip made a funny motion. "Your father was asking about you, you know," Zuko said, bitterly, and Luli's eyes blew wide.

          "What?" Her dad had spoken to Zuko? Her dad hated Zuko.

          "Right before I saw you on Kyoshi Island, I ran into him. Neither of us knew about you. It was the first time I'd seen him since we left—he wasn't very pleased with you. He was being an asshole. I—..." Then he stopped, holding his tongue. Had Zuko defended her? If it was before Kyoshi Island, before Zuko knew which side she was on, had he stepped in to counter whatever cruel remarks her father had made? Luli imagined it: a scarred boy with his hair shaved in shame standing up for a runaway girl who no one had seen in three years. She thought it more than likely. It tugged at some sad string of Luli's heart. Then Zuko exhaled through his nose, sturdied, and turned to look at her fully. Once again, Luli was taken aback by the scar. The way its handprint patterned half his face, so red and angry and painful looking. A small part of her really wanted to cry. His scowl made it look agonizing. "That's exactly why I need to take you back to the Fire Nation."

          A sigh left Luli's lips, her brows drawing together. She too clenched her fists. "I'm not going back there, Zuko. Not at your side, and not as a prisoner." Luli planted her feet steadily and hoped that Aang and the others were deep within the Fire Temple contacting Roku right now. This was her fight.

          Everything just seemed to anger him more. It was a jarring comparison to their childhood, where he'd been so hard to infuriate. "So you'd just throw everything away—your life, your position, your nation—for the Avatar and some Water Tribe peasants?"

          "Don't call them that," Luli's voice was a dangerously low hiss. One side of her top lip was pulled up just enough in anger to reveal her teeth, brows pointing sharply inward.

          Zuko shook his head slowly, furiously. His eyes cut into her. Their expressions just about matched. "You're choosing them over me?" The bite in his words had a nasty kind of inflection; layers of hurt and betrayal and a childhood of abandonment covered with a sharp thorny sheen. His words tumbled out as a snarl. "Over our honour?" Indignance laced his tone. Luli's nostrils flared dangerously. What did he know about honour? When he was throwing all his away.

          A sharp stab of rage was beginning to boil within her. Up and up like toiling flames throughout her blood and chest; unfurling like the great petals of an orange lotus; amanita phalloides. A whisper of fire in the air. "Stop acting like they're worth less than you are!" Luli's voice cracked between them. How could he speak about people he didn't know? Maybe Sokka had been right—maybe the Water Tribe siblings knew the boy she'd grown up with better than her, now. This... child of war standing before her now was a vessel of rage and betrayal, wrapped up in its tortured body. He had no right. "They're a hundred times better than the person you are right now, Zuko." One muscle in his brow flinched. Who was he to talk about Sokka and Katara? He didn't even know them.

          He stood with his chin held high in self-serving defiance, his eyes moulds of burning gold that stared down at her furiously. She, shorter, glared back. Fire glinted between their eyes. "Then don't cower when you're put before my father to face justice," he snarled, and Luli's glare turned deeper and deeper. A warning. A threat. What, did he think he'd be celebrated if he returned with the traitorous sixteen-year-old in tow? Did he believe he'd be ushered back into his household with hugs and open arms? That wasn't how Fire Nation families were. That wasn't how his family was.

          The lines pulling at the features of her glare was turning her face into a scowl. Fuming and bitter. Small bits of her hair were starting to float with the heat radiating from her skin. "Do you really think your dad would see the difference between either of us? You would receive the exact same welcome as I would." The banished prince and the traitor daughter. What a pair.

          There it was, that same side of the coin.

          Only, Luli had learned something about her family. It seemed Zuko had not.

          Her opponent scoffed, did not move his burning eyes from where they held their gaze on her face. Not even the one welded half-shut. "My father would thank me for putting an end to your traitorous antics."

          Luli actually laughed. A high, incredulous sound that echoed around the volcanic rock. "Are you kidding, Zuko? When has Ozai ever thanked you for anything? He'd hurt you even worse than he did before, and only then when it all blows back up in your face and I'm off spirit-knows where facing some spirit-knows what punishment, maybe then you'll realise he doesn't—" Her angry words died in her throat abruptly. Like cut fire lilies. She paused with her parted lips, faltered, blinked as her face softened, and then said slowly, "He's not a good person."

          The way Zuko's eyes cast away from her again meant he knew she was right. He knew! So why wasn't he—? Why didn't he—? Why couldn't he listen to her? Why was he going to keep running back to his dad? His dad who Luli was terrified of most in the world but who she knew that if she ever saw again she would kill. Who she knew she would never actually beat and yet she'd fling herself at with fire and nails anyway because she hated him, because he was an awful person and an awful father, and what right did he have even as Firelord to be hurting her friends like that? His kids? She knew that Zuko knew she was right, so why did he then look back up at her with steady eyes and say forcefully, "I'm taking you home."?

          Oxygen pressing down on the fire of her lungs and scattering embers, the firebending girl scowled even deeper than before. "It's not my home," snarled Luli, "and neither are you."

          "You don't have a choice," was the last thing he said. Zuko's fist lit up with fire, and opposite from him, so did Luli's, and they were just two more kids divided by a terrible war with flames in their hands. It must have been a spectacle. In the orange sunset, a pair of firebenders whose hands were aglow, standing atop the edge of a volcano with an Avatar's temple stretched out behind them. Both not even tall enough to properly sit in a war council meeting chair, as the world around them faded into red and yellow. As magma bubbled from rivers below.

          When he raised his hand this time, Luli was not so unprepared, nor hesitant, nor wrought by confusion nor upset. This time, when the fire rippled out from Zuko's palm and plumed towards her, she was all might and determination and heat: everything that a firebender was supposed to be. And as the orange flames unfurled like petals, the young firebending girl slid to the side. She was down on a knee as the heat harmlessly struck the volcanic rock where she'd previously been standing. Luli felt so many things. Betrayal. Regret. Grief (he was right there in front of her, but it felt like her Zuko was dead). Hurt. Confusion. But mostly anger. It was back then even stronger before, as her fingers braced off of the ground and she sprung herself back up onto her feet into a dash forward, because how could he not understand—?!

         Another burst of fire came her way, courtesy of his outthrust palm: its orange glow reflected off of both their young faces. Luli's expression was wrought with fury as she kicked the flame away with a wave of her own—leg arching high and calculatedly above her torso—springing forward with fire in her hands. She leapt into the air, punch after punch, spilling fire whirling down towards her friend. Former friend. Prince Zuko. He blocked each blow, again and again. That rhythm was back again. How many years had it been since they'd sparred, and they still knew each other so well? As Luli's feet touched the ground, she sprung off again, dodging one of Zuko's blasts.

          "You can't win!" he shouted at her. When had he gotten so arrogant? She launched around him, cornering the boy as fire ruptured out of both of her outstretched palms. Her foot springing off of the rock was in time with him deflecting the fire around him. Luli's mission was to just stop Zuko from getting to the others, but there was a lot more in this fight, now. Particularly as her face twisted at his words while she flung her body in close. Dodging a fiery arm, Luli's fingers lanced across his right cheek, nails drawing blood, at the same time that his foot connected with her ribs. Pain on both ends. Zuko reeled back and Luli was thrown—the force from his kick sent her falling down against the ground. She landed with a thud as small slices of agony shot up the spots where her body had hit the stone.

          When Luli spat back, "What would you know?" she hoped it hurt. Her body was moving again, shoving herself up off of the rock and throwing herself towards his figure. Fire on fire. Flames meeting flames. They'd always be at a standstill, wouldn't they? The same element exploded off of one another. Embers rained down like sakura petals.

          "Stop getting in my way!" Zuko yelled. She was an obstacle between him and the Avatar. It would stay that way. If he would rather have her as a complication than a friend, then so be it. But it just made Luli angry. Anger. Anger. Anger. Fury was the fire in their veins and the heat in their bones. The true despicability of a firebender. A being just made of rage. Born from the fire that had mangled them up inside.

          What escaped her lips was largely a growl, "I won't let you hurt them!", as Luli vaulted off a hunk of stone, and launched herself at him with a cry. "Argh!" She tackled him around the waist, arms encircling his figure, in a brutal manner—right off the edge of the mountain.

          They were airborne for a moment, above any semblance of solid ground, and the air rushed past their faces. Then their intertwined bodies struck the mountainside slope, which was steep enough to be deadly but not a fatal cliff drop. The first hit was painful, Zuko's back struck the stone first and he let out a shout, then the momentum threw Luli forward over him, her arms leaving the circle of his waist, as she hit the slope arms-first. Heels over head. It was too steep for either one of them to slow their fall, to grab onto something. When Luli tried to reach for a rock it gashed open her palm. They just kept tumbling. Falling down, down, the hot, rocky mountainside that seemed to stretch on forever. Every strike against the stone hurt. Luli and Zuko's bodies tumbled dangerously close together, and through their hazes of anger, she gave him a sharp, vicious kick to his hip as they fell, sending him crashing away from her. The slope just seemed to keep going, going—the harsh ground flying up in front of her every few seconds, so her body bashed against it and shattered something new. It sent her hands-over-head-over-hands-over-head, occasionally tilting on her side in an attempt to minimise the blows, but never for long. Beside her, she heard Zuko tumbling too.

          Then, the level earth came rushing up.

          Luli hit the bottom of the mountain with a cry, arm flying out to brace her first before her body flipped over itself—heels flying over her head—, coming to a tumbling stop. Another shout met her ears, Zuko's, as he met the same fate. She felt battered. Every inch of Luli's body, from her skin to her muscles to her bones, felt bruised. Aching and sore. Her arms and face were grazed. It took a long moment for her head to clear, for her face to lift.

          She hissed out a soft, "Ow..." while clutching her very broken two fingers. They were snapped crookedly in two places, and Luli knew she was lucky that it was all she had suffered. Apart from remarkable bruises and probably some damaged ribs, she wasn't dead. Though her head felt like it had been jostled right off her neck. There was an ache that rippled through her entire body. The firebender girl forced herself up into sitting position.

          Opposite from her, Zuko began to rise, obviously aching arms pushing under him and holding him up as he raised his head to stare at her. His lip had been split during his fall, and he must have landed awkwardly on a knee, because it was stretched at an odd angle beneath him. He started to struggle to his feet just as Luli did, both teens badly banged up from the fall and probably in no condition to fight. The girl's braids had mostly come undone from their precise designs during the tumble. Now, long strands of hair hung down past her face. Zuko, on the other hand, had lost an armour piece on his left shoulder.

          He stared at her, breathing heavy, and Luli stared back. How unfair. She didn't get any armour.

          All Luli had to do was stop him from getting to Aang.

          Her entire body was screaming at her to lie down, but Luli told it a firm no and stood on two legs—no matter how much they hurt. She clenched her fingers into fists and raised them before her in a defensive stance. Zuko staggered up on one knee and immediately stood on the offensive. He was bleeding from a cut on his cheek. Luli felt blood on her own mouth.

          Luli was breathing heavily, furious, her heart feeling more and more like fire every moment. Like it was just ablaze with anger. He'd said all those things about Sokka and Katara, about her being a traitor, and then had the audacity to claim that he was taking her home? For her own good? What could he possibly know about homes, or about the right thing? When he was off chasing the Avatar but on the opposite side of the war? What could either of them know? They were both kids. How could one take the other home?

          Maybe Zuko was thinking the same thing. Maybe he was angry at her for the same reason. Whatever it was, Zuko didn't immediately attack. It was then that Luli realised that they'd fallen down near an old Fire Nation temple, older than the rest of the island, with ancient architecture that stretched humbly towards the sky. It must have been from hundreds of years ago. Vaguely, she heard the clamouring of many footsteps up above, from the ledge up the mountainside where they'd been before. More Fire Nation soldiers? But they seemed to not notice the pair of fighting teenagers far below, and Luli's eyes were much too focused on the dangerous boy in front of her to pay them any attention.

          The temple they'd fallen down in front of seemed like it might have been for the previous Fire Avatar before Roku. That guess was proven correct when she noticed the statue of a regal-looking woman right to Zuko's right. It was made out of a combination of wood and stone, proving its age. Her carved hair was pulled into several loops—two tucking in at the back of her skull, the others hanging at the front bound by long ties. A horn-like headpiece adorned her hair. A Fire Nation Avatar—the last before Roku? Luli, even here, even now, was a lover of history, and here a piece was, right in front of her. Had Luli thought for longer, she thought the female Avatar's name might have come to her.

          As it was, the statue stood in the way of the two firebender children. It seemed that Zuko was angry. That he didn't want any distractions. "Give up!" His arms stretched out on either side of him, hands curled outwards, and in a brilliant display of orange firepower, the Fire Nation Prince sent flames pluming from his fingers. Had he not been her enemy, had it not been here, Luli might have been impressed. They unfurled like phoenix wings, dancing a molten-coloured glow in the dim light, scattering burning embers through the air. The fire caught onto the wooden sections of the statue and it began to burn. A monument like that. Just up in flames.

          Monstrous. Flames flickered up the expanse of her regal dress, crawling up towards her pretty face carved lovingly, that had previously survived the beast of time.

          Luli had done something bad once. Smelt the toxic inhale of heavy smoke in her nostrils; seen the glow of flames in her eyes. It had been her father's orders. No fault on her own. But it was not something she'd easily forget. She thought, that till the ending of time she'd hear that crackling of wood, smell that ash and soot in the air. She would take that sight with her to the grave.

          And now, she watched Zuko's flames as they licked up this slice of history, slice of culture. Pointlessly, maliciously destroying something that had no conceivable reason to be destroyed. Rage was livid and vengeful. Bitter. It was a growing thing inside her—living and angry. Maybe she did have a fire inside of her, like all the rest, perhaps one day it would spill out of her and fill her lungs whole, and destroy her like it had so many firebenders before. The old wood splintered and cracked, the ancient Avatar's face catching alight. Her features and hair were lost to the orange beast. A historical monument to someone elsewise lost to time turning blackened, falling into soot. Her pretty face melted.

          That was the effects of war.

          Spirits, he was just like the rest of them.

          "How could you!?" Luli yelled, a roar of a cry, and launched herself forward. She ducked beneath the burst of fire he released at her, as her foot landed sharply in the centre of his chest and sent him careening backwards against the stone. She could not remember their sparring sessions being so angry. Then, they'd used wooden swords, and padding and mattresses against the floor, so even a bad fall couldn't break bones. Now, Zuko's spine struck the ground, and she saw pain and rage press across his features, scrunched up in that fire—and Luli didn't stop.

          He rolled as she moved forward and his legs kicked out the sides of her ankles. It forced her to hit the ground hard. Luckily, she struck on her right side, but all of a sudden she wasn't so lucky anymore because Zuko was launching himself at her with fire in his hand. Luli, in turn, raised her left hand. The flames exploded between them. Heat burst out, fires splashing outwards through the air. A wall between them. Then Zuko came flying through the dissipating fire and was landing on Luli where she was pushing herself into sitting position. Fists struck into her shoulders as his legs came down in an attempt to hold her down.

          Her knees thrust up and caught him in the ribs, flipping both of their bodies back over her head so she could pin him. As she did so, his fingers caught in her hair. Yanked in an unhonourable move. She elbowed him across the face in retaliation. Then her roll was landing, his back was striking the stone, as Luli flipped on top of him. Her kneecaps were becoming bruising friends with his torso—their sharp boniness jabbed painfully down into his skin once again. Her victory didn't last long: Luli reeled back as fire burst from his fingers and then copped a knuckle to the face. Ouch. His leg came up, tangled the two together as he threw her backwards.

          Luli's hair was in disarray—strands come loose, flying around her face—and Zuko didn't look much better, his own shaved ponytail a tangled mess. He'd split her lip. They'd fallen from the honour of a fair firebending fight to scrambling angrily across the ground for any kind of blow.

          Despite Luli's struggles, his knee came down hard against the frail expanse of her ribs, and his other foot pinned her left shoulder, fist raised back in fiery warning as her spine stayed held against the rocky island ground. He'd successfully gotten the upper hand. With blood on her mouth and a scowl twisting her features, Luli glowered at up him. Made an attempt to shift, but his half-kneeling figure was too heavy for her. He glowered right back. So, what? Was this going to be their standstill now? Zuko—at least, Luli thought—, wasn't going to kill her. Were the two just going to wait here until someone else came for them? The moment he got off her to find the Avatar she'd grab hold of him again. Luli's upper lip curled.

           A shudder of the earth erupted around them. An earthquake of massive magnitude. Or, no—. Behind Zuko, high up the top of the volcano where they'd fallen down, lava exploded into the air. Different shades of orange and red torrenting upwards and out like confetti. Face softening in genuine awe, Luli gasped as her eyes reflecting the fiery glow of spouting magma. "Just like my dream." A wave of liquid fire. It reflected against the stretch of sky.

          Zuko glanced up, and that was Luli's opportunity to strike. She punched her knuckles into his throat—the blow sent him reeling back up, coughing, and she sprung to her feet to shove him away from her. It forced him to stumble backwards. Instantly, Luli was back in an offense position, body planted firmly and hands posed palms-out in front of her ready to bend. Two firebenders caught on the other sides of a war.

          Magma poured down the island-side. It looked like blood and fire. Sprayed up into the air at the top of the volcano in great bubbles. Zuko attacked first. He came at her with one fist punching out, fire blooming from beyond his battered knuckles, and when Luli sprung up towards his left side he sent a kick reeling towards her. She danced around it with practiced ease, latching her foot around his ankle and flicking it to the side as her own fiery fist soared towards his skull.

          Above their battling figures, bodies silhouetted by the vanishing sun, the great temple of Avatar Roku began to tilt on its side, collapsing into toiling lava. The rest of it all began to fall away. Pieces of history just lost to flames. Luli ducked as a burst of Zuko's flames soared past her face. The heat grazed her cheek, embers kissing just the slightest. Her broken fingers were agonizing, she knew his leg was killing him, but they fought anyway. Luli wasn't quite sure why they were fighting at this point.

          Debris rained down from the shuddering volcano, coming tumbling, crashing, down the mountainside the two firebenders had fallen from. Great boulders narrowly missed the battling children, as Luli twisted Zuko's hand around and sent his bending reeling elsewhere. When his burning fingers caught the skin of her kicking ankle, searing painfully, she furiously struck back, flames deeply singing the shoulder of his uniform. She wedged her leg between them and landed a sharp, powerful kick against his abdomen that sent him falling back, and sent Luli reeling back from the force just the same.

          His spine struck the mountainside where they'd previously fallen down, legs scrambling to find stability. Simultaneously, the rocky debris from the volcano's eruption bounced down around them. A rock shattered dangerously close to where Luli was recovering, forcing her to raise her hands in front of her face to avoid any stony shrapnel. Zuko wasn't so lucky. Whether it was some miracle, or some mischievous spirit playing a joke on Luli, the world had a cruel way of taunting her. Liked to put an olive branch out between her just to yank it away and replace it with a handful of thorns. A boulder broke apart near where Zuko had fallen, and struck him straight-on. Luli was left to watch with big eyes and parted lips as he was thrown backwards, the boulder crunching down with a sickening sound on his left leg.

          The cry that left Zuko's mouth was one that she was not expecting, considering she'd just been fighting with him for the past ten to twenty minutes, but it was even more surprising that it made her entire body flinch. Something about that shout elicited a deep reflex inside her that made her want to run to his side and check over his injuries. It wasn't nearly at the level of total agony as in the Agni Kai chamber, but it was enough to flick on that horrified part of her brain. Other bits of debris from the eruption fell harmlessly around them: small scatters of stone and temple. The boulder had him pinned. It was trapping his lower leg completely, as the earth rumbled around them. No matter how much he pulled back, or his hands shoved at the rock, neither he nor the debris were getting free. She couldn't tell if it was primarily embarrassment or pain that were stark on his facial features.

           Luli watched, for a few passing moments, unsure of what to do. It was obvious the boulder was causing him a lot of pain. Her amber eyes were incredibly conflicted as they focused on her childhood friend grunting with hurt as he tried to get himself out from under the rock's impossible weight.

          For a second, the idea of just leaving him crossed her mind. Luli wished she could be that detached.

          I hate him, Luli thought sternly. Do you really? the other side of her brain helpfully surprised. It didn't matter, because Luli's legs were moving anyway, and then she was crouching beside the pinned boy and grasping the boulder with her hands. "Here." Luli kept her two broken fingers held back. They hurt anyway. She wasn't nearly as muscular as Zuko was, but her biceps still popped as the girl braced under the rock and forced it upwards with all her strength. A small sound of hurt escaped Zuko's mouth as the heavy chunk of stone loosened its pressure on his leg. Even despite everything, that sent a tiny thorn of pain into her chest. "Got it," she promised him. What should she refer to him as? Her friend? Her enemy? Somewhere between? Zuko's hands joined by hers, and with the two of them working together, they succeeded in getting the boulder high enough for Zuko to squeeze out.

          An exhale left Luli's mouth as he kicked out of the spot where he'd been pinned, a surprising amount of relief rolling over her tired body. The olive branch, right? Their emotions before had gotten the best of them. Luli felt ashamed about it now. But they'd been given the chance to cool off, the two would be given a chance to talk. Level-headedly this time.

          The moment Zuko got free, his arm drew back and he launched a handful of flames her way.

          The action, admittedly, caught the girl off guard. Her amber eyes went big, reflecting the orange light, and a surprised, strangled shout left her mouth as her arms immediately raised to deflect the plumes. Luli stumbled backwards, out of range of his fire. Spat out an indignant, "What the fuck, Zuko!?"

          There wasn't much of a fight in either of them now—they'd been beaten half to hell: their faces banged up, their bodies bruised from the fall, their skin decorated in tiny lances of cuts and grazes. Zuko's stance held a painfully severe limp. That anger on both of their faces was still unmatched. Betrayal. Fury. On both ends. There wasn't a word spoken from either tired firebender as he swung at her again. With an angry exhale, hot breath releasing from her nose, Luli kicked up her leg and directed the fire elsewhere, landing in a vicious spin that poured heat from her hands towards him. He ended up grasping her wrist, and she grasped his collar, locked together in that eternal fight. Neither of them could break it. They were a total match. Luli landed a kick at his injured ankle, which had him swear aloud and deliver a sharp-knuckled blow to her already bruised ribs. This was never going to end. Luli knew that as she slid out of the way of some of Zuko's fire and grasped his wrist in an attempt to pin his arm behind his back.

           The roar of a sky bison drew Luli out of her concentration, snapped both her and Zuko's gazes to the side where Appa was soaring down close. On his back, her amber eyes caught her friends. Aang at the titanic animal's head, Sokka and Katara peering down from her at the side. She felt their sight on her battered figure, as magma began its slow crawl down towards them—she, who had succeeded in her job of keeping Zuko at bay.

          "Luli, we have to go!" Sokka's voice rung out, punctured only by the sound of molten lava swallowing the last remains of Roku's temple. Finding a sudden strength in her friend's words and the relief of, this is over, as well as the determination of, I need to protect them, Luli felt a burst of vigour. No more had the words left Sokka's mouth before Luli had forced her shoulder beneath the still surprised Zuko's arm, grabbed his wrist and side—her broken fingers flaring with pain—and flipped him away with all her strength. Zuko was a great deal larger than she was—in height, weight and muscularity—but with enough leverage she knew just how to manipulate their masses, sending him crashing into the stone ground. Then, she ran towards her friends.

          One of her legs hurt badly, and she clutched her broken fingers in her left hand. But her feet struck the ground at a sprint and then she was by the sky bison's side, with both Katara and Sokka reaching down from the saddle with their arms outstretched. Luli took a jump. Before she could slip, Sokka grabbed hold of her wrist and dragged her up, while his sister grasped at her shoulder. Together, the pair of siblings pulled her into the saddle. With her split lip, bruising face, exhausted demeanour, and aching limbs—most of it from the fall, if she was being honest—, Luli was absolutely a sight for sore eyes. It seemed to take the two back. Especially the red stain of blood on her chin. "Wow," said Sokka slowly, "he got you good."

          "Yip yip!" sounded Aang, rapping on Appa's reins, and the large animal immediately took off into the air with one great beat of his tail. Behind them, the remainders of Avatar Roku's temple collapsed into the volcano, bleeding lava. She looked down at the small figure of Zuko, left behind once again, staring up after her as she peered over the back of the sky bison and left him there on his tiny rock surrounded by running magma.

          Luli wiped a line of blood from her lip. "I got him better." It was something that should have pleased her... but it didn't. There was no joy in fighting Zuko, there never would be. Because Luli still saw his thirteen-year-old self somewhere in him—staring at her whenever she looked too hard. And she knew that she'd have to cut that part of him out of her mind, because that wasn't who he was anymore, even if Zuko still had his face, but the idea of casting that child she'd loved so much away hurt too much to bear.

          She had left the Fire Nation because of him. To protect him.

          How was it fair that he was still the one she had to fight, in the end?

          As Luli was lamenting her losses, expression absolutely mournful, Katara's voice announced softly in horror, "Your fingers."

          Luli glanced down at her right hand for the first time, and winced at the sight. They were pretty unpleasant to look at. Her index and middle finger were the worst: she'd fallen on them first when she'd finished her tumble, and both were snapped pretty garishly to the side. Her ring finger hadn't been the worst impacted, but it was definitely broken too. The more she stared at them, the more it began to hurt. She winced, tried to straighten them out, and failed. "Ouch."

          It was Sokka who leaned in helpfully. "Here, let me." Luli sat still as Sokka carefully took her hand—fingers against the back and thumb pressed into her palm—and started to wind the bandage around her middle, index and ring finger, which were an unsightly twisted mess. "I used to break my fingers all the time falling on ice back home. They should be alright." Luli nodded, hissing as the bandage wound round. At least they were on her right hand. She couldn't imagine not being able to firebend with her left.

          "Thanks," sighed Luli gratefully. She'd always been remarkably hopeless at healing and bandaging and anything of the sort. Sokka finished off the bandage with a neat, funny little bow at the tops of her knuckles. She snorted, and when his hand let go of her own, she tucked her fingers safely into her lap. At her side, her pack with all of her belongings sat snug against her thigh. Warm and safe.

          She'd succumbed to it again. That anger. That tendency for violence and rage that she'd gotten from the one person she refused to be like. Not good enough. Luli leant back in the saddle with a sigh and let her eyes close, as Katara casually slung her leg over one of the firebender's own, and Momo scrambled over to fall asleep in the warm girl's lap.

༉*ೃ༄

"and you can aim for my heart, go for blood / but you would still miss me in your bones"

my tears ricochet by taylor swift is actually zuko and luli's song

watched the atla live action movie recently with a bunch of alcohol and had to cleanse myself with this chapter

manifesting that random air nomad with a knife

luli making the decision to divide her and zuko over sokka and katara because her new friends are more significant to her is actually so important to me

the wooden statue zuko burned was a statue of avatar lua bc i love her loads and i want to write a fic about her

sorry that it's been so long since i last updated! more of that situation with the plagiariser unfolded (more plagiarism and new accounts) and i was really demotivated to write. then i started watching my hero academia and writing a fic for it, which helped bring my motivation back! the mha fic is up on my profile <3 it's called "love many things" !

i hope you enjoyed the chapert! zuli's tensions rising is the best ♡ (⇀ 3 ↼)

word count: 9,125

01.03.2021.