༉˚*ೃ ¹ᵒ. 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐑𝐎𝐋!

𝐈𝐅 𝐋𝐔𝐋𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 honest, being around the Water Tribe siblings in the current... climate, was a bit like playing hide and explode. Sokka wasn't so bad, definitely not after King Bumi. They'd bonded a little somewhere between Luli pulling him around by the ear, being encased in growing crystal, and him somewhat accepting that she couldn't help being a firebender. They'd even talked, a bit, on Appa's saddle as he was flying through the air. She'd asked him about the Southern Water Tribe, and he'd prodded about the strategies of how they might get through the Fire Nation Royal Palace. She'd even learned that the national delicacy of the Southern Water Tribe was stewed sea prunes.

          Katara, however, was a whole different matter. Luli didn't quite think the Water Tribe girl hated her, but she was definitely mad. Or upset. It was a little hard to tell. The aura between them wasn't nearly as scathingly hostile as it had been before Omashu, but that fury of Katara was still simmering there. It really was like hide and explode. One wrong move and it would all come crumbling down. So, she chatted idly with Aang as Sokka was off gathering food. She'd lit a small fire to keep them warm, and Katara had her back turned on them.

          "What's the Fire Nation like now?" he asked excitedly, young face alight. Bad, thought Luli. "I used to visit my friend Kuzon there before the war. Do you still use 'hotman' as a greeting?"

          Luli winced. "Uh..." She didn't know if she had it in herself to break this kid's heart and tell him that the greeting 'hotman' had definitely been left behind a hundred years ago and was probably the equivalent of calling someone 'good chap'. "I mean, like, some old people." Katara was hunched away from them, back pointedly facing their direction, but Luli knew she rolled her eyes by the exaggerated movement of her shoulders. Pouting, Aang's expression fell. "The Fire Nation isn't really a place for fun greetings, now."

          "Do you still use 'flameo'?" His eyes were wide.

          Luli snorted, but she didn't want to shatter his dreams. "Sure, you can use flameo." It wouldn't hurt Aang thinking out-of-date slang was still around. Maybe it'd bring him some comfort.

          "Flameo, Hotman!" exclaimed Aang, pulling his hand up to his forehead in a kind of terrible fake salute, and Luli cracked up. As she laughed, some of the flames in the campfire seared up into embers, her face warm. "Wow. And what do you know about the Firelord?"

          Luli's throat went dry. She'd prepared for this for years and years, but the idea of coming face-to-face with the man who had utterly terrified her as a young girl still froze her up sometimes. Especially how close to home she'd experienced it all. "I—"

          Sokka saved her by marching back up the dirt path towards them. There was a cloth bag held in his hands. Aang hopped down from his perch on the tree, landing beside Luli's crouched form, as Sokka came to kneel by them "Great, you're back! What's for dinner?" the airbender asked—ever full of energy. Luli peered curiously closer.

          "We've got a few options," laid out the Water Tribe boy. "First, round nuts, and some kind of oval-shaped nuts." Sokka pulled out each item of food as he did so, inspecting them with narrowed eyes. Even Katara was looking over at them. "And some rock-shaped nuts that... might just be rocks." He pinched the 'nut' between his fingers—that most definitely did look just like a rock—and threw it over his head behind him. It clattered harmlessly off stone and onto the dirt. There was a grin on his face as each kid reached for a nut of their own. "Dig in."

          Luli held one up to her face, lip pouted as she tried to figure out what type of nut it might be, and if it'd break her teeth. Katara seemed to be on the same wavelength. She shared a glance with Aang and then asked her brother, "Seriously, what else you got?"

          Sokka stuck his head into the pack—like something else would magically turn up. "That's it."

          Testing the nut between her teeth, fingers still gripping it, Luli grimaced. "Really? You only found these?" She wasn't going to risk it, and the tough outer shell wasn't cracking. With an index finger, she flicked the nut off into the bushes. "Look, I can go try to find us some stuff if you want. If I follow that creek," she pointed a slender finger towards the small trail of water running down from them, "I'm sure it'll open up into a river. And Katara, if you help, we can get some fish together."

          "I don't eat meat," pointed out Aang, his grey eyes wide.

          "Oh, right. Well, there's bound to be some fruit trees down by a river, so I'm sure we can find you something." Luli's stomach growled, and so did Sokka's. The Water Tribe boy gripped his abdomen with a pout. "What do you say?" She turned towards Katara, who didn't exactly looked pleased with the idea, but didn't seem to reject it either. "Between your bending and mine, I'm sure we can get a lot of fish."

          Katara opened her mouth to respond just as a loud cracking boom echoed throughout the trees. All six of them in the clearing immediately raised their heads in alert—Luli, Sokka, Katara, Aang, Momo, even Appa. The Water Tribe girl's hands rose to her chest, and Sokka let out a squeaky, "What was that?"

          They all stayed very still. Then Luli grabbed a flask of water and dumped it over the small campfire she'd had going, totally dousing the flames with a hiss. Another gigantic crash. It made Luli and Katara flinch, and Luli was the first to get to her feet. Her fists were clenched tight. Katara and Aang hopped up too as Aang shouted, "It's coming from over there!", pointing down the creek. A collective, they took off towards the sound, Katara in the lead and Aang and Luli close behind.

          Luli was just hopping nimbly down the rocks when Sokka shouted, "Shouldn't we run away from the huge booms, not towards them?!", throwing out his arms in exasperation. Too late. Still, Luli heard Sokka follow in suit as they sploshed through the shallow, narrow stream. Her feet skidded to a stop behind Aang and Katara, where they were peeking out behind a log. Before the Water Tribe boy could do something to expose them, Luli dragged him down to her height. He looked less than pleased.

          Just beyond the log, in the dry riverbed, was a boy dressed in green. Out in front of him hovered a large boulder. His legs were planted in a traditional bending stance—if a little weak—and his arms were held out in front of him as he took a leap and launched the boulder into the riverbed with a crash. So, they'd discovered the source of the noise then. His hair was long and brown, and he was relatively tall, but there was no way that he could be older than Luli. What on Earth was a random earthbending boy doing out here all alone?

          "An earthbender," murmured Katara in awe. Her blue eyes were wide.

          From where Aang was squashed up against Luli's shoulder, he grinned and said, "Let's go meet him."

          "He looks dangerous," Sokka cautioned, somehow the most reasonable of the group, "so we better approach cautiously."

          Luli nodded in stern agreement, petting Momo's head where he was perched on Aang's arm. She half didn't realise she was doing it. "We need to be careful. Who knows if—" She was broken off by Katara hopping over the log out into the open. Luli just blinked, eyes wide in disbelief. "Or... okay."

          One of Luli's eyebrows were raised as Katara cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted excitedly, "Hello there! I'm Katara. What's your name?" Well, there it is. Aang and Sokka's eyes widened in surprise, Luli just frowned deep. The boy, suddenly alert, looked back with an expression equalling fright. The boulder he'd been bending fell to the ground. Then, he turned on his heels and fled down the riverbed. Arms raised, he dragged the rocks down behind him—they tumbled down with a ruckus of a crash—, barring the path and preventing the group from following. Katara's shoulders slumped, as Luli vaulted over the log and moved over to the girl. Aang and Sokka did the same.

          "Nice to meet you!" called Aang loudly after the boy.

          Luli frowned, "I don't think he was interested." It had been incredibly lucky that he hadn't just decided to flatten Katara with the boulder.

          Disheartened, Katara's shoulders shrugged. "I just wanted to say hi," she sighed, her face fallen. There was no sign of the brunet boy—long gone down the dry creek bed.

          Luli, with her arms hugged tight over her chest, stared at the collapsed boulders where the earthbender had disappeared. "A lot of villages around the Southern Earth Kingdom have been claimed and overtaken by the Fire Nation. In most of them, they outlaw earthbending. Maybe he thinks you'll turn him in." Her eyes glanced over at the rest of the group, a gentle amber.

          Sokka and Katara frowned. "So you're saying he's running back to a village?" perked up Aang, his brows raising hopefully, looking like he was just raring to take off after the boy this instant.

          "Did you not just hear the part where it might be crawling with Fire Nation soldiers?!" exclaimed Sokka dramatically as he wiggled his fingers. "Which is exactly the opposite of who we want to be around?!" He threw his arms up in the air to try to make a point.

          Luli nodded along with him. "They're not the kind of people you want to mess with. It's too much of a risk." She'd had a few run-ins with villages like that over the last few years, and they weren't easy to liberate. Take out one set of soldiers holding the town, and more would soon replace them—because they weren't simply thug Fire Nation soldiers, but placements in Firelord Ozai's plan to colonise the Earth Kingdom. Keeping hold of the village's freedom once they got it was the hardest part. It almost always slipped away.

          Seemingly sparking something in Katara—Luli knew the girl still didn't like or trust her, but really?—the waterbender turned on her heel and glared at Luli, crossing her arms sharply and aggressively. "And what would you know?"

          The question blindsighted Luli, and she spluttered, "I— I lived throughout the Earth Kingdom for the past three years! What wouldn't I know?"

          "Hey, hey, stop!" reasoned Aang, getting between the two glaring girls. Katara and Luli both looked like they had half the mind to just swipe him out of the way. "Let's just calm down, and check out where that boy went! I bet his village has a market." He grinned widely at them, eyes closing gleefully—clearly trying to win the two of them over.

          "Which means no nuts for dinner!" declared Katara, more matter-of-factly than anything. Her gaze glared sharply at Luli from the corner of her eyes, with both hands planted firmly on her hips. Before either older kid could get a word in sideways, Aang and Katara were sprinting away from them in the direction of the earthbending boy. They hopped over the collapsed blockade of boulders and left the other two members of this in-the-works Team Avatar behind.

          Luli stared after them. She and Sokka exchanged a glance, one of those this-is-going-to-end-so-badly glances, with slightly widened eyes and parted lips—warm amber meeting icy blue—before they turned back to where the younger half of their little gang had disappeared. Already vanishing into a plume of dust. "We better go after them," murmured Luli, pushing her long green sleeves up to her elbows. "Before they get themselves into trouble." Luli was still figuring out the dynamics of this group, but the one thing that she could be sure about was that trouble found them a lot. Or they sought it out. One of the two.

          As she started off, scrambling over the rocky debris that the earthbender had left behind—did Aang and Katara miss that he obviously wanted them to stay away?—Sokka followed after her. He said, "You're thinking what I'm thinking, right?", as they chased after Katara and Aang's figures ahead.

          "That this is either going to end up with us being encased in crystal again, or being crushed by earthbenders?" Luli gulped. She still felt bruised from where the crystal had tightened around her body. "Yep!" The two benders ahead of them veered off to the left, where a dirt path stretched towards a small town, and Luli drew up the collar of her uniform. If they became prisoners again Luli was going to be so over it.

          The village was rather dignified, if small. Enclosed in a rectangular wall, each building with its ochre walls lined with green and gold. Luli could spot what seemed like mining tunnels in a distant mountain, which spelled bad news. Mining towns generally didn't fare well against the Firelord's expansion efforts. By the time they reached the town's entrance, Aang and Katara were already inside.

          "Stupid Aang, stupid Katara," Sokka was grumbling under his breath, an insistent mutter. His arms were tightly crossed over his chest as he absentmindedly followed Luli—eyes trained in a glare towards the floor. "I worked hard to get those nuts." Abruptly, Luli stopped. Her feet skidded to a halt on the dusty road. Sokka bumped right into her, bopping his nose on the back of her head. "Ow!" When he looked up and rubbed his nose to see what had caused the sudden change in mood, her body was stiff.

          Muscles wound tight, jaw clenched, Luli stared at the figures in red armour harassing a stall-keeper just around the bend. As the owner of the small shop frightfully handed over his box of coins from the store's earnings, Luli's mouth pulled into a deeper frown, brows pinching. She grabbed hold of Sokka's arm and yanked him so they were side by side. "Those are Fire Nation soldiers," she hissed to him. Her grip on his arm was tight—way too tight—, clinging on with every bit she had, urgency seeping into her fingers. He followed her gaze rather not discreetly, to the men chuckling over the shopkeeper's dismay. They were definitely high-ranking: their armour—.

          "Come on," Sokka interrupted her line of thought, dragging her along by the way she was already gripping his arm. "We have to warn Katara and Aang."

          She stumbled after him, eyes only begrudgingly turning away from the group of three soldiers when they'd safely passed them. The two kids were just up ahead—after Aang had haggled some storeowner for a dǒulì which covered his arrow tattoos—, entering a small store to their left. They seemed to be excited about something. Probably bad news. Sokka leading with Luli in tow, she gritted out a soft, "Knew we shouldn't have come here." Weren't they supposed to be headed straight to the North Pole? "If we get captured again..."

          "It happens a lot," sighed the Water Tribe boy helpfully, rubbing the back of his head. They caught up to the young waterbender and Avatar just as they were pushing inside the store. "Man," groaned Sokka, and Luli dragged them into the shop after the other two. The only inhabitants were the earthbender kid they'd seen earlier and an older woman who Luli could only assume was his mother. Both looked shocked at the four kids' entrance, eyes wide. Luli shut the wooden door behind them.

          "You're that kid!" Katara grinned, pointing at the earthbender. As expected, he looked not too pleased to see them. His green eyes were wide, and his mouth had fallen over. "Why did you run away before?" Katara's brows were furrowed in light confusion—his mother seemed to share the same emotion.

          The earthbender boy shrugged. "Uh... You must have me confused with some other kid."

          "Nope," said Sokka poignantly, "It was definitely you."

          While Luli's lips stayed sealed, Aang eagerly nodded. "Yeah, we saw you earthbending!"

          Both the earthbender and his mother gasped. Letting out a sharp sound, Luli slapped a hand over Aang's mouth—almost instinctively. Her voice was sharp when she hissed, "Aang! Don't say stuff like that!" He was much too naive.

          Confused, Aang pushed her arm away by the wrist. "Why not?" His brows were furrowed in genuine lack of understanding, and his lips were pulled into a pout. Before Luli could even say another word, the boy's mother was whizzing past her and slamming closed the window.

          "I told you," she whispered through gritted teeth, eyes wide. "Some towns forbid it. There are Fire Nation soldiers here. Sokka and I saw them by the market."

          The older woman was peering paranoidly out of the window when she said to her son, "They saw you doing what?" Her eyes were wide when she turned around. At first Luli thought it was anger on her face. Then she saw the fear.

          "They're crazy, Mom!" reasoned the boy. His hands were outstretched towards them, and Luli rubbed her arm. "I mean, look at how they're dressed!" Self-consciously, Luli looked down at her outfit. She squeezed at her braids with her hands as the others inspected their own clothing. Did she really look that bad?

          It appeared that the woman wasn't letting her son out of the clear yet. "You know how dangerous that is. You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!" Luli could only imagine. She knew how the Fire Nation punished their own—their own children, even—, she could not begin to think of what cruel soldiers would do for entertainment if they caught someone breaking their laws. She'd seen only what it had left behind, in the form of adults and children who shook whenever someone came to close, or whose flesh was weathered and red with the remnants of burns hot enough to melt their skin from their bones.

          Breaking Luli from her thoughts, and startling everyone else in the room, a harsh pounding came from the door just behind Luli and Sokka's backs. "Open up!" sounded a gruff man. If Luli had been a polar bear dog, she knew all her hackles would be raised. Now, she just jolted onto her toes and felt the hair at the back of her neck stand on end. They'd been caught.

          The earthbender boy and his mother looked like they were ready to dive under a table. Peering through the slats in the window, Sokka hissed to everyone, "Fire Nation! Act natural." There was a scramble as everyone ran to assemble a somewhat casual position. Aang leant awkwardly on the lid of barrel, a grin lining his face; Katara grabbed a bowl of red berries and began to shove them in her mouth. Luli scurried towards a barrel full of clean water, dragging Sokka with her and trying to act as if they'd been having a conversation.

          She shoved a ladle in his hands and he'd just lifted it to his mouth to take a drink when Haru's mother opened up the door. In the entrance stood a tall man, uniform red and shining, and wearing a helmet that showed his face. Luli's heart gave a jolt. She noted the embellishments on his helmet and the quality of his armour. Definitely a commander. Then she glanced back at Sokka—gave him a wide-eyed look, just for half a second—before turning to stare back down at the water. She saw her own face staring back. Those amber eyes, her angular face and pale skin, her dark hair. Did she really look like the Fire Nation? Did people look at her and feel fear too?

          The commander stepped into the house as the older woman said, "What do you want? I've already paid you twice this week."

          "The tax just doubled." Luli just swallowed and watched the ripples in her reflection staring back. "We wouldn't want an accident, would we?" Shimmers of orange light cast across the water and made Luli immediately raise her head. Her eyes snapped towards where the commander was coiling bright flames between his two hands. The woman shrunk back with a gasp. Luli's blood boiled. As the fire grew larger, even Aang and Katara took a step or two away. The commander looked smugly between them, spoke in a knowing voice dripping with threat, "Fire is sometimes so hard to control."

          Anger filled Luli, hot and swelling. She exhaled sharply from her nose—was aware that she was pulling that almost-snarling expression where her brows stitched sharply together in a furious glare, where her nostrils flared and one side of her upper lip pulled into a sneer. There was an attempt to calm herself down, to lose the expression—she breathed evenly—but her fingers just clenched. How badly she would like to teach these Fire Nation soldiers a lesson. The urge gnawed at her so deeply that she was sure if she raged about it much longer, she'd set the wood beneath her feet alight. Instead, she just gripped the edge of the barrel, noting that the water by her fingertips was starting to steam, and did her best to try to quell the fire inside her. The last thing Luli needed was putting these innocent people in danger.

          She watched as the woman fetched a box of coins from the counter, placed it tenderly down and handed the soldier a bunch of copper and silvers, looking positively frightened. And Luli despised how frightened everyone always looked around the Fire Nation. Because they knew if they slipped up, they would pay the price. Luli could not count the amount of Earth Kingdom civilians she had seen bearing the scars of burns: from their hands, to their legs, their ribcages and their faces—and it made her so unbearably furious. How many people would the Fire Nation have to scar?

          The commander inspected the money, turned with an expression smug. Like he held the power of the Firelord himself. As he began to walk towards the door, the man stated, "You can keep the copper ones," like they were worth nothing to a high-ranking officer like him, and dropped them carelessly on the ground. They scattered across the floor. Luli's entire face scrunched. She turned as he passed her. Barely had the girl realised she was taking a few steps after him, hands—that were starting to make the air around them waver—balled into fists.

          Sokka, who was standing beside her watchfully, grabbed the corner of her green sleeve sneakily and pulled her back into line with him, her feet stopping short. He said nothing, and neither did she, but he knew by the heat radiating off her skin just how angry she was.

          The soldiers slammed the shop door behind them. For a moment, Luli remained glaring at the doorway, before she lifted her hands up and rubbed them over her face, trying to collect herself once more. She couldn't help anyone if she accidentally burned the building down. "Nice guy," commented Sokka gratingly, turning towards the earthbender and his mother. "How long has the Fire Nation been here?"

          Long enough, knew Luli. It didn't take a lot for the Fire Nation to beat the hope and rebellion out of villages like these—they were renowned for their cruelty, and Luli would know it better than most. "Five years," replied the woman, sounding tired. "Firelord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships."

          "They're thugs," spoke up her son. "They steal from us. And everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it." Luli clenched her fists. She wished she could do more.

          His mother seemed terrified by his response, more than angered. "Quiet, Haru! Don't talk like that."

          "But Haru's an earthbender," reasoned Katara naively, hands gestured out in confusion. "He can help."

          Haru's mother's expression hardened—Luli just felt sad. Sad because five years ago she'd still been in the Fire Nation enjoying the luxury and safety. Five years ago she'd been sneaking around the palace gardens and snacking on stolen desserts from the kitchens while across the ocean a town was being torn apart by Fire Nation troops and had never recovered. "Katara," murmured Luli, because she knew the girl just didn't understand.

          "Earthbending is forbidden. It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities." The mother side-eyed her son, looking stern.

          Katara frowned. "How can you say that? Haru has a gift." She moved from Luli's side, towards the earthbending boy. "Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend. It's a part of who we are."

          "And me?" Luli's voice interrupted. Her fire-coloured eyes were soft, sad at the edges. Her mouth was turned down. "Would you say the same about me, Katara?"

          "You don't understand," scoffed Haru's mother to Katara, shaking her head at the girl—who was watching Luli intently with an odd expression.

          It was unusual to see Katara, who had been so mad with Luli for multiple consistent days, be so hopeful. "I understand that Haru can help you fight back. What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"

          Luli had a long list. A long, long, long list. Different thoughts caught at the edges of her mind, experience, even as she tried to push them away. Melting half of a screaming child's face. The rapping of a child's back with a hot rod when they didn't sit straight, or showed too much emotion. Fire lashes on the hands. Some dull punches to keep daughters in line. Shredding hope into little ribbons. Taking a mother away. Luli bit her tongue. What had she told herself about leaving the memories behind?

          Haru's mother spoke for her, back straightening as she practically shouted at Katara, "They could take Haru away!" Her hands lifted towards her heart. There it was, that pain. There was always something worse the Fire Nation could do. Always. Even when you thought it was over. The woman looked down, closing her eyes and tilting her face away from the children. "Like they took his father."

          As Haru looked away too, Katara's face dropped. Luli, fingers clasped anxiously together, murmured an, "I'm sorry." But there was nothing that could ever be done to dull that pain of loss.

༉*ೃ༄

"𝐌𝐘 𝐌𝐎𝐌 𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐃 you can sleep here tonight. But you should leave in the morning." Haru had led them to a large barn at the edge of the mines, with great double doors and piles of hay. Appa had already made himself at home—Momo on his back—munching at different things scattered around.

          "Thanks!" announced Aang, gesturing to the titanic, six-legged beast. "I'll make sure Appa doesn't eat all your hay." The Avatar rushed off to pull the food out of Appa's mouth. Luli turned to look at Katara—wanting to say something, anything—but the girl had already turned and gone out after Haru. Shoulders slumping, Luli rubbed a hand over her face and sighed. She flopped down in a pile of hay, across from where Sokka had already made himself at home.

          "Your sister hates me," commented Luli. The cushion of hay behind her head was scratchy, but also, somehow, comforting. In her travels across the Earth Kingdom, she'd spent enough time stashed in barns to get used to the feeling. She buried her face in her sleeves. "I get why, but I just wish there was something I could do about it. I wish I could somehow make her believe me. That I'm not going to hurt you guys."

          Sokka, who was picking something out from between his teeth, looked pointedly at her. "I believe you."

          Her expression softened. She took her face out of her arms and looked at him—gentleness in her expression. In this sunset light, her eyes were a sparkling shade that reflected the different warm colours in the sky. "Why do you?" It was curiosity that made her ask, because when she'd been tied up on the back of the sky bison, part of her thought she'd never get them to trust her.

          The Water Tribe boy seemed less sentimental about it than her. "Eh, if you wanted to hurt us, you'd have turned us over to those Fire Nation jerks already." He sighed, settling back on his own pile of hay. His arms crossed behind his head. "Besides, you're not so bad."

          "Not so bad, huh?" She flicked a bit of hay at him. "Even though I'm not the one with the lame jokes and funny ponytail?" It was an easy jest.

          "First off," Sokka held up a finger, "my jokes are extremely funny. Secondly, you have fire, and fire is very much lame. The stupidest element." She snorted. "Thirdly," he pointed sharply towards his third finger, before tilting his fingers towards his hair. "It's a warrior's wolf tail. It's a symbol of pride for men in our tribe."

          "Ah," Luli grinned. "A wolf tail." Still, her expression softened up, and she leant her chin on her vertically-propped arms. "Symbol of pride, that's cool. It suits you. Do all the men in your village have them?" Her eyes were big with curiosity.

          Sokka scratched his head. "They did. Last time I saw them, at least. Braids are also a big deal—for both men and women. When I get older, I'll start weaving braids into my hair too. In the Water Tribe, they symbolise a connection with our ancestors and the land. It's why Katara takes her time whenever she braids her hair—why she sometimes asks me to do it." Despite the very great pain that the Water Tribes had been through, it was clear that talking about this made him happy. It must be tough, being away from his home.

          "Wow." She smiled widely at him, then touched her own braids. "My braids don't really mean anything, it's just a status of importance of where I'm from, but that's a lovely tradition. I'm glad Katara has you to do that for her." She fell into a thoughtful silence. "We don't really have a lot of that in the Fire Nation." Sokka's eyes tilted curiously towards her. "I mean... The only thing that really unites my culture is war. I'm sure that one hundred years ago it was different. And, of course, we have our own patron spirits that we worship—Agni, Ke'alohilani, Ame-no-Uzume—, and our cultural foods are delicious, but I don't know if we have anything as... positive as that. Most of our time is just spent praying that the war goes in our favour, or that peoples' children will come home from the front lines. We're not really... held together by anything, you know?" A sigh left her lips. "Except for war."

          "I can't imagine that." Sokka was sitting up now, looking intently at her. His brows were furrowed.

          Luli looked right back. "My people used to be in touch with the dragons. They were the first firebenders. They used to live all around the Fire Isles; worshipped and respected. Now, the only time you hear people talking about dragons is in the titles of generals or commanders. People who've killed the creatures." She smushed her cheek with the palm of her hand, looking rather forlorn. "Your home sounds amazing. When all this is over, I'd love to visit it someday. I'd really like to learn all about it."

          Proudly, Sokka placed a hand to his chest. "And I, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, am utterly the best person to teach you. Except for maybe Katara, but that's very much beside the point—." They talked on about it for hours, one topic running into the next, until their jaws just about hurt.

           Katara returned from speaking with Haru once the sun had set behind the horizon, while Luli was sipping from a pouch of water, and, boy, did she have a story to tell. Something about a collapsing mine and Haru sweeping in with his earthbending to save a man. She was still talking about it by the time they settled to go to bed, but it was worrying Luli more than it was impressing her. Call her over-paranoid, but even if the act was heroic, it was dangerous. For Haru's sake, she hoped no one else had witnessed the act.

          "It was so brave of Haru to use his earthbending to help that old man." Katara was sitting in her Water Tribe sleeping bag with a lit lantern balanced in her lap. Luli herself had rolled out the blankets she used to sleep and had set herself up nicely on the floor. The ground wasn't exactly comfortable, but, eh. She wasn't exactly jealous of the prison cell beds in Omashu anymore.

          Aang was lying on Appa's head with Momo perched on his back. He was dangling down towards them, and seemed to still be beaming at Katara's story. "You must have really inspired him."

          Smiling down at the light, Katara smiled. "I guess so."

          "Everyone should get some sleep." Looking tired, Sokka was turned towards them from his bed he'd made out of hay. "We're leaving at dawn." Having finished with his speech, he turned back around and lay his head down.

           "Dawn?" protested Katara. "Can't we sleep in for once?" Luli very much wanted to agree—being kidnapped by a crazy king, almost suffocating inside crystal, acting normal around Fire Nation soldiers, and having an empty stomach was exhausting. Waking up after the sun had well risen would be much appreciated.

          However, Sokka didn't seem up to debate. He rolled back around. "Absolutely not! This village is crawling with Fire Nation troops. If they discover you're here, Aang, we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast. Goodnight." And with that, he was rolling on his other side again. Luli yawned despite herself.

          Teasingly, Katara grinned. "I'd rather be eating fireballs than nuts."

          "Or rocks," snickered Luli.

          Aang giggled, and so did Katara—which made Luli's eyes go wide and her lips part in a toothy smile, and it seemed Katara hadn't even realised what she'd laughed at because she didn't stop and glare—, the three of them chuckling together as Sokka turned darkly back around. Luli gave him a full grin. Oops. Perhaps she wasn't his favourite anymore. He just glared at the three laughing kids. "Goodnight." Shadows from the lamp cast dark lines across his face as he turned back over and dragged the blankets up to his shoulders.

          Katara finished giggling, turned back to the lamp in her hands, and blew it out. It sent the barn into soft darkness. The moon from outside cast just enough light to allow Luli to lie back comfortably, cushioning her head with her pack like usual. "Night, Sokka," Aang said cheerfully. He rubbed Appa's head, rolling onto his stomach so he was more comfortable. "Goodnight Appa. Goodnight Momo. Goodnight Katara. Goodnight Luli." The firebender smiled and stared up at the barn ceiling.

          This was...

          Luli hesitated to say fun, because they were lying in a dirty barn right next to a smelly sky bison and a chittering lemur, and she was pretty sure she had hay in her shirt, but it felt a little like a... sleepover. Like the ones she used to have back in the Fire Nation. All curled up on the floor, giggling with stories and pillow wars. Whispering until one of their jerk of a parents came in to shut them up—or sometimes one of their nicer guardians. On occasion, Luli's mom used to sit down and join them. Luli hated to admit that she missed it. She missed the trying to squeeze into the same blankets or arguing over who got the last bao bun they'd nicked. Missed having challenges to see who could do a handstand for the longest or who could beat the other in a faux-Agni Kai—(bending and nonbending). She missed hearing the sound of four other different breaths rising and falling in unison in her own. Now there were three others, and they were different people, but Luli felt... safe.

          She'd never be that child again. She'd never live those memories again. But this was the second best thing, and when she settled down and pulled the blanket over her face, and heard Sokka rolling around his makeshift bed, and Aang murmuring softly to Appa, she let herself imagine.

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shorter chapter today! i've been struggling to write these past few weeks so this was a bit of a struggle, sorry if it's a bore. i don't have much motivation to do anything at the moment.

i actually did want to discuss something — i was recently plagiarised (which is what's messed with me so much), with both my account and my stories. including this book. and i just want to say that it's absolutely not okay and not something i will tolerate. on top of this, i was gaslit, guilt-tripped, and consistently verbally attacked by said plagiariser. i don't really want to go into it, but it went on for a month or so and has really messed with me. plagiarising is totally unacceptable and if you plagiarise any of my works you immediately lose the privilege to be able to read them, and your credit as a writer. it's illegal. plus this story in particular is very, very personal to me. i don't know if people understand how much my ocs and stories mean to me but thinking about them is some of the only stuff that gets me by during my bad days, and my ND brain leans on my ocs a lot when i'm feeling alone. so, like, stealing anything from them is pretty much the worst thing you can do to me. if the person who did this is reading this, what you did was unforgivable and please stop reading my stories

basically, if anyone ever plagiarises me again, i'll end them

excited to get back to luli though :) i missed my bby <3

i lied this chapter is a lot longer than i thought bye

word count: 6,413

14.12.2020.