༉˚*ೃ ᵒ⁷. 𝐈𝐅 𝐈 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐘, 𝐈 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃!

"𝐍𝐎, 𝐍𝐎, 𝐀𝐇! Don't make me touch them!" Luli squirmed back away from the lip of the pond, amber eyes wide with extremely palpable fear. "They're going to bite me!" Her voice was raised in a terrified cry. A firebending protégé so frightened by such tiny things. The curious turtleducklings, small and fluffy, swam closer, blinking their little eyes. Their puff of feathers were covered in the glossy sheen of water droplets. One quacked. "Zuko, no!"

          "They won't bite you. They're friendly!" Zuko, young, sat beside her with his long hair pulled up in a royal topknot. He was smiling toothily, was holding onto her arm, keeping her close. Both to himself and to the water. Luli was cringing away, head and body leaned back as far as possible. She made a sound of fear.

          Having a fear of birds was, decidedly, stupid. At least, that's what her father told her. She was Fire Nation, born with flames inside her eyes and soul. Why should she be afraid of such small, insignificant things? A swangoose wasn't going to try to kill her family in their sleep, and a humminghawk certainly wouldn't be plotting the overthrowing of the Firelord. Insignificant specks of life, worth less than a sparing thought, much less a fear. Fears themselves were signs of weakness.

          And yet, you'd never catch Luli in sight of any kind of bird, at least not without a shriek.

          Oh, how disappointed her father would be watching her scream at some baby ducklings now. Still, Luli wiggled her fingers, trying to free her grip from Zuko's. Her father wasn't here, and that meant she could be as frightened as she wanted without being punished. The girl was visibly shaking. "Zuko!" Her hand craned back as one of the turtleducks swam curiously up to her fingers.

          Relenting, Zuko let go, realising how afraid she was. The lack of grip sent her forcefully tumbling off the pond lip, and she fell back down onto the hard path behind, hardly minding taking the dive out of the way of the ducklings, even though it jarred her spine and scraped her hands. Her regal Fire Nation clothes were all scuffed now, the crimson dress. "Luli!" he exclaimed worriedly, and upon seeing that she was okay, frowned. "They won't hurt you." She pouted at this, her eyes wide with uneasiness and fear, but Zuko reached out a single hand to her. His fingers were spread out in an affirmative offering. Luli relented in taking his hand.

          "Mm-mm," she protested audibly, shaking her head and pouting her lip, but Zuko brought her fingers back up anyway. Her palms were a little sore and grazed from how she'd landed, speckled with hints of blood. His hold was gentle as always. His face was gentle too, softened as she climbed back on the edge of the pond beside him. In his own free hand, he scooped up one of the baby turtleducks. They seemed to like the heat—and Luli couldn't argue that they weren't a little endearing. "Azula doesn't like them," reasoned Luli, hardly a solid point considering who it was regarding. It was good enough a reason for her.

          Zuko frowned and replied, "Azula doesn't like anything." Which wasn't really true, and Luli would have argued had Zuko not shoved the fluffy little duckling right in her face. Luli shouted, and Zuko grabbed the front of her shirt to stop her from falling again. The turtleduck, about the size of her fist, blinked at her and quacked. She grimaced worriedly at it, and Zuko offered, "See? They're friendly."

          They were in a stand-off: Luli and the tiny turtleduckling. Their eyes stared into one another. It was so... little. The top of its head was a little damp from splashes of water, soft and fluffed up. The duckling just blinked at her with its black eyes, Luli stared right back. It gave out a single, indignant—slightly adorable—quack. "It's..."

          "Cute, right?" encouraged Zuko. He had one of his own in his lap. And some of his dark hair had flittered out of its topknot, over his face. Taking one of her outstretched hands, he gently set the turtleduck down in her cupped palm. It was light, though she didn't quite like the way its small, wet, webbed feet felt on her skin. Her body gave a little involuntary shudder.

          But she hesitantly brought the teeny thing close, peering at it. It moved a little in her hands, settling its small body down into the natural firebender warmth of her skin. The turtleduckling gave a little yawn. "... Fluffy," decided Luli, and held it close to her chest. Even though it was a bird, it nuzzled its round beak against her red clothes. A small—very small—smile appeared on her face, and Zuko grinned so wide she thought it must have hurt.

༉*ೃ༄

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐘 𝐁𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍 flew through the sky, and Luli thought, and thought, and thought. She hadn't fallen down a rabbit-hole like this in a while. The seeping back of guilt and pain and missing something she hadn't had in years. Usually, she was pretty good at putting it all behind her. Live in the moment. Except that now, this childhood creeping back to her was her moment. And she was going to have to face Zuko again. Probably soon.

          Despite any of Luli's feelings towards the boy, she wasn't going to falter next time. If she had gotten any of her father's stubborn ruthlessness, let it be for this. In this kind of situation... those feelings would get her killed.

          So why was it so hard to force it all away?

          "Dreaming of your evil ponytail boyfriend?" was Katara's snide comment, as she glared at Luli from over her knees. Miserably, Luli glared back. There was a pout in her lips, her brows drawn together almost pitiably. She looked positively wretched. She didn't take the bait.

          So, saying this whole thing wasn't going the way Luli had expected it to would be an understatement. By now, Luli expected to be teaching an ancient Avatar what she knew about the ins-and-outs of the Fire Nation, if he'd already mastered firebending—the river that lead right to the front of the Royal Palace, the way through the palace corridors, how Ozai could be fooled into overconfidence. It was the best advantage she had.

          Instead, she was a captive. And she was going to be dropped off and left behind at whatever point the Avatar and his companions decided they wanted to stop. She half considered just packing it up and going home. Like they wanted her to. As discouraging, and frightening, and painful a thought that was, perhaps it was what was best. And then would she go home? Home... She could not imagine walking back up the steps of her house and rapping on the door to be greeted by her father; dressing in red; attending war meetings once again, following along like a good little soldier. Home?

          How could anything go back to the way it was?

          And even as she flew on the back of a sky bison for the very first time, Luli's heart just seemed to be sinking further and further. If she lost this, she truly had nothing left in the world now. She had turned her back on her country years ago, on her father and legacy he'd wanted so much. And now she had no Zuko to fall back to. No nothing. The earth could swallow her whole, and the universe would not blink an eye.

           It was Sokka's turn, as she stared off into her bound hands. "Thinking of your plans of world domination, Your Highness?" Neither of the siblings would let up on the jabs, and Luli supposed it was fair. She had tried to befriend them despite her nation. Luli didn't rise to the challenge, just sat in silence and thought. There was a lot to think about.

           Luli hadn't been able to shake that image of Zuko's face out of her head. The scowl that looked a lot like the one she'd seen his father wear, the twisted angry scar and sharply drawn brows a little terrifying. She'd never... Spirits, she'd hated how Zuko had looked. Because... It... She couldn't understand how Zuko, sweet, and her... her... who taught her how to look after the turtleducks in the palace pond, with his young handsome face and dark hair pulled up in a Fire Nation topknot, always smiling, had become so... so different.

          Luli wasn't sure why, but she hadn't expected her enemy to be Zuko.

          They were flying low, just below the wispy clouds that touched the edges of the fabric of the sky. They looked fluffy: like a baby turtleduck. Luli clutched her pack of things close—her so few possessions tucked against her chest. It had shaken her. Zuko...

          "Look, no, Aang, we'll just set her down wherever Appa stops next, easy. All we've gotta do is drop her off with the ropes on, and then fly away," Sokka was saying, as the firebender tuned back into the conversation. He seemed rather confident in his plan. Katara was still looking mad.

          "We can't just leave her all tied up!" protested Aang, looking astounded from his seat on Appa's head. The sky bison seemed to rumble in agreement.

          "Why not?!"

          "Because... what if she gets hungry! And she can't move her arms or legs! And then she'll starve!" The airbender waved his arms dramatically, grey eyes wide.

          Katara whipped her head around to sneer at Luli directly, head craning towards her. "I'm sure she'll find some nice Earth Kingdom children to roast and eat." Her blue eyes were sharp and unyielding.

          "We don't eat people," scowled Luli, finally speaking up. She and Katara were in a kind of bitter stand-off, both glaring.

          "No, you just cook them alive," Katara snapped back. There was a furious curl to the waterbender's mouth. Pushing her was probably a bad idea—Luli didn't doubt that Katara would happily push her from Appa's back without a second thought.

          For a second, Luli struggled, mouth forming different words, though the scowl of her brows never left. "I— I do not!"

          "Look, fine!" Sokka cut in between the two girls, turned dismissively away from Luli. "We'll untie her when we land, and if she tries anything then Katara, you can just freeze her." The waterbender cracked her knuckles at the proposal, looking satisfied. Spirits. She didn't think she could stand a chance against a waterbender.

          Luli wilted, feeling like a dried-up flower, her head drooping. This really was the end of her journey. She could not conceive of what she would do now. What she doomed to just be a refugee, floating between Earth Kingdom town and town, standing by as she knew Zuko was chasing the Avatar to the ends of the world? Or was she supposed to return to the Fire Nation? She wondered if they would welcome her back, or if she'd be executed as a traitor.

          She tilted her gaze down, to stare at the earth looming below them, and her body instantly became alert. "Hey, I think we've got some company." Below, five or six Fire Nation riders were mounted on serow salamanders, dressed in shades of deep red and black and urging the great animals on with weapons in hand. Their rides were fast, nearly caught up to the low-flying sky bison they were pursuing.

          Katara shot her a glare, "Friends of yours?"

          "No." This whole Luli-being-evil-Fire-Nation shtick was getting old, and she glared at Katara so sharply that she was sure she could've just burned a hole in the girl's head. Then, her glare turned into a frown, loosening, and she turned back towards the group of Fire Nation men kicking up dust on their animals. "They must be mercenaries," continued Luli, not really caring if Katara and Sokka were listening or not. "I'm sure they heard that you were in Kyoshi and were on their way there until they saw the bison flying overhead. Even I heard you were in Kyoshi." Not saying a word, Aang rapped on Appa's reins and urged the animal to fly faster, as Appa rumbled out. Clutching the saddle in her bound hands, Luli watched the group of mercenaries get further and further away.

          Luli just knew they were bad news.

          A while later, when the walls of the great Earth City of Omashu began to come into view, Luli couldn't help but stare in awe. She'd been to Omashu before, but there was nothing like seeing it in the sky. From the back of a sky bison. The wind ruffled through her hair, tossed it around, she couldn't help but smile a little despite the circumstances It was so beautiful. How had she never been in the sky before? Luli caught Aang looking back at her with a warm smile. Wow, she wished she could live in the clouds forever. She returned the upwards turn of her lips.

          Appa landed on the cliff beyond the entrance of the city, rumbling the ground. Aang practically floated off of his head, and the two Water Tribe sibling nimbly hopped from the saddle onto the ground. That left Luli to reluctantly climb her own way down. She had a bit of difficulty doing so with both her arms and legs tied, but no one else was going to help her. Luli eventually managed to half-clamber half-fall down onto the ground. She then stumbled to her feet.

          "Alright," Sokka rolled his shoulders in a stretch, face turned towards the sky. "Well, this is it." Katara was looking at her with a little hostility, and Aang looked guilty and conflicted. The poor kid was pouting.

          There's no way this could be goodbye. Luli had to try harder. She hadn't given up everything, hadn't abandoned everything, hadn't spent the last three years of her life—her childhood—searching the entire world just to be turned away. She hadn't, and she wouldn't. So as Aang patted Appa's head, and Katara pulled her long braid behind her shoulder, Luli said, "No."

          The raise of Sokka's brow was sharp. "What?"

          "I said no. I'm not being left behind." Luli was firmer this time, despite not being in much position to bargain. The ropes around her wrists were a little too tight, and she was barely managing to stand balanced with her ankles tied.

          "What?! You can't do that!"

          "Can't do what?"

          Sokka spluttered, "You can't just refuse to leave!"

          She frowned at him. "You can't force me to leave." She knew they probably could, but that was beyond the point. If they were going to doom Luli to chase them around the world just so she could help them take down the Firelord, then that was their choice. Aang had caught on to their conversation and was watching with his wide grey eyes. Now, she and Sokka were in a bit of a standoff—staring right at each other a foot or so apart. Which one was going to back down? Spirits knew. Luli opened her mouth to speak again, and then the shining blade of a javelin was passing a few inches in front of her nose. She could see her reflection in the silver—amber eyes wide and startled—before the weapon soared past her to her left, and flew harmlessly off the edge of the cliff.

          Forgetting all the grudges of the past minute, Sokka and Luli stared at each other with wide eyes. Then their heads simultaneously snapped towards the source of the spear, where Aang and Katara had already jumped to alert. The mercenaries from earlier had returned—burst from the tree-line behind them. There were five—all Fire Nation men on giant serow salamanders. They pulled up their animals short of the gang. "You kids are worth a lot of money."

          "That's a weird thing to say," said Luli in response, though no one really paid her any attention, because then the mercenaries were jumping down off their rides and Katara had pulled open her water pouch, and Aang had grabbed his staff. Even Sokka left her side as he charged towards the archer mercenary. "Wait, wait, let me go!" urged Luli, but then both he and Aang and Katara were facing the attackers. They left her right behind as the leading mercenary leapt from his animal's back and drew a jian. "Agni," hissed Luli to herself in steaming frustration.

          Aang was dodging out of the way of two mercenaries as Luli tried to free herself from the restraints they'd left her in. Realising that Sokka's knotwork was surprisingly competent, she quickly gave up on trying to wriggle free. Rather, a different tactic. Control, control, control, she thought, trying to muster the lessons of the masters who had trained her. All she had to do was breathe some fire. Easy, easy. Channelling her breath, she brought her bound wrists towards her lips, breathing as evenly as she could. It was warm, but nowhere near flames. Fire breath took a hell of a lot more of composure than Luli had right now. A javelin that was aimed at the Avatar missed and delved into the earth a few feet to the Fire Nation girl's left. She tried again, and summoned a tiny spark that didn't even reach the rope.

          Nevermind. Luli threw herself to the ground, narrowly avoiding being impaled by an arrow. The girl quickly dragged herself towards where a javelin had thunked, pulling her arms over it and frantically sawing at the ropes on the exposed blade. After a few seconds, the rope came free and then Luli was snapping the wooden shaft and flipping the javelin head into her fingers. She watched Aang fling the two mercenaries off their feet with airbending as Luli cut the ropes at her ankles.

          Katara was fighting off a firebender with her waterbending. Not only was it the first time Luli had ever actually seen waterbending, but also was it obvious that Katara wasn't exactly versed in her skill. At least, she'd never had a waterbending master—or was maybe new. Either way, with only the water from the pouch at her hip to use, the water-strikes were doing little against the firebender.

          When the firebender reeled up for a strike, Luli dashed to her feet. She grabbed Katara by the back of her shirt, and yanked her backwards off her feet, throwing the girl to the side. Then, Luli leapt forward and took her place. No element of surprise this time—just her firebending, the javelin, and her precision. Luli concentrated on her flow of breath as she shot two bursts of flame from each of her fists, forcing the other firebender to spin them away. She sliced the javelin-head forward when her feet touched the ground, aiming a couple of quick slashes. It had been a while since she'd used anything actually akin to a knife. The blade cut through the air with sharp 'swish' noises, almost too fast to see.

          Still, Luli didn't really compare to a full-fledged mercenary. The man was at least twice her age, and over twice her size, straight out of the Fire Nation and not one of the pushover thugs of soldiers that could be found terrorising poor Earth Kingdom towns. In fact, Luli considered he was probably straight-out of the Fire Nation military, maybe previously a colonel who abandoned his position for money. A fair amount of mercenaries from the Fire Nation were. And that didn't bode well for her. When the man sent fire towards her, it was hotter than she'd expected. Clearly a practiced bender.

          She sent a few more fire blasts of her own, but decided in a split-second moment that the weapon would probably do better. Luli was quickly proven wrong where she lunged on her toes for a stab and was gripped on the wrist by the mercenary. His strength overpowered her own and before she really knew what was happening, her own light weight was being used against her. He tugged her forward and twisted her arm, succeeding in stealing the javelin blade and turning it against her.

          The blade cut finely across her cheekbone, not deep enough to do any real damage, but leaving a narrow line of blood. She stumbled back, ducking beneath the next slice. It swished over her head. Her foot flew out to slam into his shin, and in the brief moment where the javelin blade sliced open her left shoulder, she slammed a burning fist into the skin of his chest. The man yelped. Firebenders were usually pretty good at taking burns, and that blow wouldn't leave a scar, but it definitely must hurt. Just thinking about it was making the burn Zuko had given her on her wrist sting again.

          Mercenaries tended to be better suited to fighting than the Fire Nation soldier thugs who raided village—and this was proven when a fiery sweep kicked Luli's feet out from under her. Shit, she was thinking too much. She struck the ground at an awkward angle and rolled out of the way of a ferocious blow of fire. Somewhere behind her, Sokka let out an, "Aha!" as he disarmed a mercenary with his sword—but Luli was much too preoccupied to focus on that. The cut on her cheek and arm hurt, and she leapt back out of the way of a fiery kick.

          So, crap, maybe travelling with the Avatar wasn't so easy after all. It seemed they tended to be the ambushed, not the ambushers—a role Luli wasn't used to. This time, it'd been her taken off guard. Just as she was swinging in for a fiery punch, a small wave of water crashed over her attacker and doused him completely. Almost immediately, the water hardened into ice, freezing the man in place. Luli blinked, and Katara, who was standing just a few feet of the both of them with her arms outstretched, huffed and turned away.

          They looked just in time to see Aang sending the final mercenary flying back into the ground. It was a pretty humiliating defeat. The four kids stood there with their shoulders rolled back—Aang at the front, holding onto his staff and looking strangely mature for a boy of twelve; at his side, Katara as her remaining water suspended offensively in the air; Luli with fire balled in one hand; and Sokka with his Water Tribe sword clasped in his grip. They watched their attackers fumble to get back onto their mounts.

          "Yeah, run away!" Sokka shouted after the scrambling mercenaries, as they fled on their giant serow salamanders—one dragging the other encased in ice along behind.

          When the Fire Nation bounty hunters had disappeared back into the forest the way they'd came, Katara glanced at Luli through the corner of her eyes. "You're welcome," she huffed, crossing her arms and looking away angrily. Luli sighed and extinguished the flame in her hands.

          "Do you think they'll be back?" asked Aang, rubbing Appa's side as the sky bison rumbled and shook its head. Momo—the little lemur from one of the Air Temples that Luli had only just met on the ride here—chittered and jumped onto Aang's shoulder.

          "Maybe." Luli switched nervously from foot to foot. "There's probably a pretty large bounty on you." Luli's brows furrowed, and inhaled, knowing this might be her only chance. She frowned. "Listen... It's not fair of me to compare the struggles of those who have been affected by the Fire Nation's violent war, to those of my own as a girl from that country... but you need to understand, the Fire Nation hurts its own too." Katara wasn't looking at her. Maybe if she had, Katara would've have given in. "I lost everything to the Fire Nation. It's why I left." Sokka, too, was refusing to look her in the eyes. Rather, choosing to stare at the ground. "Look, I'm sixteen, and I've been on the run for three years. I might not have had much of a home in the Fire Nation, but everything I did have left, I left behind. All to find you, Aang. I might have been born there, and grown up there, but I'm not like them." She didn't know how many times she would need to say it—but it was a mantra that Luli would repeat until she died. I'm not like them.

          Aang asked, "So now you fight against them?" with a tinge of hope.

          Sternly, Luli nodded. She clenched her freed hands in her green Earth Kingdom uniform and tried to breathe evenly. If she screwed up now, there'd be no second chances. "Look, if you want to leave me here, then fine, but you need a firebending teacher, and good luck finding another one who won't try to immediately kill you." Luli levelled them with a stern expression, softness wearing at the outer edges of her eyes, like she wanted to slip into a smile. Both Katara and Sokka adopted matching disgruntled scrunched-up features, their blue eyes focused reprimanded on her as Katara tilted up her nose. Deep down, they knew she was right.

          "She has a point," said Aang, his hands and arms outstretched towards her goofily. "I mean, she's the only firebender who hasn't tried to kill us so far." It was unlikely they'd find another—not a lot of firebender deserters managed to slip under the Fire Nation's radar and still be willing to teach the Avatar. Katara's eyes rolled and Sokka scowled a little.

          "I'm... I'm pretty good," asserted Luli. More nerves were setting in now. "I learned from the best. And I'm a massive advantage in knowing both the Fire Nation and the Royal Palace." Her eyes were wide, desperate. She appealed to Sokka now, turning towards him, "You're— you're the strategy guy, right? Well, I could tell you all the different ways we could sneak into the Firelord's palace, or— or... the capital's weak points. I, um— I used to live in the Caldera, so I could lead you through it like the back of my hand. I'm the best intel you'll ever get if you want to take down Ozai."

          She could tell Sokka was tempted, by the way he pursed his lips and stared at her, clearly thinking about all the potential information he could get. Rapping his fingers against his chin thoughtfully, the boy finally decided, "Fine!" Luli's lungs released all the air they'd been holding nervously. Relief, comforting and warm, flooded her. "But if you cause us any trouble..."

          "I won't," she stumbled over her words quickly. "I won't. I swear on Agni— and, uh, Tui and La."

          His sister seemed to wholly disagree. "What? We're just going to take a Fire Nation girl along with us?"

          "Katara," protested Aang, "I need to learn firebending. How am I supposed to beat the Firelord without fire?" His young eyes were wide, pleading. He looked a lot like a polar bear dog puppy. Luli wondered if all the Avatars had that same method of getting what they wanted.

          Katara looked like she really wanted to argue. Luli couldn't exactly be sure what the two siblings had been through to make them hate the Fire Nation specifically so much—but from what Luli had figured out about the Water Tribe raids, she could paint a general picture. They'd never learned about it in Fire Nation school. They'd been taught that the battle with the Air Nomads was one between armies, that those in the Water Tribes had been a response from threats of war. It was still hard to understand sometimes: how her whole childhood was a lie.

          And between the siblings' distinct distrust of her, and Katara being the last waterbender—Luli did know about those atrocities committed, if little about them—she could pick up a general idea of the specifics. Now, Katara turned on her, young pretty face morphed into a scowl. The braids at the front of her hair swung as she got up in Luli's face. "If you cross us—"

          "You'll drown me, got it," combatted Luli, shoving the girl's finger away from where it pointed accusingly at her chest. "Don't worry." They were practically nose-to-nose, Luli steaming and Katara looking like she was about to water-strike her. Luli once again realised how frighteningly stern Katara's blue Water Tribe eyes were. They were startling compared to Luli's own fiery ones.

          Then Aang popped up between them, forcing them apart as he pushed between the two. He was short though, and Katara and Luli still glared over his head, despite the distance now between them. "Hehe, who wants to see Omashuuu?" interrupted Aang gleefully, clearly trying to diffuse the situation. He grinned crookedly.

          Katara sighed, rubbed her brow. "Fine." She crossed her arms, still looking angry but clearly backing down just a little. Her expression had turned mostly gruntled now, and Luli's face fell into the same. A bit of guilt gnawed at her. Luli hated getting angry.

          "Yeah," breathed Luli, that wave of emotions washing over her again—relief, guilt, irritation, sadness. "Fine."

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the girls are fightinggg

they'll get over it 🙄 🙄

sorry that this is coming out late, i was really sick while writing this and felt super awful so ✌️ stayed up till 3am to write it and feel super gross so appreciate this chapter pls. but i'm getting better now :)

katara and luli besties me thinks,, i'm manifesting it

word count: 4,930

09.11.2020.