Frozen Heart, Melted Ice

Chpt 31 - Find The Missing?

The morning air was heavy with humidity as Y/n made her way down to the river below, she had quite liked going there with Katara last night; the water was cool with soft round rocks on the bottom, there was a long wide part that was only about knees deep, and there was a deeper pond-like section that led into an alcove deep enough to swim in some parts and stand in others. It was nice. Y/n swiped some water out of the humid air as she wandered down the steps and bounced the little bubble between her hands casually as she thought. Unfortunately her thoughts quickly turned to Zuko, but just as fast as her thoughts drifted to him, she pushed them away.

"Hey Y/n!" Aang chirped as he jumped down next to her from a ledge above.

Y/n jumped and dropped her bubble of water, "Uh, hi?" She said, looking up in confusion trying to figure out where he came from, "Where did you come from? I thought you were supposed to be training?"

"I am, Zuko and I are just going to a lower altitude."

"Oh," Y/n said simply, "Wait, where is he then?"

"Here," Y/n spun around to see Zuko standing at the top of the thin stairway.

"Oh," Y/n said again, but with a much darker tone. She turned on her heel and resumed her walk down the stairs not wanting anything to do with Zuko.

"Where are you going?" Aang asked, rushing to catch up with her. Y/n could hear Zuko hesitantly following behind.

"Down to the river."

"To train?"

"I guess," Y/n shrugged, "To be honest I just want to get out of the heat."

"Yeah..." Aang hummed, an awkward silence following in suit, "Hey!" Aang called suddenly, "Zuko maybe we should go down to the river to train!"

Y/n's muscles tensed ever so slightly, Aang didn't notice.

Zuko did. In all honesty, he had been paying a lot of attention to the mannerisms of Y/n. They were much like his were when he still had his ship, when he was set on capturing Aang. Though to a much lesser scale than him. She was better at containing her anger, but as someone who once experienced the same anger and rage as Y/n, it was easy for him to see even the slightest tension in her muscles.

"Fire and water don't mix."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Aang sighed, "Zuko, do you think right here will work?"

"Sure."

"Great!" Aang grinned, "See you later Y/n, have fun in the water!"

"Yeah, see you," Y/n grumbled.

^ ^ ^

Y/n gathered her dinner bowl from Katara and sat down at the fire with the others, wrapping her blanket around her shoulders and casually leaning against the wall behind her as she mindlessly shoveled food into her mouth, unknowingly staring into the crackling fire in front of her.

"Listen everybody," Zuko's voice rang out. Y/n looked away from the fire, the sudden lack of light causing difficulties in her vision for a moment before her eyes dilated, "I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff."

"Don't look at me," Toph threw her bowl to the ground, "I didn't touch your stuff."

"I'm talking about my firebending, it's gone."

Y/n couldn't help but giggle into her bowl. Next to her, Katara did the same thing, though much more exaggerated so that the whole group could hear, "I'm sorry, I'm just laughing at the irony. You know, how it would have been nice for us if you'd lost your firebending a long time ago?"