Best Friends Forever?[SPORATIC UPDATES]

16:

I decided to leave under the cover of night.

And that is entirely because I accidentally took a nap when I got back to my room. I forgot how exhausting it can be to cry your soul out.

The air is actually pretty nice tonight. Good weather for travel.

A quick moving shadow catches my attention. Guess I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Am I important enough to be assassinated? Maybe Azula changed her mind about killing me.

I make the potentially dumb decision to go investigate. Strike first, and then runaway.

I tackle the figure, caging their waist and hips with my legs. Posing my arm back, I aim to temporarily incapacitate them.

Swinging my upper body back from my hunched form, I nearly miss a fireball to the face.

"Azeala?"

"Zuko?" I ask with scrunched brows and a tilt of my head.

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

"What am I doing? What are you-"

"Don't you dare tell anyone." He snaps. Cutting me off.

"Alright alright. I won't tell anyone." I put my hands up, palms up, and slightly lean back. "I'm leaving anyway." I say as I get up and dust myself off.

"What? You're leaving? Where are you going?"

I shrug in response. "Probably back to the circus. I'm so..." -not welcome- "bored here."

I cringe lightly at the look he gives me. Should I not say the Palace is boring? Better than mentioning his sister's attempt on my life.

"You can't leave!"

"... why?"

"Because... because now you know my secret."

"Your... secret...?" What is talking about? What secret? DO I EVEN KNOW ANY SECRETS?!

"Me... visiting my uncle." He says. Like it's something so important.

I sigh. "Zuko, I don't care about you-"

"That doesn't matter!" Someone's angry for no reason. "Now you know, so you can't leave." He even punctuates his statement with an arm cross.

He then proceeded to drag me back to the Palace, despite my many protest and excuses. I made him promise to protect me if something goes horribly bad (not that I entirely believe he will), and in exchange I keep his 'secret'.

Not that it's much of a secret to keep.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

I don't really know what my life has come to.

Azula, once again, paid me a visit that following morning. Luckily, without guards. Unluckily, to inform me that we will be training twice a week to research why exactly it is I can (apparently) use lightning- a difficult element to wield- but not fire- the most popular element.

She had me repeat the same moves for HOURS. Resulting in repressed memories of the failures of my childhood resurfacing and a terrible brew bubbling in my stomach.

I'm almost convinced she's not interested at all in my strange phenomenon, and instead is taking pleasure in torturing me.

I don't think I can take another day of Azula's icy scrutiny.

Which is why... I have a plan.

I spot Zuko sitting by the pond.

Perfect.

"Prince Zuko?" I say in the sweetest voice I can muster. "Oh what a coincidence to run into you here."

Okay... maybe that was too thick.

His face scrunched in pure confusion before he spoke with an eye roll. "What do you want Azeala?"

"What? How could I possibly- alright you caught me." I think I over sold the sweetness. "I have a... situation that could use your assistance."

I can't even look at him, I'm so embarrassed.

I should have just asked him straightforward.

"What kind of situation do you need my help with?"

"Oh nothing big. I was just wondering if you would teach me some... firebendingmoves." I mumble.

"... what?"

Come on Azeala, you can speak clearly.

"Azeala, I have no idea what you are saying."

Apparently not.

He gets annoyed with my continued mumbling and stands to leave.

"Will you teach me some fire bending moves!" Okay... maybe that was too clearly.

I can't tell if he's shocked at my request... or how loud I just was.

"What? Are you even a bender?"

"No..."

"Then..." His face takes on an even more confused look then before.

"Azula's got this obsession with trying to teach me, but honestly Zuko, I'm going to die if I don't something  right soon." I've only had two trainings and I already wish lighting had struck me that day.

He blinks a few times before speaking.  "Why does she want to teach you fire bending, when you can't bend?"

"Because-" Ah ha... can I tell him about the lightning thing? Probably shouldn't. He might react like Azula. "I don't know, Zu. She just does, I guess."

"Why did you agree to-"

"I didn't." I can't help the quick breath that escapes me. "But you know how she is, Zu."

He nods. "We'll start tomorrow."

And thus, began my intense training in Fire Bending, Again,

Zuko wanted to train me twice a week and with Azula ALSO wanting to train me twice a week. Leaving 2 days for recovery- I had forgotten how Fire Bending uses different muscles then acrobatics- and 1 day all to myself. For 2 months.

All resulting, in nothing more than some new muscles, a basically useless knowledge of Fire Bending, and a LOT of time spent with the siblings. 

I wonder what is up with this weird lightning thing I've got. Can I even say I have it? It only happened once. How did it even happen at all?

I sigh as I flop onto my bed. I'm not going to think about this anymore.

-----------

Y'all... let me tell you.

I was struggling in November. I started NaNoWriMo (failed NaNoWriMo) & got horribly sick TWICE (which is why I failed NaNoWriMo).

December honestly was full of birthdays (because like 2/3 of my family decided December was a great month to be born in) and that took a lot of energy and time. And then, of course, the holidays

At this point, you really shouldn't be expecting regular updates 😅

Were almost at the Ember Island piece which is when THINGS REALLY start to kick up hahaha

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, hope you had a good holiday, and sweet dreams