The Half of Me | Zuko

Chapter Twenty Nine: Avatar Day [P1]

Night set quite late in the summer air, allowing the group to stop in a space to set up camp with ease. Ryoko lay out near Appa and Aang to sleep as usual, but most nights she felt wide awake to loneliness filled with silence. She would try to train, meditate, do something to take up the blue hours that left her with a melancholy feeling. They were all no use though when trying to keep her mind off of overthinking.

While the sky turned from a fuchsia to black, Ryoko watched everyone lay down. 

"Goodnight, guys," Katara mumbles sleepily, turning over in her sleeping bag. Sokka lay on another stump, practically asleep already, only grumbling a "night". 

"Goodnight," Ryoko calls out from the side of Appa, then straining her neck to see if any of them were looking. A couple of minutes passed and the fire of the pit still flickered with interest. With silence of her companions being the signal, Ryoko went into the distance, where the trees would disguise her without getting in the way. Her pent up anger and grief needed an outlet.

Ryoko takes a deep breath. Her feet, wide against the gravel, shift as her hands slice through the air, fire releasing from the tips of her fingers and roaring with every grasp. Every fluid movement and swift punch around her engulfed the atmosphere with her flames. She saw how the flames swarmed her and reached depths beyond her previous imagination.

"You couldn't sleep?"

The fire dissipated as Ryoko turns to see the short airbender stand a distance away from her. Aang feared being near fire, as if it would puppeteer him and cause him to bend fire and hurt someone again. That's what it seemed like to her, at least. She could tell when someone who had that potential held back.

Yet, Ryoko could still not believe he had burned Katara as he had been so skilled with air and water, like a natural. Hearing the story was even more unbelievable without the scars to prove it. But although the scars that Katara said were on her hands were no longer there, the scars in their memories were all the same. The idea of that happening again was not an option, as everyone knew the affects of fire's wrath.

"Of course not," she answers him with a laugh though it held nothing but bitterness. Ryoko's shoulders scrunched up showing her irritation to her own predicament. Her smile was an agitated one, not the one Aang was used to seeing from her. "I figured I could do something. Something that would tire me out already. Maybe then I can just no longer keep my eyes open." Aang shuffles over as she then blinked rapidly, an idea coming to her. She comes closer to Aang, excitement covering her once irritated features. "Last time we fought together against Huu, something really cool happened." She could see the look of recognition in his eyes. "You know what I mean? When the air and fire met, my flames grew so strong. It was awesome! Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Aang nodded when a thoughtful smile crawled up his lips. "One of my best friend's Kuzon was a firebender and we always got into a lot of trouble." 

The name Kuzon seemed so familiar to Ryoko, then she remembered. That one morning when Zuko lay unconscious on the ground and Aang reminisced to Ryoko and Zuko about his life 100 years ago. Aang had hope back then to befriend them both despite the weight of expectations hanging over the two firebenders, expectations him and Kuzon never had to worry about. "He wasn't as good as you," he backs up, whisking the air around, "but I can still show you!" Ryoko's face brightened as she then set herself up while Aang stood to the side, prepared.

Ryoko's flames reached higher than anyone's Aang has seen, higher than Kuzon's, higher than most firebenders. Of course, he shouldn't have been surprised, he had seen the lengths the greatest dragons have gone to, why would Ryoko be any different? The air past through his fingers and intertwined with the fire as it grew even more. Ryoko smiles wide in amazement by the power so attainable. If only her own could burn brighter, move faster and be greater, past all the trees and away from their branches, without the help from the Avatar.