Growing Pains (Zuko/OC)

Chapter 5: Hunting

In the weeks that followed the Agni Kai, Prince Zuko's crew fell back into the old routine of hunting the Avatar but with a newfound vigor. Since the crew now knew that the Avatar was alive, they wanted to be the ones that seized him. They all knew that they may never have to work again, if they were the ones to stake the claim. Unfortunately, since Master Iroh and Prince Zuko had never actually told the crew to keep the Avatar a secret from Commander Zhao, there was no reason to dismiss them. Kona made no efforts to hide her scorn towards those who did confess to the man. To her it was obvious that it was a secret, and she was 16 years old. These were grown men.

Regardless of the troubles aboard, the ship moved on. They followed the Avatar and his friends from place to place: from Kiyoshi Island to earth kingdom colonies, but they were no closer to capturing the Avatar. The only thing that they had to show for their efforts was the necklace that the Water Tribe girl, Katara, had always worn around her neck. Prince Zuko had found it within a Fire Nation prison after following rumors of a prison break spurred on by a young girl and her teen allies. Kona had to admit she was impressed by the audacity of Katara infiltrating a well known Fire Nation prison camp and instigating a rebellion in only a matter of hours. It had to have taken courage.

For this reason, she planned on giving the necklace back as soon as they were able to catch up once more. Kona didn't tell Prince Zuko, of course, but to Kona it was the right thing to do. From the beginning their only goal was the Avatar, and that had not changed. Kona didn't want to be responsible for keeping a piece of the girl's home from her. She didn't know why she cared as much as she did, but something about it just felt cruel.

In addition to the fervorous searching for the Avatar, Prince Zuko had asked Master Iroh if he could resume training with Kona. He argued that his use of martial combat had turned the tides of his Agni Kai, and it could have gone worse if he had never been exposed to moves that didn't revolve around firebending. Iroh agreed easily, pleased that his nephew was showing such wisdom. Kona and Prince Zuko immediately began to have near daily sparring matches, and as the days passed by, the prince improved drastically. In the beginning, Kona won by a landslide, mostly, she admitted to herself, because Prince Zuko wasn't allowed to use his bending. As his training progressed, Zuko's confidence grew, and he found himself having fun. In the private of his mind, the prince acknowledged the fun had very little to do with his improvement.

He had never had fun in training until he started sparring with Kona. Even as a child, his lessons were brutal and relentless; especially when his sister, Azula, was around. He wouldn't say that these lessons were easy. On the contrary, they left him exhausted most days, but sparring with Kona reminded him of when they were young and would chase each other around the courtyard. They had been forced to train separately as children due to Kona's status and lack of bending, so they often had mini sparring sessions to show each other their new forms. Of course, they were children, so the sparring would often devolve quickly into wrestling and tickle fights and chasing. They used to run around the koi pond for hours until Iroh or his mother would call them inside to eat. The would oblige with wrinkled clothing, dirtied skin, and skinned knees. His uncle would praise their stamina and pat their shoulders and Zuko remembered how the praise would cause them to well with pride. Then his mother would smooth their hair and pinch their cheeks playfully and tell them to be nice to one another when they playing. They were always so quick to defend their activities; Kona would tell her that they sat and fed the turtle ducks too, and Zuko would tell her that he never hit her for real because it was mean. They didn't want his mother to make them stop rough housing; it was an excuse to be around one another when the his father clearly didn't enjoy Kona's presence. In hindsight, Prince Zuko realized his mother knew the sparring was an excuse all along.

Still, the reminder was nice.

In private, he continued to practice with his broadswords and applied every new move learned during the sparring sessions to them. He already had some experience them, but he had to admit he never saw much use in them while he had his bending ability. So he learned. He wasn't sure if he would ever need them, but it was best to be prepared, given how much the last few weeks had changed his life. He was sure that the Avatar would keep throwing new things at him, and he wanted an arsenal that would allow him to succeed.