Black Jade - Zuko X OC

Birds and Bees and Disagreements

Dai Yu was sitting in the shade of a pink flowering tree next to the pond in the palace garden. It wasn't a peach blossom, she was sure. They only flowered in the spring and it was definitely summer now. She wasn't even sure if peach blossoms grew in the Fire Nation. But it didn't matter, she sat beneath it admiring the beautiful color of the petals as they fell all the same, weaving a flower crown and thinking of the Peach Blossom Festival back home.

She was born during the festival, and for the first time that she could remember she'd celebrated last spring without the flowers, a pretty pink dress, fried street food with dad or watching an earth rumble match. A small cake and a gift from Zuko and Uncle Iroh each made her thirteenth birthday a nice but quiet affair at the palace.

The turtle ducklings, who were looking much less fuzzy these days, suddenly rushed to the edge of the pond, quacking excitedly to signal Zuko's approach before she heard or saw him.

"What are you doing?"

"Making a flower crown." Dai Yu glanced up to see him standing there, still dressed in his training pants and a sleeveless button down shirt, which he hadn't actually bothered to button.
Dai Yu had recently grown a couple inches, but Zuko had grown a lot of inches. He was taller than her and even Uncle now. "How was practice?"

Zuko sat down next to her under the shade of the tree, The smell of sweat and singed cloth rolling off of him. He grinned with more than a hint of pride. "I beat all of Sifu's other students."

Dai Yu smiled. It was nice to see him feel confident about his abilities. He'd always told her he wasn't good at firebending, but she'd figured out on her own that he was actually very good, just not compared to Azula. Nobody was good compared to Azula.

The staff had seemed to take his growth spurt as an indication that it was time to increase his fire bending training and war strategy studies, without decreasing any of his other lessons of course. So Dai Yu didn't see him as often as she used to, and when she did, he was usually exhausted.

Zuko moved to lay on his back in the grass. It was part of their routine on the days when he had spare time to hang out with her. He'd doze off for twenty minutes or so and she'd just wait. Zuko was already closing his eyes, breathing slower and deeper in the comfortable summer shade.

Dai Yu sighed and continued to weave the flower stems together. She wished he didn't have to sleep, cutting their already limited time together even shorter. But he clearly needed the extra rest. So she wouldn't complain. She'd probably be just as tired in his position.

She still only trained her standard two hours a day, and never with other students. After a year of proper instruction, she was definitely better. Exercises that used to leave her sore no longer did, her katas didn't need as many corrections, her sense of breath control was more intuitive.

But even with all that, even when she did everything correctly, there just wasn't a lot of power behind her flames. Sifu Xiran had attributed it to her mixed heritage. After all, how strong could your fire be if you were only half a fire bender?

Dai Yu glanced at Zuko's sleeping form, then picked up a few petals and dropped them on his face, giggling to herself when he slept through it. She sprinkled a few more on him, then placed the finished flower crown on him.

It was titled awkwardly because he was laying down. But the light pink color looked nice against his skin. One petal was sitting on his closed lashes, a few more dotted his cheeks. Dai Yu couldn't help but think that it looked beautiful in juxtaposition with his recently squared jawline.
In addition to his height, he'd gotten more muscular lately, she noticed. But that made sense, considering how much training he did now. She looked at his chest and stomach where his shirt opened, then looked away, feeling suddenly embarrassed. She reached for more fallen blossoms to weave into another crown, to keep her hands and mind busy.