ANYTHING BUT; avatar the last airbender

chapter 6

[act two; chapter six     -     the boiling rock]

    It was early in the morning, the sun having just breached the sky. The world around him was painted in various colors, shades of pinks and reds and oranges. And under it all, in their midst, was Lian and Aang, their bodies covered in sweat, eyes focused as the Avatar trailed her movements, mimicking her.

    Much had changed about Lian in four years, Zuko had learned. He had seen it in her. In her eyes. In the way she walked and held herself. No longer was she a thirteen year old girl who had begun to learn the ways of the world around her. No, no longer. Rather, she was grown and mature. She stood tall, body lean with muscle and scarred with experience.

    With every movement, her body moved as though she were made of water. Her feet, bare against the ground, moved, sweeping over the surface as her legs, steady and sculpted, carried her body. Her arms, lean and unwavering, mimicked movements Zuko had practiced his entire life.

    She was moving, he realized, in arrangements of all four bending types. It appeared as though she had taken them and turned them into one, creating her own style of movement, something his own Uncle had been attempting to teach him for years.

    It was beautiful.

    (She was beautiful.)

    With a blindfold over her eyes, same as Aang, she could not see him. Not with her green eyes, that was. But Zuko knew, then, that his presence was known to her. But still, he watched on. He analyzed their movements, the way that the Avatar was solely dependent on following her by what he knew was a technique called "seismic sense". They moved, then, together, entirely in tandem.

    He was curious as to how long they had been practicing for by the time Lian tugged the blindfold from around her eyes, her hands instinctively reaching to wipe sweat from her brow. From her side, Aang did the same, though neither seemed much surprised, nor incredibly excited, by his presence.

    "Why don't you go rest for a while, Aang? Good job today," she told him, crouching to the ground, resting her elbows on the peaks of her knees.

    The younger boy nodded tiredly, excusing himself with a quick pat to Zuko's shoulder. After all, they had only returned, just days prior, from learning the origins of firebending. In that time, they two had been at constant practice, not just in the manner of using fire, but conditioning their bodies and minds, finding balance in a way that, perhaps, they had both lacked.

    The Prince had told Lian about it all under the cover of night just days ago. He had crept into her room, sitting on the floor adjacent to where she, too, had sat on the floor, back leaning against the side of her bed. She had listened, then, dutifully. She had listened and understood. She had let him speak and when she had questions, he answered. For a moment, then, in that time, it had felt as though, perhaps, they were thirteen again. Thirteen and awkward, yet so keenly aware of their emotions.