ANYTHING BUT; avatar the last airbender

chapter 8

[act two; chapter eight     -     if you could, would you?     i would.]

    They slept, then, peacefully. Though it only lasted moments at a time. Brief period in which they went untouched by those who sought to end them, those who plotted and schemed and hunted.

    They were awoken, all too suddenly. She shot up from where she had been laying. She watched, then, pushing to her feet, as Aang ran to the cliffs edge of the temple, looking out below. There, she saw, Fire Nation airships approached, rapidly growing nearer and nearer to what was supposed to be a sanctuary. A place where they would be safe and hidden.

    The Avatar, with a wide arc of his staff, shut the surrounding metal doors, enclosing them. Though, that meant they were trapped now. In most ways, that was. She hadn't been watching what had occurred from above her, the stone and rocks that had, suddenly, come loose. She hadn't seen Zuko, then, as he dove for her, wrapping his arms around her. They were sent tumbling, their bodies rolling against the ground as they avoided the collapse of the rocks.

    She grunted as they stopped rolling, his body shielding hers, lying just overtop of her body. Turning her head over her shoulder, just slightly, her brows furrowed, pulling tightly together. She maneuvered herself away, grumbling, "Thanks," though she said nothing more. Did nothing more.

    His cheeks swelled red, his mind overtaken by some mirage of embarrassment or anger and confusion. Perhaps all and everything.

    Toph, having created a tunnel in the wall as a way to escape, gestured to it, gaining their attention. "Come on, we can get out through here."

    But Lian noticed the cracks, saw how their plan had already begun to crumble before it had truly even started. As the world began to cave in, as it all fell apart. Appa would not cooperate, would not fathom entering a small cavern in the dark. And Zuko...Zuko stood separate from them all. Just as he always seemed to.

    As if he was not one of them. As if he hadn't earned it.

    (She had always believed that he did, even when she wished she didn't.)

    She called out his name, "Zuko?"

    He didn't turn. Didn't do anything but remain where he was, though his chin turned just over his shoulder. She saw him. His face. She saw Zuko. "Go ahead," he said. "I'll hold them off. I think this is a family visit."

    She followed. It had been instinctual, truly, for her legs to move, then. She hadn't thought of it, hadn't allowed her mind to slow enough for her to realize her actions before she acted, to realize what consequences may lay ahead.

    "Lian, Zuko, no!" She heard, Aang's voice echoing all around them in a deep, frightened bellow. She did not stop, not even then. She did not even falter in her step as she followed after him.