The Seconded Waterbender(Avatar FF)

Book Two: Earth[Training]

Marius, Zuko and Iroh having stopped for a while found a good spot to resume training. "Marius, why are you offering to train with me?" Zuko said from a spot across from the tall waterbender. "Because it's Azula we're dealing with," he said, "Okay but that doesn't mean we need to train," Zuko said, "It's exactly why we need to," Marius countered, "If I remember correctly, she came after you with the Royal Guard," Marius said, 

"But now that we're together and on foot, it'll be harder for her to follow, so she'll end up leaving the guard behind and travelling with a smaller more dangerous group." Zuko and Iroh looked at Marius with surprise on their faces, "What?" Marius mused, "Nothing, except we didn't know you knew Azula so well," Iroh said with a growing smile, "It wasn't because of her, personally. It was mostly to avoid her in the future, which is what we're doing now." Marius said,

"Who do you think she'll go to for help?" Zuko asked while removing his outer shirt to keep it clean, "Probably Ty Lee and Mai, they did go to the same school together and we all knew each other as children, I highly doubt, Azula would do anything without them," Marius said, Zuko shivered, the idea that Mai would be helping weirded him out, "What's wrong?" Marius asked after seeing Zuko's 'weirded out' shiver. 

"Well, I don't really have any good memories of me and Mai, all I can ever remember was Azula forcing Mai and me together," Zuko said, then shivered again. Marius chuckled, "Okay well, do you remember how they fight?" Marius asked, "Mai has a thing for knives," Zuko said having remembered a birthday before his banishment where Mai was given throwing knives, "Ty Lee is into pressure points, and she's incredibly flexible," Marius and Zuko looked at Iroh,

"I don't think we want to know how you know that," Marius said kind of weirded out. Shaking his head to get rid of the image, Marius turned back to Zuko, "Okay, so to counter Mai, it should be easy, to restrain her before she starts and then take away her weapons, for Ty Lee, it might be a bit more difficult as you said she's more of a hand to hand fighter." Marius said "So we'll start with training to defend against her," Marius said,

So that's how it went, for a while Marius would defend showing both firebenders how to block. When he felt they were ready to start he switched from blocking to attacking. At some point, Iroh had to sit or he'd hurt himself so Marius and Zuko continued, the pair of them switching back and forth from defending and attacking, but on one last switch, Zuko was able to get the drop on Marius and pinned him down, 

"I think a little break is in order," Marius chuckled out, which made Zuko blush. "Congratulations Nephew, your almost close to tieing up the score with Marius," Iroh teased as he marked something into a small notebook. "Really?" Zuko asked genuinely, "Yup--" Iroh started but then Marius freed his hands and pushed Zuko onto his back, just as the Fire Prince moved to get up, Marius was over him,

His body-weight pinning Zuko to the ground, making it impossible to move or get free. "Or not," Iroh said then added another mark on the same page. 

***

Getting to a small remote village, Iroh and Zuko wore straw hats to hide their faces while Marius walked around unbothered, or at least he did before walking by a low priced whore house and was recognized by the girls and staff, "Mari!!" one girl cheered as she recognized Marius, "Girls! Mari is back!!" another shouted, "Oh boy," Marius grumbled, turning to Zuko he mumbled softly, "Have your pendant showing," this confused Zuko, but he did it anyway,

With it out, none of the girls bothered him even when they saw his face, turning to his Uncle, Zuko whispered, "Why did he tell me to have my necklace out?" Iroh who had been ogling one of the older girls turned to his nephew, "It's to let them know you're taken," this surprised Zuko, a whore house that respected the courting system of the Northern Tribe. "Most of these girls are from the North and South, they know what an engagement pendant is," Marius said,

This made Zuko blush, "I spoke to the manager, she's willing to hide us for now while we get supplies for the rest of our journey." Marius said, "Also they only have two rooms free and one of us will be sharing," Marius added, Zuko about to grab a key and keep a room for himself was beaten to it by Iroh as his uncle took the key and raced off to the room, "Guess we're roommates for now," Marius mused as he picked up the rest of their things,

Watching Marius go inside, Zuko is a bit bothered by the women cooing and babbling after Marius, so to show them what is his, he rushed after the tall Waterbender and took bags from his hand and then held his now freed hand, Marius looked down at their interlocked hands and smirked, he wasn't bothered at all and actually held tighter to Zuko's hand, "Come on," he cooed then leaned down to kiss Zuko's cheek.