Azula Alone

A girl

As Pana poured some more tea in Azula's cup, he started to notice her stare. He had felt uncomfortable about losing his hand, but having someone stare at it tore the wound right open again. He thought he knew what she was thinking: Why did he lost his hand? Was it something stupid? Firenation? A fight? Is he that weak? What good is a waterbender without a hand?

Not that he ever was a great waterbender. Pana just wasn't a warrior. Not like his brother. His brother, Yura, was fierce. Yura was everything the watertribe expected from a guy: tall and muscular, a great fighter be it with fists or bending, trustworthy and a leader.

But Pana wasn't any of those. He was strong, but not muscular. He was above average in height, but not tall. He was a waterbender, but not  a fighter. While his brother had lessons from master Pakku, Pana was still at the basics. Not that he cared, he liked the basics. Fighting just wasn't his thing and he found himself lucky that it was his older brothers thing. He always helped him out. Except on the night of the red moon. The night the moon spirit died.

Yura was in the special forces that night. He was a well trained warrior, he protected the city. But Pana didn't. Pana was afraid that night. For the moon, for his tribe, for his brother. It was his fear that lead him to run out when the moon disappeared. He finally wanted to help. He didn't want to rely on Yura anymore. He was ready to become a warrior. Like a fool, he ran into the streets. He had no bending, but he was skilled with his daggers. Daggers was something anyone could be skilled at. It was a low level of fighting, that's why Pana chose it.

As he ran in the streets on newly found courage and stupidity, he found them empty. At the time, he didn't know that the avatar had already become the giant koi spirit seeking revenge on the one that wronged his mate. He didn't know about that the firebenders were being drowned. He just knew that he needed to do something.

In hindsight, his help wasn't needed at all. He wasn't needed.

But he did find something that night: two firebenders fighting eachother.

"Aren't you rude for staring?", Kallik said. It was then Pana realized that it was not she who was staring at where his hand would be, but he staring at her. He must have been fixated on her while being lost in thought. "You were doing the same", Pana replied, nodding at his hand.

Kallik seemed a little offended. "At least I have good reason"

Pana was immidiatly taken aback."It's not a regular thing for me to wake up in clothes I don't own, in a house I don't recognize with a boy that won't shut up about useless things and keeps staring at me vaguely"

"Oh, I thought you were looking at my... ehm..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Pana was interrupted by the girl: "I don't care about your sad stories about ice and limb losing, just tell me where the next boat arrives"

Pana was a little lost for words. Not only was she clearly not thankful at all, but she was speaking with such a command, he almost had her confused for someone older. "Probably in a week? Ships don't usually sail to the North Pole."

She was clearly not happy about that answer. Which made her look like the younger girl that Pana took her at first for. The way she moved was also very untelling of her age. "Why, did you miss your ship maybe?", he asked.

She didn't reply. It seems she thought that the answer was quite obvious. She started moving around, searching for something. "It doesn't seem like you have stolen something, except for my clothes that is", she said while grabbing the book. "What do you want from me?"

She was so stern. So unbothered by this whole situation. The way she carried herself was not really like a teenager, it was more like an adult. No, even an adult wasn't like this. She was like a commander. "Okay, you are confusing me so much, how old are you?"

The girl looked slightly startled, she didn't weaver however. "Fifteen"

"You must've been trough a lot then", Pana concluded. This made her turn around and stop gathering her things: "What do you want? Money? Power? Intelligence? There is no need for this fake interest"

Now it was Pana who was thrown off-guard, but he did weaver. What happened to this girl to be this way? "It's not a fake interest?"

"Oh, so you're just stupid"

And now, Pana was officially thrown off-guard, while she stood her ground and looked for more items she might have lost."Or just concerned for the girl who almost froze in a content that she clearly doesn't belong in? Maybe a bit worried about why you traveled alone? Or just stupefied by the fact that you clearly are not even behaving like a person?"

Her gaze met his again. Her fierce orange eyes glowed like flames in the night. "Very stupid"

"Oh I get it! It's stupid of me to help you, but it's smart to not have anywhere to go, insult the person who actually took you in and then try to run away... Makes sense", Pana replied.

Kallik didn't reply on that. Implying that she actually had a plan. "You know it's winter now and the sun won't rise for multiple hours leaving you very frozen and alone", Pana continued.

Azula stopped what she was doing. She thought that she had just closed her eyes for a few minutes, but could it be she actually slept for more than that? The house was lit by candles and the fire was near so she didn't have any clues as to how late it was. "If I were you I'd just let myself be taken care of for today", Pana tried.

Azula knew he was right, but her pride didn't: "What, let a boy like you take care of me? Are you insulting me?"

"Don't worry, I'm just a very stupid guy, no way I'd insult someone I need something from"

Realizing the irony, Azula gave in.

"Oh and, you know I'm older then you, right?", Pana added.

"So?"

"If you insist on calling me a boy, I'll have to insist on calling you a girl and I believe you don't want to be called that"

Pana was right about that, Azula had always made herself look older. To make people forget that Zuko was the eldest. That she was just a teenager. To make sure people would take her serious. So she hated the word girl. Or child.

"Fine"