White Hot Flames (ZukoxOC)

29

        "I'm so excited to spend the weekend on Ember Island. It's gonna be great to hang out on the beach and do nothing," Ty Lee chirps. She and Azula were standing on the deck while Zuko and Mai lounged in the shade. All of them were already wearing their swimsuits.

Zuko growls. "Doing nothing is a waste of time. We're being sent away on a forced vacation. I feel like a child."

"Lighten up," Azula scoffs. "So dad wants to meet with his advisors alone... without anyone else around. Don't take it personally." Zuko rolls his eyes.

Ty Lee turns to Azula. "Doesn't your family have a house on Ember Island?"

"We used to come every summer when we were kids."

"That must've been fun!" Ty Lee exclaims. Zuko's hand clenched into a fist as memories of running around the beach with Rezalia flit through his mind.

"That was a long time ago," He mutters. Mai frowns at him from where she was still sitting in the shade. It doesn't take too long for the ship to reach the shore, where Li and Lo were waiting. Behind the dock was a dinky looking cottage that the teens examined with distaste and suspicion.

"Welcome to Ember Island, kids."

The elderly pair lead their guests up the stairs and into the house. As they step into the house, Zuko's nose wrinkles. "It smells like old lady in here."

Mai mutters back, "Gee, I wonder why."

Zuko frowns. Rezalia would've found that funny. "Who are these two beautiful women?" Ty Lee suddenly asks suddenly, looking at a portrait of two young women leaning over seductively with their asses touching.

"Can't you tell?" The elderly women strike the same pose. "It's Li/Lo and me."

The teens recoil, Zuko clamping his hand over his mouth. After recovering their eyesight, the teens go back to exploring the cottage. Ty Lee falls back onto one of the beds. "Can't you tell Ooh, I love this seashell bedspread!"

"Are you serious? It looks like the beach threw up all over it," Mai tells her. Ty Lee shrugs and sits up as Li and Lo enter the room.

"We know you're upset that you were forced to come here this weekend. But Ember Island is a magical place. Keep an open mind," Li says.

Lo continues. "Give it a chance..."

Then together, "...and it can help you understand yourselves and each other. The beach has a special way of smoothing even the most ragged edges." The teens give them unimpressed faces, Azula yawning, that quickly turn to horror as Li and Lo drop their robes to reveal their swimsuits. "Time to hit the beach!"

Mai lifts a hand to cover Zuko's eyes, something he was eternally grateful because he was pretty sure he'd been frozen in place.

~*~

Rezalia was sitting on the side of the lake that Aang was swimming in, gently swinging her legs back and forth through the air. "Aang, I know swimming is fun and all, but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that? Cover up!" Toph calls.

"What? I'm wearing trunks," Aang calls back, Momo curled up on his stomach.

Rezalia strips her shirt off, revealing her swim top - which was really wraps similar to Katara's - that matched her bottoms, and slips into the water. "I know...it's your tattoos. I'm worried about. What if someone sees you?" Toph says.

Katara turns her head toward the earthbender lazily. "There are walls all around us. It's completely safe."

Rezalia hums her agreement before ducking beneath the water. When she resurfaced, Aang was gone. "Where'd he go?" she asks the others, not too worried as they weren't panicking.

"Found a water slide," Sokka murmurs. Rezalia nods and falls back into the water, resurfacing on her back and staying there.

Aang returned a moment later, leaping over rocks in his excitement to go again. Momo curls up on Rezalia's stomach for shelter, apparently not a fan of the water slide.

~*~

On the beach, Mai and Zuko had secured a place under an umbrella, pressed close together on their shared towel. Nearby, Ty Lee was being waited on hand and foot by a bunch of guys who had been drawn to her. Distantly, Zuko thinks that Rezalia would be swarmed if she was here. But she wouldn't like it nearly as much Ty Lee was.

Mai sighs, snapping Zuko out of his thoughts. He spots a seashell in the sand and grabs it, offering it to his girlfriend. "Here...this is for you."

"Why would I want that?" Mai asks bluntly.

"I saw it and I thought it was pretty. Don't girls like stuff like this?" Zuko asks, growing frustrated.

Mai scoffs. "Maybe stupid girls."

Zuko bristles and throws the shell aside. "Forget it!"

The two sit there in silence for a while before Zuko silently gets up. Mai doesn't even seem to register that he'd left beyond moving into his spot. Zuko wanders over to the ice cream vendor he'd seen earlier, ignoring the girls who watched him as he passed. He returned shortly with two strawberry cones. Rezalia's favorite flavor since he didn't know Mai's.

"I thought since it's so hot... Here," Zuko says gruffly. They both watch as the scoop of ice cream falls into Mai's lap.

Mai stares at it as it seeps into her clothes. "Thanks. This is really refreshing."

Zuko huffs and hands his own cone off to some random kid as Azula calls the two of them over. He turns to help Mai up but she ignores his hand and walks past him. Azula shouts for Ty Lee to join them as well. "Hey, beach bums, we're playing next. Ty Lee, get over here now!"

The Fire Nation Prince takes off his shirt in preparation, and maybe to try and get a rise out of Mai, and tosses it to the side. Ty Lee joins them and they huddle up. "See that girl with the silly pigtails? When she runs towards the ball, there's just the slightest hesitation of her left foot. I'm willing to bet a childhood injury has weakened her. Keep serving the ball to her left and we'll destroy her, and the rest of her team. Dismissed!"

With that, they break huddle and start the game. It was an intense game with Zuko's team very clearly winning. Azula was their main spiker with Zuko and Ty Lee covering receives and Mai setting. For their final blow, Azula uses Zuko's back as a spring, spiking the ball down with such strength that it scatters the other players and sets the net on fire.

"Yes, we defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation!" Then, casually to her team Azula announces, "Well, that was fun."

Two boys walk up to their little group - more specifically Ty Lee. "I'm having a party tonight. You should come by," the taller of the two announces.

"Sure...I love parties!" Ty Lee exclaims.

The shorter gestures to Mai, who was standing next to Zuko looking uninterested. "Your friend can come, too."

Azula scowls and walks up to them. "What about me and my brother? Aren't you going to invite us?" The boys exchange skeptical looks. "You don't know who we are, do you?"

The tall one shoots back a cocky grin, demonstrating that he very much did not know who they were. "Don't you know who we are? We're Chan and Ruon Jian."

"Yeah," Ruon Jian tacks on, feeling the need to say something. Zuko stalks forward, anger clouding his features but Azula stops him.

"But fine, you're invited. Just so you know though, some of the most important teenagers in the Fire Nation are gonna be at this party so...try and act normal," Chan tells them.

"We'll do our best," Azula says with a wicked grin.