❝ the leader ❞
· • -- ٠ ♛ ٠ -- • ·
Nari must be careful around Zuko.
As a prior friend of hers– despite whatever attempt she gave to wipe that word from existence– she has to be careful around him. Too many jokes and too much comforting will lead to a strengthened bond. What was once rope tied across twigs will become metal chains against deep-rooted alloy stakes.
And the reminder of such strikes through Nari like a javelin.
Especially now. As she watches a silent river ahead of her, the colors of a sunset settling orange upon it, Nari toys with her nails. Zuko joins her as he rests his back against a similar tree. His hair grows back slowly, now more of a spiky fluff that can't catch the wind.
Nari tugs at the end of her own hair, fingers stopping short where it cuts off– it should be much longer than this, but nothing goes Nari's way. Not normally.
Like how she'd been wishing to call Zuko out on his gruffness and how he acted at the North Pole, leaving so haphazardly after not leaving soon enough. She holds a resting grudge, and she'd wish to have thrown it off her chest. But now isn't the time for shouts and curses.
Because she realizes something; had they gone home, she'd go home. Nari doesn't want that anymore, she just wants to be... better. Nothing more than respected and feared, not shunned and hated. Had they gone home, Nari would be forced to meet Rai's eyes, to return to the gates of evil. Hikaro, with all his stubbornness, would act as if she were dead. Gone. Never existing in the first place. And every picture of hers would be turned or burned away.
Zuko would return home with honor restored, Ozai would treat him as he always had, and the boy would stand by his father's right side until the day the throne is passed down to him. Then he'll rule as Fire Lord. Peachy keen.
Zuko leans his head back against the tree as he analyzes Nari's composure. Not once have her eyes left the scene in front of her, not once have they met his. Her shoulders are tied up in knots, tense, hands picking leaves off a fallen branch from the tree she's resting against. She's got a fair share of toys to fidget with, a rock by her side which she's surely twirled in her palm before.
Zuko clears his throat in case she missed his presence. She didn't. Nari simply pays him minimal mind. "Nari," He starts, dragging out her name with such a low tone he's practically pulling it through the mud. "What's wrong?"
Nari purses her lips before turning away with a shake of her head. She hums, not wanting anything else resulting from her voice beside a simple "M-mhm."
The afternoon sunlight hits her pale face in shades of pinks and yellows, darkness bringing out tired eyes.
"What's your problem?" He hesitates, adding a hitch of uncertainty to how he sits. A boy trembling from the fear of a vicious girl's response. Zuko can tell how pissed Nari grows with him by the simple rise in the air's temperature around them. The girl gnaws at her tongue as she remains hushed, lips sealed with tar. And thus a confused Zuko continues on. "Why aren't you talking? Is there something I did?"
Nari shakes her head with a pause. Then she nods.
Zuko sighs as he rolls his head to the side. His brow dips down in mild irritation because– Agni– why must she be so complicated? "Why won't you just tell me? It's not like I haven't heard worse." Zuko says this knowing Nari hides many secrets from him, and knows that none of them could be as dreadful as killing a boy and the many assassins his parents sent for her. He's impatient with her, mainly because Nari has seldom, if ever, been this vague and silent. She runs her mouth like a river, and she speaks her mind as if everyone could read it. So why her voice never breaks from her lips is an unsolvable enigma to the prince.
Nari stands from where she had been sitting. Leaving in silence. Her face is remarkably still as she walks away from Zuko, and even more still when Zuko chases after her and turns her around by her shoulder. Not a flinch— the only thing betraying her emotions would be her burning skin. "What aren't you saying, Nari? You're never like this."
Nari's voice is kept even, like a tranquil sea's horizon. "I know." She reports, and every molecule within holds loud tranquility that's backed by haste and irritation. But the gears in Nari's mind have been churning ever since they were left to drift upon the raft. Ever since she decided she'd no longer be kind to Zuko. It ruined everything, after all.
She thought about this while joking about how she'd swipe food, or when Iroh was getting helped in the hospital. She ran over this while eating with Song and her mother, while sitting on the front porch with Zuko.
Yet she thought about it the least, then.
And that's when changing should have applied the most.
And when Zuko placed a hand of solace, of comfort, on her shoulder, it clicked: no matter the force she uses to push Zuko away, it won't work. Not if he's attempting to pull her with the same strength. So she'll double her efforts.
When needed, Nari can hate someone with every fiber of her breathing. The heat of her breath will rise just for them, and had she not passed that point with Zuko, then she could easily reach it. Yet she can't hate Zuko in such a way; not since the North Pole, at least.
Though remorse does grow strong. It presses her fingertips to her palms, which Zuko never sees. "Talk." The boy hisses.
Nari tries to walk away from Zuko, but he swings around her to cut off her gait. "Nari, please." He pleas, his eyes wide even with a scar having melted one. And there's something which resides within them, perhaps concern or perhaps the annoyance of dealing with some childish sixteen-year-old girl. Either way, there's a turbulent emotion Zuko is holding back, and for good measures. "I– I don't know what's wrong, but you're never like this. Ever."
Nari looks straight through him– and the heedful stare of his– as she shoves him out of her way. "I know."
Zuko partly considers kicking the bucket. But why give up so easily? He can get a crack from Nari, at least. Some chip in the glass that is effective enough to hide answers inside. "Why?" He asks, voice cracking, ripping like silk. A tone Nari never avoids.
She turns her head over her shoulder, for a short moment, allowing for her eyes to broil in concern with his. Her short hair accentuates the quick movement of her gaze before she turns away, cutting a brush against her jawline as she returns to her gait like the sun returning to the horizon each morning. "I'm going for a walk. I'll meet you and Iroh back in town later."
"Nari, it's getting dark," Zuko informs her. A smooth and even report aside from the worrying dip in her name. "Just head back now," Nari's scared of the dark... why would she spend a night full of it alone, by option?
Nari holds her gaze straight, "I'll be fine." She insures, looking sharp into a dipping horizon that spills stories of the day.
Zuko puts on an authentic look of helplessness, all for Nari to see, but she never turns around.
♛
The prince walks back to Iroh and lacks Nari by his side. It's a strange sight for anyone. The old man looks up from his tea, brewed in a clay cup that could chip to dust at the simple tap of his finger. Zuko doesn't understand why he can't muster up the courage to steal some from a vendor, as it'd be entirely too easy if they were distracted, but his uncle simply doesn't roll like that. He's an honest man, with honest concerns. "Where is Nari?" Iroh says.
Zuko flops against the cave they've scouted out as a campsite, falling against its curved wall. The dirt shifts below him. "She went for a walk." He informs as he crosses his arms. Brutely. Aggressively. Like this was some payback to the long-gone girl in a petty remark. "She made it clear she didn't want to be bothered." This, in and of itself, bothers the prince– he believed the two were past bickering of pointless multitudes, and he was spectacularly wrong.
Nari might as well have cast him to the side like an apple core. A bitter taste still results from it.
"She may need some time to think by herself, Zuko." Iroh sips his tea with subsided wisdom, looking to his nephew over the brim of his cup. "May I remind you that she has been through a lot in the past year, and traveling as a fugitive again may bring up bad memories."
Zuko slams his head back on the rock– ouch!– with eyes clamped shut. He remembers that Nari was always scared of thunderstorms, but that being out in one the day she left home turned that fear to peril. He knows she still flinches, or that she doesn't like her arms being touched. He recalls the way she puffs out her chest and widens her elbows when not wanting to be messed with, like a bearded dragon when intimidating predators. How she'll walk between Iroh and Zuko when an irked boy starts yelling at some vendor. He notices these things, and now he looks back on them.
Iroh is right.
But as to why Nari can't talk to him is still irritating.
"I know, Uncle."
"Your first year on your own was not easy, either. Even when we first started our journey you found the avatars capturing of utmost importance. So much so, you'd tire yourself out and sleep on the floor." Iroh chuckles warmly at the memory, though Zuko cringes. "Time has not been kind to either of you, and Nari realizes she needs time to think." He says. "Perhaps it's time you do the same, nephew?"
♛
Nari found that she was fine on her own. In fact, in the darkness, with one sight of a singular symbol cut in a tree, Nari found she was perfectly fine and safe.
Some year ago and alone, Nari managed to find a group of gathered people– something which she's not told a soul, not even herself– who were gruff thieves capable of stealing from the most attentive folk. Ones with golden trimmed robes, scarves of jade, dangling jewelry weighing down their necks and ears more than it did their pockets. Folk who had dogs watching around them like hawks as they shopped, a commoner to hold bought items which would be used only once before becoming useless. These dangerous people, they didn't have an exact name. But they had a community and Nari grew into it until she reunited with Zuko, trying to steal from his pockets.
In fair defense, the ponytail threw her off. She never recognized him.
Nari rubs at the creases of her forehead as she curses under her breath. With all the walking she's done, it's now something of an hour or two into the night. She follows her footsteps back to the cave they bunkered in and wakes a sleeping Zuko quietly. Nari does not want to wake Iroh; kneeling down, she's able to avoid such. "Pst," Nari whispers. "Zuko... Zuko, wake up." Her voice drains dull past the air pushed from pursed lips. When the boy remains rested, his scarred side turned up as to where he can't hear as well, Nari kicks below his ribs and steps back as he shoots up.
His hands flex to blades, relaxing when he looks up to Nari's towering figure.
She jolts her head out to the side, knowing he can't see anything aside from a shadowed outline of her. "Come on," Nari hisses while walking from the cave.
Zuko stays on Nari's tail, walking in silence for only fourteen seconds. Nari counted. "Where are we going?"
Nari doesn't look back. "You'll find out."
Zuko purses his lips, wanting to scoff but instead being overtaken by a yawn. As Nari and Zuko clear the thicket of trees and growth of bushes, clear flatlands stretch out before them. Vast fields of golden wheat turned white in the moonlight, waving upon small hills with sleeping farms and hushed barns, silenced houses from a long day's work.
Nari knows there are families inside those houses, families that have a home, who tuck their child in bed after they've had enough time playing in haystacks or chasing around cow-pigs, fathers who help their sons with late-night chores undone, daughters with their mothers cleaning from dinner or folding up lived-in laundry.
And Nari scoffs at the thought of a family so healthy. So happy.
What a richly-bargained lie.
The fields of wheat are outlined by roads of paved and squashed grass, covered in pebbles that crunch under the teenagers' feet like dead leaves. Nari takes her steps lightly so as to be silent, but Zuko drags his feet and kicks around the rocks on the road.
Nari presses a finger to her blushed lips. "Shush!" She hisses, a sharp scowl shooting back at Zuko. "For the rest of the night, your only job is to shut up, and do what I say, understand?"
Zuko looks like a polar bear dog cub being left by its mother. Nari's words are a jab between his ribs, sour acid rising in his throat as he nods rapidly.
The girl's face darkens as her pace slows. She'd been walking fast, a fire bender on a mission. "Since you so loathed one of my ways to survive, and were so pissed and judgmental, I'm going to show you the other ways I got by." Her face grows white with anger, paler than normal in the moonlight.
Zuko swallows a lump of coal as he steps back. The idea of Nari's 'other ways to get by' including silence and the darkness of night does not seem very favorable— all of this past crime sprawling to the surface doesn't help his dread. Zuko doubts if he ever knew the girl. "Nari," He warns cautiously, referencing a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Nari turns away with a seething growl, attentively watching her surroundings as her steps became uneven. She's getting close to something, the road becoming familiar in its patterns, a certain smell drafting through the muggy midnight air. On a tree trunk in the distance lies a nostalgic carving.
Nari smirks as her steps become more confident. Even, once again.
As she approaches another outgrowth of trees, very distant from the thicket and flatlands Iroh, Zuko, and she camped out in, Nari's feet begin to kick up dust. Fallen leaves scattered haphazardly. She strays from the path which ends, her heel digging and thumping into rock-hard ground.
Until something clangs beneath her feet.
Nari crouches down, knocking rhythmically against the hollow ground.
Zuko quirks a brow as they wait patiently, and a sharp thought stabs through Nari's brain like a spear. Her eyes shoot up to Zuko, who stands with a face strung and tense. "One last thing," She rushes, "Keep your head up, but don't let them see your scar or ask you about it. You appear weak and they'll rip you to shreds." The askance countenance Zuko slips over his features urges Nari to further explain. "You gotta look like your ready to take someone's head off at any moment, for any reason. Otherwise, you'll get challenged." Nari quotes a dead man. With the affiliation this dude has, Nari questioned why she made herself remember the saying— Wong, his name was, was a good friend of Avatar Kyoshi's.
Zuko stumbles back, hands flying to his head as if he could hold it from exploding off with all the information to fill it with air. "Why would I get challenged? Who's they-"
Zuko wishes, now, that he'd never learned any of Nari's mysteries. It was better off when he knew her as a simple murderer, but now... he doesn't know exactly what she is. They never had secrets as kids, not even now, but apparently luring in weak-minded boys and secret gangs fell by the wayside.
The ground opens up, a small light of gold spilling from a trapdoor.
A kid, not much older than thirteen, peered at the set before his eyes lit up, such a shake of excitement in his body posture that he almost drops the trapdoor he holds up. One palm is pressed against it while another hand clings to a splintering and poorly made ladder. "Ikko!" The boy cheers, a smile against a dirtied face. "You're back!"
Nari puffs air from her nose in a stream of laughter. "Just stopping by, kid." She offers him a sweetened smile as her head tips to the side. "I see you got promoted to the doorman. You gonna let me in?" She goads.
"Who's the new guy?" The kid asks, raising a brow with a look he thought to be tough and inquiring.
Nari looks back to Zuko with eyes that speak to him: not a word. "That's Lee." She answers the kid. "Fresh meat, you know?"
Before the kid yields to either teen, he looks to Nari authentically. "You trust 'em?"
"Risked my life for 'em." She replies, to which the kid sends her a judgmental look. "I know, stupid, right? Who risks their life for a boy?"
The kid puffs some poorly outgrown hair out of brown-ish eyes. It's hard to spot them with the current lighting, but they are naturally more narrow. Fire Nation, the kid seems to be. "He ain't too pretty, not enough for you."
Nari snuffs out another snort of laughter, looking to Zuko. "You're right, he ain't. Luckily, it's not like that kiddo. He's family."
"Brother?"
"Not by blood."
"Step-brother?"
"He's like family." Nari corrects. "Wouldn't be bringin' 'em here if he wasn't."
The kid stares Zuko down for more time than needed, spectacularly suspicious while Zuko remains remarkably calm. He crosses his arms while looking down upon the kid. Look like you'll take someone's head off. He repeats in his head. Even if he's just a silly kid.
The kid nods before climbing down the ladder, and Zuko notices he takes strange steps down it. Uneven, as if he knew anywhere else on the ladder held glass shards. That, or it'd snap in half. As Nari followed the kid, her eyes just level with the ground, she shoots him another glare. Eyes silently speaking: watch my step.
Either Zuko got her point, or he'd find one cutting through his shoe. The gang, daofei, as he's learned has gone untracked for some time, never ousted by anyone who enters. That's because anyone who tried to climb down the ladder without knowing where to step would stand on arches and stuck-up shards that are lined with poison. It weakens them. They're dead before they can leave sight of any daofei member.
And if they don't get the knock starting off, they're as good as strung up meat lowered into starved shirshu cages.
Nari will assure that Zuko never leaks this to anyone, ever.
For the safety of both of them.
After scaling down the ladder, Nari ruffles the kid's dark and scruffy hair. "Thanks, 'Oki." The boy slaps and swats Nari's arm away, but her abnormally tall and muscular stature (especially for a girl) and Oki's small height and scrawny arms left him defenseless. Nari could mess up the kid's hair all she wanted to. "It's good to see you again. I missed this place."
The place which Nari refers to remains in question. It's just a dark underground dig-out, lighted by torches that are practically made to fail. There's chatter, it barely reaches them, around a few corners and twists by the sound of it, but until the three reach it, this place is a maze. Walls of earth jut out in strange and obscure places, meant to boggle the brain. Made to mislead those who wander.
As the kid starts forward in a proud walk, Nari taps Zuko's foot with her head. "Stay close." Her lips move soundlessly, face turned to Zuko when she knows Oki isn't looking.
The boy's steps bounce with each kick off the ground, and Nari notices some gained height and muscle from the last time she saw him— thankfully they've been feeding him here. One could count the bones in his body several months ago.
"I've told you, it's Hiroki!" The boy says with his back turned, navigating the halls like a pro. Like walking the veins on the back of his hand. "And we've missed you, here, too!" He cheers, turning a cheeky smile over his shoulder. "Boss-man said you were one of the best, ya' know!"
Zuko raises a brow as Nari runs her thumb and pointer finger along the lines of her forehead, almost embarrassed for Zuko to hear such news.
"We ain't got that many girls like you around. Not anymore at least. They're gone now."
Nari and Zuko held identical blank stares of confusion, after of course, making sure no one was around to witness their lack of knowledge.
"Gone?" She tilts her head preemptively as if apologizing for not understanding.
Zuko disobeys Nari as his tone drops low in question. "'Girls like her'?" He speaks, not long before Nari flings a side fist for his gut. He grunts, Hiroki spins around, and they both stand straight with placid faces. Or, placid regarding the daofei's terms; respectful smiles, narrowed brows, hunting eyes.
And that first part is completely optional, with respect kept in definition.
"Ikko was brutal and fierce, she was bad-ass." It surprises Nari to hear the kid curse. He's only so young, but around these people, that influence can bear heavy on a kid. "She did what the boss said without being ordered or asked, and everyone else did what she said the same way. And those other girls, well, either they were defiant, or they weren't savage enough." He makes a garbled sound at the back of his throat as his hand hacks the nape of his neck, imitating something gory. "Boss don't like that."
Nari swears she hears a puff come from Zuko's mouth, something in disbelief.
Her face remains as stoney as the mountain.
Within many more turns, Nari keeping up with Hiroki at her side, Zuko lingering dangerously behind, the clamoring of others grows louder. Like a warm hug of a community sharing laughter and wine. Drinks, for that matter.
The wheat field around them did not allow for such pricey beverages and instead made for cheap bears and drinks of varying bitterness.
Still, those who could muster it, and the effects afterward, would tolerate it from time to time, enjoying the presence of members alongside them. Until a fight rose, of course. Then other cheers would sound out upon the room.
This was not an underground tavern for thieves and criminals to hide out and get wasted, it was a collection, a community, of those hurt by high power. Or, the rules of it. Those who got stripped of everything they had, from emotions to physical luxuries, and made a family out of alike souls. This is what Nari found, and she was treated better here than in her own home.
Most of these outlaws are.
When Nari walks into the spacious dug-out room, wooden posts up all around to support the ceiling, earth-bent chairs, tables, and places to gather filled with many familiar faces. The first to find her is Tana, a bender from the water tribe who's fresh out of a prison some years ago.
Her blue eyes light up as she tosses her dark brown, thick braid over her shoulder. Just like Hiroki, she twirls her face in disbelief before springing from her position. There's a matter of face, here. Keeping your cool regardless of who returns and who doesn't. But Tana can't help the smile that curses her water tribe features. "Ikko," Her voice is low, kept calm as she turns on the stump of earth she sat on.
Nari pushes past Hikaro with a pat on his shoulder, greeting the long-lost friend. "Tana." She smirks. "You're still here, huh? Same seat and everything." The seat next to Tana is something Nari could always count on the water bender to save. She takes it as Tana lifts her cup, tilting her head.
"Someone's gotta hold down the fort when you leave." Her voice is low and velvety, a tone Nari forgot about from time to time. The cheerful beam on her face when she wasn't attending to business made it hard to connect the two items. Dark voice, bright appearance. Her clothes are a mix of blues and greens, water tribe wraps over green sleeves, and khaki cargo pants tucked in her shirt with a twine rope as her belt. A mix of cultures; she grew up surrounded by the pricks of the Northern Water Tribe, but when she spent her time in isolation, the Fire Nation beat it out of her, and she picked up the dialogue and stubbornness of the earth folk. Landed her here. She's a perfect match for this daofei, Nari finds-- they aren't particular to one certain nation. It's not the barriers you're born in that get you here, it's what happened within them. For Tana's instance, she's jumped all over the world until sticking down here.
She lowers her brow, swallowing harshly as she sets her clay cup against the table with a thud. "How long are you staying for, huh?" She wipes her with a sleeve too long for her arms, and Nari works her jaw. Tana never drank the stuff everyone else did. "It's water, Tree, calm it."
Nari laughs as she scoffs, her elbow against the table and her cheek against her fist. She looks to Zuko with a jolt of her head, pulling in his presence. "We were in town."
Tana didn't need Nari's words to fill in the gaps which they don't cover. She'll make assumptions of her own. "Ya' left us for some dude?" She clicks the back of her teeth as she raises her brow at Zuko. "That dude?"
Nari sits straighter. She rolls her shoulders back, pursing her lips. "There were other reasons. Revenge was one of them. This boy ain't got nothing to do with anything. But he had money. And a ship." Nari bitterly laughs, something Tana matches, before continuing. "That got busted real quick."
Tana rubs her hands, nails outlined in dirt, over her dark lips, hiding a creeping mockery smile. "Took what, five months?"
"Lost count." Nari shrugs, fixing a refined posture to fit in with the remainder of the population. Her insouciant voice rests below the conversations of everyone else, and for good reasons. Not everyone needs to know she's back. Then she can't slip out when she needs to. Plus any fresh Fire Nation folk are bound to know of Zuko's scar, and even Nari's face.
Azula's bound to have plastered posters everywhere.
And here, everyone needs to be no one.
"You always got a place here, 'ko. You know that," Tana starts, and dread swarms Nari's stomach. It constricts as Nari's eyes narrow on Tana: what are you saying? "But the Boss-Man, he ain't too peachy 'bout you dropping out like a fly. I'd get fixin' to tell 'em your back before someone else does, just to be safe."
Nari runs her tongue over her teeth, a slimy swipe, as she relaxes the muscles of her stomach. "That's the thing, Tana." She frowns, husky tone below that of a whisper around here. The Boss has ears all around, and if one peep spills, it reaches him. He's got his claws on every one of these daofei members-- everyone is family, but everyone wants to be by his right side. Nari was close to that, some time ago. "I'm just passing by. I can't stay in one place too long no more."
Zuko has never heard such foul grammar come from Nari's lips. Such a midnight tone reap from her throat. It is like she's a different person, here. With different people. He's been surveying the area while giving Nari time to catch up with her old friend, a mean face becoming his mask. There are arm wrestles that turn someone's sleeve to a limp stocking; banters of curses ending in bellowed laughter; girls at the sides of guys, or threatening them with knives. The worst part is that no one here exceeds what must be twenty-one or twenty-two years old. And the youngest is that Hiroki kid who let them in.
Tana raises yet another brow. "What'd you do now?" She draws another sip.
"Let's just say I was a royal pain in the ass." Nari implies. Her hands fall to knees covered in tight olive-toned pants. They are more of tights, leggings even, like the ones she'd wear below the outfit Nari claimed to be her fighting attire. After she reunited with Zuko, this was an outfit she wore for as many hours of the day as she could. As if it were stitched to her skin. She loved it, but now she's stuck in this pale green garbage.
Tana leans forward, interest peaked as her hands folded under her chin. "Oh, you upset royalty, didn't you?" She waits for Nari to nod, a confused and hesitant tilt of the paler girl's head from one side to the other. Nari's short black hair, more choppy than how Tana last saw it, tickled each side of her neck. "Which one."
Nari purses her lip. "I see it best that gets kept a secret." She sits back in her seat, legs crossing formally at the ankles.
Originally, she dropped a mannered look. That's what's needed here. But now Nari retreats to her years of beaten-in discipline.
And Tana laughs at her for it. She batts her eyelashes with a grin wider than the open sky. "How prestigious of you, Ikko. How honorable." Nari never knew if anyone could tell she was of Fire Nation lineage. If she had that rage naturally coursing in her blood. And she never knew if anyone accepted it here, either. But now that's made clear, as no one respects their honor like those of the dreaded nation in red. And the people she's seen with sharp features and white skin, with golden, yellow, or brown and even beige jewels for eyes, prove the claim against fire-folk wrong.
There are at least seven out of some forty people in this section of the daofei hide-out who share her citizenship, as she's spotted around to see. Hiroki, Zuko, and Nari do not contribute to that number.
Nari shoots Tana a glare that tests her knowledge. All the more, she slights her answer. "I'll tell you which one it ain't," Nari says.
She jolts her head and eyes upward, to the ceiling of chunked rocks, dusted with an old red clay, as if referencing the kingdom which owns it and not the territory outlaws claim it as.
Ironic, it feels. She's on the run from Fire Nation royalty but half of the new bloodline stands shock-still and quiet as the air, a totem by her side.
"Hm," Tana nods. She sips from her cup, wiping her mouth with her young after staring at Nari over its brim. She sets the cup down, quieter this time. "Any specifics? Outrunning that kinda heat directly means you did something bad. And that's good, here."
Nari was close to Azula, too close, as of recently. Even if it were a rocky friendship, a path of boiling coals that chard the souls of those walking it, she was still Azula's companion. Up until Zuko got burned, then that was put down by other troubles until times rose where they could meet again. And they did. And she betrayed her, fought her, and proved useless to her nation.
Not to mention, she's got a reputable past pretty much everywhere, now.
"I got in someone's way," Nari replies evenly, "you know higher-ups hate that."
Nari's chest and shoulders weighed down with an unshakable dread. One like when she was at the academy and knew of the deadlines but still let her work pile up until it was late. That is what stabs through her lungs, right now, but she can't place why. "I'm more than just an outlaw, now. I'm a traitor. As much as I'd like to stay, hunkering down in one place for too long is a sure-fire way for someone to notice my face."
Nari swears she hears a growl placed at the back of Zuko's throat. He folds his arms behind his back, rolling up to his tiptoes before rolling back down.
She forgot about him.
As Tana nods understandingly, though a forthcoming bitter goodbye rings from ear to ear, Nari switches the subject around.
"Any good fights goin' on tonight?" She pipes up, shoulders rolling back, legs returning to a straddled position that would get the back of her hands whipped and smack a rod against her backbone.
Tana grows visibly excited. Back when Nari wasn't just 'passing by', Nari would kick some serious ass. But something about the cautious boy standing above her tells Tana things have changed. Nari's best on her own. Any job given to her was a solo one. And now she has this scarred-up sissy boy tagging along her feet like he's lost. Because he is lost. The guy doesn't fit in here.
"Yeah, a big one. " Tana answers smoothly. "Why, you tryna' compete?"
Though Nari is not one to back down, fighting wouldn't be her forte. Her body still shakes with soreness, each muscle ripping a cry for help with movements at random. Her back is another story. Time heals all wounds, but nothing physical. Nari shoots Zuko an apologetic glance before looking back at her friend. "Not tonight. Just trying to show Lee how we do things around here."
The boy perked up with the mention of his fake name. Is it finally time to leave this place?
No, it was far from that.
Tana slams down the remainder of her water before standing to dust off her cargo pants. Her full height is exposed as she does so. A muscular build and stature that's not as tall or buff is hidden under baggier clothes, but alike both girls are taller than Zuko.
He's slightly belittled. Literally.
Tana claps him on the back, urging him forward with a smirk. "Come on, pip-squeak." She cheers. "Let's get you acquainted."
♛
Through tunnels, turns, and many confusing passageways, Tana leads Nari and Zuko above ground. They're met with a fresh town, one unseen on maps, on territory, on any mind regardless-- if someone hadn't a clue of this daofei, then they hadn't a clue of this town. And even if a soul knew, they'd perish in the traps set before they could find such a small village.
There are mountains so treacherous they haven't been mapped in the centuries of existence, and though it's never known as they walk below ground, the terrain is measured so deathly cursed by spirits no one dares to search for the small daofei's home. Humans are wary of spirits, and will always be.
Unless of course, they are the avatar. Or some enlightened guru.
The town hasn't shifted or changed one bit-- it reminds Nari of a time when she was first brought here.
Tana jokingly shoved her by the shoulders. "Common, newbie." She said. "I gotta show you to everyone,"
Nari chewed the inside of her lip, her stomach constricting. It hadn't been long since she killed Akio-- what if he were out here? What if his connections spread as easily as a virus? What if Akio is the least of her worries?
Ever since she left home, Nari knew to stray from throngs or friendliness. If everyone wanted her on her own, or worse, then she would live that wish and excel with it. And for as far as she is now, she managed. Yet now a water bender who's been rumored to walk these passageways and streets for some time-- though her body language and others beg to oppose that-- shoves a jolt at her upper spine.
"I don't want to meet your friends," Nari grumbled. Her voice echoed through the silent halls of clay-red dirt like an ominous animal's growl.
Tana bellows out a warm laugh. "Oh please! You're not so stoic that you can't accept some human interaction, are you, girl?"
"It's Ikko." Nari corrects. "And I am not highly keen on friends."
Even with her rugged and poor and earthly look, Nari's inky black hair, yellow and narrow eyes, and slender-sharp features, they all gave away her true heritage. She was a Fire Nation girl. It was far from common in these parts, that's for sure, but usually, they were most loyal. Something about losing their honor and hoping to regain it within this small set of daofei. "I'm sure you ain't." Tana clicks her teeth as she falls on the flank with Nari, matching the long strides of the tall girl.
"I guess that's why the big ol' red kicked you out, huh? Got all brute, and they ain't highly keen on that ain't they, girl?" Tana's voice raised a pitch to mimic Nari's habitual mannerism. She tried to ditch it, but it was sown to her blood. "Fire Nation doesn't like it when their ladies get violent."
"I wasn't violent!" Nari shouted, voice backed with such a hasty need to prove herself that it punches the tunnels surrounding them. Nari shed no care to how Tana threw around the name of Nari's nation, how she knew where the fire bender was from without a say. She clears her throat preemptively. "I defended myself, but no one understood that."
"I see," Tana claimed, and Nari grew bitter. How could she understand what Nari had to be shoved through? "They didn't see eye-to-eye, so you figured you'd take an eye-for-an-eye."
Nari paused her steps until Tana urged her forward. Her eyes read a warning Nari already knew: don't let anyone stop you in your tracks. It's a weakness. And you're stronger than that. "That's not... I didn't leave because of that." Nari spoke up as she met Tana's pace again.
Tana hummed with a nod, fixing her gaze forward. "So you didn't kill anyone." She said. "That's why you lost that precious fire nation honor?"
"Hmph," Nari huffed, biting her cheek as she tilted her head in denial. "It's because I did."
The water bender's lips quirked up in a darkened smile, flashing clenched teeth. Her jawline stiffened when she smirked at Nari, the two rivaling heights at the time. "Ah, revenge. The best thing evil has to offer. You'll fit in well, here."
Now Nari towers inches over Tana, and she glances down at her companion with a nostalgic lining to her lips, raised in one corner. "Ain't nothin' different, huh?" She asks the water bender, who walks with a bounce, hands swinging and clapping rhythmically.
"Not structurally," Tana says. She takes a brief look around, surveying the area, looking for the weak links of the daofei that still tattle to get to the top. "You left and the boss man got more... cynical. He's gotta watch who's out, doin' what."
Nari twists her lips, pursing them as she looks at Zuko. Had the boss been wondering what Ikko was up to these days? Had he sent someone to watch her, make sure she's keeping word of the daofei down her throat?
She certainly has. Not a peep left her mouth about it until now. Until Zuko thought she was reckless and stupid. Until he thought she couldn't handle herself.
Well, Nari most certainly can. And she's not one to be reckless and irrational-- Zuko holds that title.
Tana nudges Nari with her elbow when she notices the hesitation written on her features. "Everyone's goin' to this fight, Ikko. Best you keep your face."
"Right," Nari corrects the look on her face. She never noticed how her lips downturned and her brows weighed heavy. She never noticed the sag in her shoulders and the slowness in her walk. Tana did; luckily she made sure Nari upheld the reputation she had last.
So Nari holds her chin high up with brows furrowed to her eyelashes, eyes narrowed but relaxed, lips pulled into a thin line.
She flicks a wrist at Zuko, as he walks close enough to her that she could do this without any other onlooker spotting it. Originally the prince had his gaze on the ground– had he bumped into someone, he'd be challenged. Had a bold and arrogant daofei spotted his feeble demeanor, he'd be challenged.
Zuko looks to Nari and realizes two things as she's held herself in a way he's never seen. Even without the makeup she casually wore to perfection, without the dark eyeliner and bloodied lips of red, Nari held two adjectives to her apoplectic air. Terrifying and beautiful. She manages to be both.
The moonlight hits her face in such a pale manner she could be a vengeful spirit, but Zuko shakes the thought from his head. He can't be caught staring at her. The prince needs to look as savage and tough, bold, like Nari. Terrifying and beautiful Nari. Looking at her with childish eyes will not accomplish such. All the while, she doesn't need to know about Zuko's newfound revelation.
The new Nari which he knows would probably snap his head off or steal the clothes from his back for thinking of her like that. Yet, the prince fails to realize Nari would take this as an admirable compliment.
He decides to copy her fearsome look, but keep his head lowered behind his straw hat to hide his scar. Still, his eyes sharpened like a warrior's knife.
The three had stalked down a path of dirt squashed into the ground by hundreds of feet, passed roughly built homes that are miracles still standing, shops that closed down for the night, and even a small watering well that must hydrate the outlaw town. Through all these streets, criminals lurked as free men, but each one respected the other.
It sent chills down Zuko's spine, and electricity down Nari's.
This place was once a better home, a better family, than the one her own parents had built. It's empowering to be back on the grounds she once ran.
"You ought to catch up with our man. He's been in need of a second hand, you know?" Tana suggests to Nari, leaning the fire bender's way as her own steps grow staggered and uneven. "He still thinks of you highly. No one else is as cold-blooded as you."
Nari looks to Zuko with a hidden face of apology. But she quickly removes it, finding she actually wants Zuko to see this side of her. It's why she brought him here all along. It's been the notion behind her mastermind plan to get Zuko off her back. She's not a child. She's a daofei.
"It's hard when all your members are simple thieves." Nari deadpans, her voice sending chills through the air.
Tana rears her head back with an impressed scoff. "Wow, Ikko." She laughs bitterly. "I forgot how calloused you were."
Nari folds her arms over her chest, head raising a smidge higher. "A rock can roll through rivers and smoothen out, but it will always be a rock." She recalls words of Iroh, who'd be unmeasurably disappointed with her at this very moment. Using his words of wisdom, about being one's true self, used to justify harsh words to a fellow daofei member? If Iroh knows about these clans, and he certainly does, then Nari dreads the day the old man finds out about her commitment.
He told her this 'rock' spiel when Nari tried to deny long-linked friendship with Zuko upon first joining them– a friendship can run through heavy waters, yet in the end, there will always be affability. Though the two departed for some time, the moments spent with each other would remain a part of them for as long as the sun shined.
What stupid, silly, childish advice.
Nari finds it soundless, only growing angrier with Zuko as time goes on.
The boy bites his lip, and Nari can hear a small choke in the back of his throat that no one possibly could've noticed aside from her. But he remains silent. Sushed.
"I know you came from a prison, Tana. But most of us scavenged for food and did what we had to, and found our way here." Nari hides her apology in an explanation. "You used a will for vengeance to get you through isolation, the rest of us use the same will to get us through life,"
Tana folds her arms behind her back. "Not you though," She stops before the barn which the approach. From outside of such, shouting and cheering, along with disagreeing boos, spill from cracks in the wood, along with golden light from lit torches and lanterns. Barely anyone was outside, and if they were, it was a drunken group catching air and silence from the commotion inside. Or, like Tana, Nari, and Zuko, late stragglers coming in to gain entertainment. "You've got your revenge, which is more than what most of us can say. Cold-blooded, unhinged, all that. You're commended here because you killed with no remorse."
Nari chews her lip before working her jaw, scoffing past a laugh. Good times, she figures.
It comes as a new understanding to Zuko, who now sees why she's so natural here. In the Fire Nation, she's treated unfairly. She killed one person in an Agni Kai, she won. That, or it's an act of defense. Yet she was criminalized because it was fueled by rage, because she was thought to be out of control. And because Akio was the son of a high-ranked Noblemen. But she was the daughter of one even higher.
Yet that didn't matter, did it? Bitterness rises within the young boy's throat at the fear thought of such, piqued coals burning his lungs. It didn't matter that the only way to win an Agni Kai is to finish the job, it didn't matter that he almost killed her first, it didn't matter that what she did was by all means correct. Someone just needed an outlet for something, and that was a traumatized fifteen-year-old who'd forever have to deal with blood on her hands.
Albeit, the blood is on her hands...
And that very thought is the epitome of Nari's motif: where Zuko and the rest of his nation saw her as a killer in cold blood and shunned her, these people saw her as one and applauded it. So she came to this place and felt understood.
It's a shame Nari'll never know that Zuko understands her, now.
Tana nods the two into the barn with a smile. A smile which is not caused by Nari's return, or the friendly memories she brings, nor is it regarding the upcoming fights in which Nari's bound to take part. It's because of the way Zuko, or Lee as she knows, looks to Ikko– and that's with incredible softness.
As it's said, Nari swore she never left her home with the daofei for this boy, but by the glance Lee gives her, he'd leave what he has for her. A glint in his eyes would never leave her, the dips of his brows– brow–, too. This glance of Lee's, utterly unseen by Ikko herself, is one that is so strictly strung he'd never leave her side so long as air circulated his lungs.
Tana wishes Nari'd twist her head to Lee's direction with a hinted smile from the water bender herself; some inkling of a slacking-match-maker spirals up. Spirits know Nari could stand to learn that someone looks at her so intensely they'd never leave.
To the lack of the water bender's knowledge, Zuko's already proved this to the stubborn-headed girl. Back in the North Pole, with the avatar. He yielded for her– Zuko refused to leave. Yet, Nari tries to avoid that thought. And avoid Zuko in general. Or at least shake him off a bit and show him how tough she is.
She needs no babying.
Nari is smart.
Zuko isn't. He never uses his head, and that's why Tana taking the two to view tonight's nail-biting fights is such a great opportunity.
Light blossoms from the crack of the door which Tana swings open, shouts and laughers, bellows of all kinds singing out like an orchestra of spirits. The warm atmosphere of the barn is a stark comparison to a cold chill of a spring night, the heavy air damp and waiting for a soon-coming morning storm.
The barn swells with raged faces, tuned to the turns of a Lei Tai which brawls out within its center. Grinning faces with clenched teeth grinding together as they cheer and chant for a favored opponent: a lady roughly three years above Nari's own age, with a shaved scalp and venomous green eyes, is the typical favorite. The woman locks her slits onto her fellow fighter, whose nose is similarly sized to a small potato. A water tribe face with tan tones and softer features scrunches in pain as he's jabbed to the ground.
The previous girl bares a wicked smile as she digs a heel against her opponent's sternum, left hand reared back.
Zuko pulls Nari back via her arm, hand tensed around her bicep as pleading eyes try to settle. Gold has diminished to a warm-appearing gray as his brow bones sink into them, creases spoiling half-burnt skin while his lips part in a silent gap. This expression, along with his grip which ripped Nari's folded hand from her hip, sends the girl's steps back in a stutter. "Ikko," Zuko starts, voice cracking as it fills with apprehension. With worry. The same boiling emotions that bubble over onto a falsely chilled face. "This doesn't look... safe," He announces his suspicion, forcing a stern tone that's betrayed by his features.
Nari skips past the burning ache in his gut, or the tied up tension within his chest– all things he's surely symptomatic for– as she nudges herself away from doubt. "Relax," She growls, a huffed demand as she pushes her gaze forward animalistically. "Nothin' bad's gonna happen unless you make it. You're bein' irrational, and these guys'll see right through it. So cool it."
Tana drops her thick brows against blazing eyes. The tone which her friend uses is far from kind; calloused and brute. Cold, aiming for the heart. Far from whatever she used with everyone else here, and far from what she should be using with someone who admits concern and care. "Aye," She speaks loudly, throwing her voice over the swiftly changed mood as she catches the two's attention. "Ikko, Boss man's waitin' for us up top. He don't know you got a friend with ya, or that you're here, so you best get to introducing yourself. You know he likes hearin' shit from the source."
Nari clamps her teeth into her tongue. Crushing the muscle until metal hits it, and then some more, following in Tana's wake.
The barn was built to favor the 'boss's' favor– there lay an unbendable platform in its center, tables and chairs and Daofei all in its perimeter as above it rests a hayloft. It's intimidating in nature, especially as one first enters the barn only to meet slivering eyes which glower down above a fence's rail. Or how frightening it is to have a single escape of one rusty ladder once up there. This part of the village, this single structure, was intentionally built to mimic a similar structure of some Daofei from Avatar Kyoshi's era. The name of the group in a failure in Nari's mind; she can't recall it, only that the boss picked and prodded her mind like a test when she first joined.
It's a mirror image, like a structure brought back from time, down to the very hayloft assigned to a leader.
That's where Ryo sits on a virtual throne. Albeit just a chair, having his rear placed in it meant everyone respected that spot, just as he demanded it. And for those who wish his validation, they run around like ants in a hill tending to each of his needs; severts, verily. As one scurries down the ladder for whatever he decided he didn't need, Tana, Nari, and Zuko wait at its base. Around it lay markings of sourly unfortunate members whom Ryo surely punted off the hayloft– more recent blood makes Zuko turn his head.
A hasty scan of her surroundings allows Nari to speak. She grips the sleeve of Zuko's attire, yanking him close. Eyes clashing against each other, gold to gold, she notices more than just caution spiking within him. It's a feeling of being unsafe. A feeling of fear. And not just for himself. "Hey," Nari's hut wrenches in guilt– what had she put him through?– as she tastes something foul rise to her tongue. Zuko had seen the monstrosities of war, the death and tolls, the fighting, but he'd only seen nations against citizens, not humans against humans. He'd not been prepared for blood that is shed mercilessly, unneeded. And whatever runs through Zuko's mind has run through Nari's mind before; it's not good. "Don't look at that, just look at me." She calms, or attempts to, as her hand moves from a pinch to a hold.
But Zuko still works his jaw at the reddened sight, or the sound of bones cracking from the platform behind him.
Nari rubs her thumb freely over Zuko's arm as her hand slightly tenses around his bicep. She wishes she could tell him that she knows his fear, his uncertainty. She's witnessed the cold emptiness that wraps itself around Zuko's core, his stomach. But right now, she can't. And even if she understands Zuko, she can't get across to him in any other way than this. And even the hold she has on him currently is astounding to her. "Don't speak, don't let him get in your head," Nari issues a warrant of her concern, voice authentic and sincere. It's a stark contrast from the demands of earlier. As she drops her hand from Zuko's shoulder, she brushes his wrist unintentionally; the warmth that tickles her arm fights a flush behind her neck. "Ryo's dangerous. He'll rid you of his sight the second you show a lick of disloyalty."
Zuko's eyes drop down to his hands until they return to the solace of Nari's. Of Ikko's. "Got it."
Nari smiles against his pursed lips and tight nod, and an action follows which is from the strength of her heart rather than her mind. She wraps her pinky around his, a gentle touch which he soon complies to. Just seconds ago her neck warmed itself with the touch, but now Nari's face blooms with a pink she must hide. Below her lungs is a flighty feeling, and somehow her heart races slow and fast, simultaneously. No... you're mad at him. Don't let that change, Nari.
With all veracity laid out, Nari faces a dilemma. She's furious with Zuko, yes, and she wants to push herself back from him. But highlight that word: wants. In reality, she can't– when she sees Zuko with his head ducked low, his mouth sewn shut, his eyes pleading for any sign of assured safety, there becomes this indescribable... something. If poetry were a dictionary, there might be a word for it, but a loop hsa reset Nari's brain. Zuko, to her, is not something she can so easily be irritated by right now. Instead, he's something to shelter. Nari's driven by this... this thing– what is this thing!?– and Zuko's just there. At the edge of the road. Waiting for her.
She furrows her brows trying to take in the thought. Process it. Lay it out in simpler terms.
But perhaps there's nothing for it. Perhaps nothing can describe how Nari feels, now; nothing can quite explain how she needs to do something. And she needs not tangle their hands together, not to hug him, or smile at him, or offer some light words to provide solace. She needs not give him a certain, calm look. She just needs to be. With Zuko. She placed herself next to him, left some kind of stain to him and his life, and now in ways of making up for it, she needs to shelter him. Or not shelter, but... Hmph. Zuko is this thing in her mind, and she doesn't need to protect that thing, yet sure as Agni does she now hold it dear. Dearer than life.
Maybe Nari is simple for thinking that– albeit it's a profoundly bizarre way to admit she more than cares for someone– or maybe it comes with the mix of emotions found in returning to an old home. Either way, she–
"Aye, love-bugs!" A familiar water tribe rasp pulls Nari out of her thoughts, and Tana waits with a leg impatiently perched on the first step of the ladder. "Let's get a move'on before I die, shall we?"
Occasionally, Tana found it funny to mimic the upper classes with fancy words. And even more commonly would she mix the two. This was somehow her way of prompting Nari and Zuko to the top of the hayloft.
The two equally ignored her previous comment, for they are much too involved in the apprehensive nerves that knot up their abdominals. Nari's own stomach weighs itself down, butterflies with wings of stone taking up empty space. They flutter around in a dance of dread as she scales the ladder, Zuko not far behind.
Nari's eyes meet Ryo's like two knives crafted from hellfire.
He lifts a skyward chin, which delighted itself with a hint of stubble. A sharp jawline is dulled by such so that the tightening of his teeth cannot easily be seen. "Ikko," He smirks a devilish smile that stiffens Nari's back below notice, eyes narrowed past interest. "How pleasant it is to have you back,"
Nari bows in compliance to her elder, her foot tapping back instructing Zuko to follow suit. She masks it by reaching her toes to her opposite calf, scratching at an itch. Her voice drills a hole through the air, "The pleasure is all mine, Ryo," She replies. Mentioning him by name, tone embarrassingly foregin– crafted perfectly with charisma and spite. "I brought a friend."
It was strange, crossing paths with those she knew not too long ago but forgetting the ring of their voice. The spark in dangerous eyes. Coming face to face with sloppily overgrown hair, sharp features that scare off any prey, red rags thrown richly over broad shoulders– coming face to face with Ryo. It's not something easily done, and the man knows it. With two familiar faces lingering in shadows behind– one stained with a knife-fight's scar, wrapping from the girl's temple to her chin, and the next sunken with dark eyes. Zura and Shan, lurking where no torches or lanterns are set ablaze. Open to Ryo's command.
Under his chin the leader folds a hand, placed there after swiping the back of it against his jaw. A swift motion which could pass as him simply scratching at his neck.
Tana and Zuko may have believed this, but Nari steals a look from the corner of attentive eyes. Catches the stealthy motion as Shan slithers soundlessly behind Zuko as pauses a sharp onyx blade to his throat. Such a smooth, hastful act that no one quite has time to stop it.
All the more, Nari tries to hold back a yelp; her muscles ache to spring into action, to work Zuko out of the predicament she placed him in. Get the knife away from his neck, away from his skin, away from him. Because the masked fear in his eyes as Shan's blade pressures deeper into his neck– not enough to cut blood, but enough that his skin sinks in with its touch– is not a look Nari wishes to witness. In fact, it makes her heart slam against her chest with a rapid fire, nerves soaring through the blood it processes. He'll die. Nari suffers. They'll kill him without an ounce of regret.
And Ryo only turns his hand to rest a smile upon it. "I see that," He charms, anxiously waiting for the events to roll out in his entertained favor. He pays no mind to the boy who could be ridden in an instant, and all mind to Nari. How she reacts, what show she lets slip through cracks of concentration, what impressions she tries to manage. A slip of his right leg and he's standing by Zuko's side, petting his finger along the boy's chin. "Fresh meat, huh? It's a shame that'll go to waste."
Zuko's eyes dart to Nari, pleading for help within shaking orbs though it appears as a look of hatred, and Nari gets it. A shivered breath as Ryo's fingertip taps off his jaw, the man falling into a blind spot, promotes fear and anxiousness, a lack of keeping his cool. But when threatened with death, how can one remain cool? Nari recognizes this, recognizes how hard it must be to so much as exhale right now, and lifts her pinky in a signal of telling him it'll be okay.
She lowers softened eyes, sighs: it's alright. Stay calm, I'll get you out of this.
Nari acts just as she should've moments prior whenever Ryo clicks his tongue, swiping the knife from Shan by twisting his wrist to de-arm him. Pushing the Daofei back. Tucking the blade against her hip and stealing Shan's extra knife before kicking it off the hayloft.
Her breath speeds heavy within her words as she ducks below a potnetail punch. "You're wrong, Ryo." She growls, voice low and velvety, eye lit ablaze with a protection over her friend– a different side of Nari kicks into gear, her blood boiling red-hot. I dare you to touch him; try me: that's what her raspy words meant. "Lee ain't fresh meat, and he ain't going to waste." Most importantly, you ain't gonna test me... Nari lifts her hand from her weaponized waist, yanking Zuko behind her as she straightens up to her elder. Chin up. Short hair brushing over brawny shoulders. Eyes struck onto her opponent, never leaving the largest threat of danger.
Zuko heaves in a quiet breath– no, one much softer leaves his lungs– as he regains his standing from Nari's shove. Save for the replaying moment of a slick Nari with golden slits staring down her enemies while de-arming them and saving him, there's not much of a thought in his head. It was such a swift motion that he couldn't even comprehend it, and now Zuko's mind tries to make up for that– it was just so... perfect. Fierce. Calculated profientaly. He's not in awe about her skills any longer, he doesn't look at this Ikko like some plague that stole Nari; he's entered a stage of admiration.
Simply stated: Zuko never knew this Nari existed. He never saw her as some stunningly cut-throat demon. A woman who could achieve anything by any means. It was astonishing, the things she told him, and he hated to hear it– such rose a gut-wrenching knot in his stomach, cut him deep in the chest, left him to bleed out alone– but now he understands slightly.
Albeit, he still doesn't like the idea of Nari throwing herself in a line of constant danger.
Ryo clicks the hard-covered heel of his boot against the floor with an engaged whistle, his brow smoothly arched over a mountain of leisure. "Then why bring him here, my dear?" His hand reaches for her chin, lifting it to his height as he waits for slowly approaching eyes to test him. Nari's tightened jaw and disobeying frown of bared teeth only greet him in return. Brows brought down to her lashes, hot breath breaking against Ryo's face with a growl of disapproval.
Zuko blinked.
Nari pulled herself together before she acted upon a thought of biting off his hand. From Ryo's palm, she jerks her chin to the side, spotting a look at the centerpiece of the situation. "I trust 'em," She flicks a shoulder Zuko's way, already having done such with her tensed jaw. "Figured 'em family enough to bring him to my sworn one," She answers bitterly, stepping back from Ryo with a roughed expression; rock solid and grating, like a jagged shore. Her hand tosses a spinning knife up from her hip before catching it perfectly, as though it clicked magically into her hand. "If you're just gonna scare him with some fancy knife show, I'll take his abilities elsewhere."
The prince swallows down a hot coal, burying a teeth-grinding thought of how attractive that was– why is he seeing her this way? Why was she being so... "nice"... after how she acted earlier in the day?
Nari assumes the switch in temperature is Zuko's fear, that rising heat around them. Figures it's just him uncomfy and unwell, after all the kid just had a knife itch at her throat. She can't consider other possibilities, nor would she ever think to, as Ryo twists his jaw in a sour scowl.
His voice rumbles within the base of his throat. "Abilities?" He says with a laugh, taking a step closer to an unaffected Nari. "I snuff out talent like I snuff out betrayal, and I'm getting a whole lot of nothin'." He spits against her face, enjoying the pique which builds around her features, settles within cracked lines. Testing people, testing Nari, it's all part of the games Ryo plays to amuse himself. To grant the quick cash of living. Fun: there's no point without it. "Though I did seem to mistake yours." Another earth-roaring grumble, this time less of a growl than it is some husky chuckle.
Nari swipes spare spit from her sharp cheekbone with a twisted, petty smirk. "I didn't betray your ass, and I don't need your crooked nose sniffin' out my talent to know it's good." A sneer of a candy coated, venomous, dark tone, and Nari lets her breath come out in smoke. Like the rumble of Ryo's throat, Nari lights a fire from hers– it glows bright through her skin, her esophagus, burns her words ablaze. "I came back, and alive, too. Maybe you ain't as smart as you're told."
And Ryo smiles. Backs down to the girl, relieving the heat that stemmed from her skin like a mirage as his feet distance him from Nari. Silent, the man is– or at least for a while, before a laugh punches the air. "Cocky. That's what I like about you, Ikko." A roaring snicker simmers down to a gentle cackle as he wipes a fake tear from flaxen eyes. Ryo struts to Shan before returning the knife from Nari's hand. An apoplectic young boy. "That's what makes you different from these dumbass Daofei."
Whacking Shan by the back of the head, Ryo sends him to flank with Zura. The other girl hasn't moved a single muscle.
Nari slumps her posture, raising a single brow at that.
An authentic Ryo, who is currently having the time of his life, spreads his arms out wide. "Take note, my brothers and sisters," He speaks to his two defenders, though his ring can be heard across the barn. "Ikko never loses her footing, she holds her ground. Speaks her mind. Stands up for... those who need it.." Ryo lifts a snarl to Zuko, who's protected by an angry Nari, flashing his teeth in a lopsided disgust with his chin upward. "While this boy-"
"His name is Lee." Nari corrects.
It's strange; back in the Fire Nation, high rank always introduces the lower ranks, not vice versa. Yet, now Nari introduces a prince to a scoundrel. Though Ryo would never know of that, surely– Nari's achieved a sizable rank in stark contrast to Zuko, here. "Right," Indifferently, the leader speaks. "This boy might not be her family, but she cares enough for him to suffer a blade on his part."
Nari's stomach constricts. She cringes: it's a mistake. Care should never be mentioned for Zuko, because her only care in the world is internal. Selfish. Egocentric. Damn her for swaying that. "It was a collapse in training," She clarifies, "in the code, or whatnot. He had money and a boat, security– now it's gone. 'Care' is a terrible word to use."
Zuko scoffs at this– lies. Otherwise, she wouldn't have wrapped her pinky in mine, or risk her life for mine.
Ryo holds back a cheeky smile whilst batting his lashes rapidly. "And all that's left is the security of friendship! How adorable!" His hands clasp sweetly over his chest, Ryo rolling up to his toes before leaning into an incredulous gait.
Nari rolls her eyes. Scoffs bitterly. "Lee lacks impulse," She ignores his slow strut past her, watching Ryo move with her eyes. "I have to keep him on a leash so he doesn't do something stupid. That's why I keep him by my side."
Ryo's attention is caught within the midst of her words. His feet snap together, eyes snap wide, and eyebrows dance in a wiry wiggle. He opens his mouth, but a quick twist of Nari's head prevents it. "You still care for your pet," his voice is animated in merriment. It washes dark when one elbow is cradled by an opposite palm, flicking his hand to the side. "And of course you can rid yourself of him. It ain't hard, Ikko."
"It ain't morally correct," Nari raises with a scoff, managing to sport a smile as she tilts her head trivally.
Ryo holds back a bitter chuckle. "Mommy dearest didn't care for that, did she?" He sings, hands tucked like a tail behind his back. Bright teeth bared in a smile– one which almost has Nari and Zuko starting up in defense. "And if that's the case, why are any of us here?"
He shoots a smirk over his shoulder, eyes narrowed to Nari as she tunes into the Lei Tai below them. She knows turning her back to him is lacking in thought– it's something Zuko would do. "If you're saying getting kicked to the curb is natural, if you're saying that all of us have suffered such, then you've got no excuse for trying to execute Lee." Nari drones, eyes narrowed against an earth and water bending match. Usually, earth always wins. "I was right when I said you're not as smart as you think you are, Ryo."
"And you get to make the calls for who deserves to be here, huh?" Ryo charms, voice like sticky candy despite the obvious spite behind it. "If he's so worthy of the code, then he can prove it. On the Lei Tai. We'll see that talent you speak of."
Zuko snorted to himself before attempting to head for the ladder– foolish boy. He'll get his ass handed to him. A Lei Tai is far from an Agni Kai. Nari got that lesson served to her on a shattered platter long ago. She kicks out her boot to stop him, and Zuko shoots her a face.
To keep Zuko's blood from seeping into the hayloft floor– becoming one of the many stains–, Nari steps forward with a cleared throat. "Lee ain't gonna be fightin' no one." She sneers, her voice catching in an emotion filled web. Lucily that wiring is simple rage and resentment, nothing else. "He's not a pawn to your power plays."
"Power plays?" Ryo raises entertained brows.
"It's all you've ever cared for– vengeance, strength, praise." Each step Nari takes is one deeper into an acidic tar. She's treading dangerously. "If you think I didn't warn him about you prior to showing up, you're dead wrong. Again."
Ryo laughs boisterously, once again bringing himself threateningly close to the girl. His chest pokes out as he jabs Nari's sternum, pushing her against the creaky old fence which borders the hayloft. She'd fall off, had it not been for solid-standing feet. "And you're dead right, Ikko." He puffs out one last deep-chested chuckle as he falls limp into his chair– Tana behind it eyeing Nari cautiously.
Having believed her guts were folded and tangled to an impossible extent moments prior was wrong; Nari touches her belly button to her spine as she holds in a breath, mind warped at the mere sound of her false name. Ikko. Ryo had held a shifting timbre in his voice, one that pushed a cliff of doubt and superior knowledge. He knows it's not her real name, and had he not released the rage yet, he soon would.
And the identification of the prince standing next to her would have Ryo's hands burning with indignation. He'd burn the town to ashes, with everyone still in it.
It's a miracle he remains so chilled. Perhaps it's Tana, bending Ryo's insides to ice.
"The only thing you were wrong about was thinking you and I are terribly different." Ryo's voice dances shrill, raising an eyebrow as he waits for a snap.
Nari is far from alike to Ryo– the stretch of her eyelids, increase of an already suspicious countenance, and widening of disbelieving eyes only aids her point. Not so different, huh? Not so different? Ryo is nothing like her when their similarities are stripped away. Greed; stealth; drive; superiority wishes; selfishness; the cold blood washing around below pale skin; a fire bender rage equally sat in their lungs. When it falls to the wayside, Ryo and Nari are more divergent than they are akin.
Nari tilts her head preemptively, disagreeing.
"I don't need to elaborate, do I?" A laugh makes for his voice as he kicks off his faux throne again. A cheery grin flashes pearly teeth. "That's for simple-minded folk. And you aren't simple. You understand, don't you?" His steps stalk closer to her, pushing Nari's back against the splintering wood as it arches painfully; the North Pole stained it with soreness. His air fails to break over her skin like before, a poisonous hiss taking that option away as the steam from Nari's lips mix with the wine-stained smell of his breath. A face-to-face encounter with Ryo is a sure-fire signal for danger, the end of the line, and somehow Nari senses clearance.
She doesn't flinch, even when a growl is meant to send her off balance– maybe even over the ledge– or as Zuko takes a step towards Nari protectively. Though he knows better.
Only now can she see the cut in his brow. Or his sharpened jawline, like someone evenly sliced the sides of his face off, ending at his chin. She recalls a familiarity in his eyes, the way they set to his face. A pointed nose, cut right to the sky. His black, scruffy, and unkempt hair. Despite all the time she spent at his right-hand side, she now realizes that his face is painfully recognizable. Same with his height, which rivals an inch or so taller than her, or his build. Something aged; defining cheekbones and additional facial hair.
If only Nari could place it.
That painful recognition, almost chilled inside the warmth of daring eyes. Where does she know this face from? These features? Who does she know them from?
She forces her stare against Ryo's to win a battle, neither wanting to break first. The cut-throat competition of two fiery sights, neither opponent wishing to back down. Heat burns the back of Nari's face as she patiently waits for the slightest shift in his statue. Albeit, Ryo's scowl doesn't break– his face does. His liquor-stained lips, thin in their shape and chapped as well, mouth words that hit Nari's skin like a brick wall. Stab a soul with a javelin jab. No one else sees them:
Nari.
· • -- ٠ ♛ ٠ -- • ·
published in june 2022 | 12,900 | written by peri
( * drawings at end of a/n * )
talk about a word count damn I just doubled last chapter . and to think this was originally 13k words before breaking it into two chapters ?
anyways , HUGE disclaimer :
the daofei is a huge part of the book The Rise of Kyoshi , along with part of her plot line and her character as well . I can only hope to do the creators of such justice by this , but here are important take aways :
- i did not create the daofei
- i do not intend on calling them my own or transferring their image in any way
- i recognize Avatar Kyoshi is a part of the daofei
- i am not attempting to steal from her part in any way , copy , or otherwise plagiarize the creators of her story's works . the credit of this gang goes to F. C. Yee and Michael Dante DiMartino .
- this will play a roll in nari's future plot , and including the daofei in such to me does not feel as though i am cheating or copying in my writing , just that i am adding more of the avatar-verse into Nari's book . these daofei surely do still exist in Aang's years as they do for Korra , and they'll definitely resurface as something majorly important in the future.
- I DO NOT INTEND ON STEALING OR MAKING THESE IDEAS MY OWN.
happy disclaimer .
- xoxo , peri out , peace !
- p . s . did anyone notice how prevalent zari was ? yeah ur welcome
if u can guess what's familiar about ryo's face you win . idk what but u do so guess anyways .
anyways, here are drawing(s) based on this chapter alone , there will be additional artworks that are posted in the graphics chapter ( which I need to go through , it's atrocious ) along with the ones you see here and more will come after this chapter is posted :D
- peep the shitty handwriting , anyways, this is a single image of nari walking zuko to the daofei . she's pretty . i cant draw zuko .