The sun had settled into the sunset and sweat glistened down [M/N]'s body. His hands were brought up in front of him with his palms laid flat, yet fingers clasped together as he took soft breaths. His blue eyes glared ahead of him towards his opponent who stared back just as determined and ready for the next round. His eyes glanced toward their mediator who inhaled the new cup of jasmine tea in front of him before exhaling, his eyes glanced at them before sipping the warm drink. "Prince Zuko, your form is lacking controlled attacks while you fight [M/N] head-on. He always gets the sneak on you last minute." Iroh says as he takes another pleased sip of his tea.
"I wouldn't be lacking control if he didn't shoot water from behind." Zuko hissed through grit teeth. His hair still damp from the last shot of water from behind as his eyes narrowed with a furrowed eyebrow.
"Then stop giving me an opening every single time." [M/N] replied coolly with a shrug as Zuko growled under his breath as his fist began to steam a bit. They continue with their stance as a breeze blows over them and [M/N]'s necklace jingles before Iroh finally sits his tea down next to him.
"Start the final round." Iroh stated as Zuko wasted no time to send a fist full of fire towards [M/N] who dodged the fire as water bends out from the sea around them, it circles him without much trouble as [M/N] shoots water bullets towards Zuko. The prince shouted as he hit fire back, making mist from the collision. [M/N] kept moving around with the water ring around him as Zuko ran forwards and kicked up fire and [M/N]quickly used the remaining water to stop the fire from the kick. He quickly advanced and Zuko lifted his leg to block [M/N]'s kick.
Their legs kept pushing against each other, locked in as [M/N] glanced at Zuko's face to see how determined he was to knock him over to finish the match. Their score was equal too at lunch time. His lips pursed a bit before deciding to bait him and purposely falls to his side, rolling to his side before swiping Zuko's leg from under him. The Prince grunts as he falls on his but and [M/N] flipped backwards onto his feet with a cheeky grin.
"I win." [M/N] hummed as he stretched his limbs, moving his arms and shoulders in circular motions. His stomach growls along with Zuko who mumbled under his breath about losing. [M/N] smiles before offering a hand to the Prince, Zuko glared at it before taking it. He lifts the Prince up and smiles, "Do you feel any aches or your scar?"
"It feels fine, I feel fine." Zuko brushed it off before pulling his hand away and made his way beside Iroh and huffed. "Though training with a none-skilled fighter isn't helping me find the Avatar or sailing around glaciers. We haven't even officially located the Southern Water Tribe either. For all we know is that we've been sailing in circles!" Zuko says as he slammed his fist on Iroh's table that caused the tea from the cup to spill out a bit.
"Calm down Prince Zuko, " Iroh says softly as he picked his cup up before his nephew had other ideas and decided to throw the table out of anger, "You and [M/N] have been training since lunchtime."
"Training builds skill and skill is going to help me find the Avatar but instead of sparing, I need movies Uncle." Zuko says as he gives his Uncle an annoyed glance as [M/N] sits down to rest his legs, leaning back with his arms behind him. 'You're just handing me off to [M/N]."
"Hey, I need help to learn how to fight too, especially with my water bending." [M/N] huffed as he glanced at his friend. His fighting skills especially in hand-to-hand combat is pretty good, waterbending was average. He knows simple things that he learned from scrolls that Iroh had bought over trips, some waterbending history journals in his room along with the training his mother pushed him into.
Things he would like to forget if he could but would use it if someone he cared for was in trouble.
"Easy now, how about I train you but later down the week? We just entered the Southern Waters and I'd like to enjoy the view of the snow." Iroh says with a smile, looking at his nephew with a smile. "You boys need to relax and eat for the rest of today."
"We had a big lunch, we can spar some more." Zuko says quickly as his stomach growls and rolls his eyes, "We can have a late dinner."
"You can have a late dinner after you beat up the guards or something," [M/N] quickly disagreed. His stomach was growing too and knew pork dumplings with smoked sea slug are being served for dinner then a generous portion of fruit tarts were being made tonight. "And it's fruit tarts are on the menu tonight, you know they're my favorite."
"You'll get rotten teeth if you keep on eating them." Zuko remarks with a scowl.
"Oh? At least something so small can make me happy." [M/N] hissed as Zuko glared at him as he stuck his tongue right back.
Iroh smiles a bit at the interaction before standing up with his cup, "Come on now boys, calm down. Dinner should be ready soon." [M/N] gives up on messing with his friend before nodding along. Zuko shakes his head before standing too as they head to the dining area in the ship where dinner was about to be served.
[M/N] let Iroh walk in front of them as he smiled a bit, his arm wrapping round Zuko's shoulder and nudged him, "You know I don't care about being your training dummy but dinner is a must. I'm a growing boy like Uncle said." Zuko huffed with a little half-smirk.
"Growing huh? I don't see that happening any time soon." Zuko taunted his friend playfully as [M/N] gap in fake offense as he nudged his friend again, "You're too short and your growth isn't gonna happen by next year or worse."
"What! No way, by next summer I'm going to tower over you or at least beat you by a few inches." They made it inside the ship and towards the direction of the dining area of the ship. His hip nudged the other with a playful grin, "Some day you're gonna look up to me, dear ol' prince of mine?" Zuko snorted at the name and waved him off a bit.
"You know I hate it when you call me that." Zuko said as Uncle entered the dining room first and they did too. Zuko sitting across from his friend as Uncle sits on the left side of the table with the food being laid out as his stomach growls loudly at the smell of the delicious food. His gaze glanced at [M/N] who was more than ready to dig in with Uncle. Zuko was sure if [M/N] could, he would use his hands to eat without Uncle scolding him. Once tea was served and Uncle began picking dumplings then so they did too.
Zuko takes as much as he can between the dumplings and sea slug with the rice. He eats with small bites unlike [M/N] who chews after stuffing his mouth with large amounts of rice and meat or dumpling. His gaze looking to his friend and the mess of remains clinging to his chin or lips or his shirt collar. [M/N] grew to be a bit of a messy eater, at the palace he would like a machine, but also paranoia that Zuko hated to see. Like a guard would come out and burn him if a single rice grain fell on his clothes or the tabletop. His ember eyes watched before slowly glancing down to his neck where a dark purple rock laid there around his neck.
Zuko studied with the scrolls over the three years and what he knew was his necklace was his father's. [M/N]'s father that left when the other was younger, the next years to come Zuko's mother also left too. It was his father's engagement necklace to one of Zuko's father's generals. She had always been a stern and awfully fake woman, "The manipulator" they called her behind her back. He remembers she was deadly good at her job, having taken many Earth Kingdom towns and lands while accomplishing settlement in some lower Fire Nation colonies. She never had a necklace, the one that [M/N] wore was his fathers that she made him wear out of humiliation in the palace.
Now [M/N] wears it, a reminder of a father that left and Zuko always admired the beauty of the stone. It was some sort of rock that came from the Water Tribe shores and etched into it was the symbol of the ying-yang, so perfectly detailed by [M/N]'s father's hands. Zuko looked to it absentmindedly as he ate before flinching when a few snaps from his friend's fingers disturbed him. His eyes glanced over to [M/N]'s face who gave a cheeky smirk.
"See something you like?" [M/N] asked with a little hum, the type of tooth smile that made Zuko's stomach tingle a bit in an odd way.
"As if, I barely enjoy your company now." Zuko denied as he rolled his eyes as [M/N] hummed. "I was thinking about my next move, we can't be floating absentmindedly in Southern waters for the next three years. We haven't even made official contact with the Southern Watertribe either to even start a search for the Avatar."
"To be fair the Southern Watertribe is very small unlike their sister tribe in the North." [M/N] said as he wiped his mouth with a napkin after finishing his fourth plate and laid the dirty napkin on the table as the servants began cleaning up their table. "I figured they kept it small after the siege some time ago and most of their waterbenders were taken."
"I have to agree with Prince Zuko, their tribe had been cut down in numbers especially in a time like this. For all we know is that the Avatar could've been reborn at the North and we're just here sightseeing." Iroh added as Zuko's huffed with smoke coming out his nose from annoyance.
They could be right and the Avatar could be enjoying his time up North while they were sitting turtle ducks here flocking.
"Something tells me that the Avatar is here," Zuko says as he stands up, " I can feel it."
With that, Zuko leaves the dining area and towards his room to meditate on this and on their words.