'Admiral Zhao.' Nala could hear flurries of arrows being shot as many pairs of feet took pursuit.
"The Avatar." A hiss left Zuko's lips that made his body feel hot against Nala's skin. She froze. The what?'
Zuko went rigid. Nala was watching intently, mulling over how it was possible the Avatar could be here and why. He seemed to be such an enigma. It still confused her how he could have survived for over a hundred years of war. All she knew of him was the whispers she could overhear from village people sharing tall tales. Zuko lurched forward, rousing her from her thoughts.
"They've captured him." The rage of the Fire Nation lapped at Zuko's words. "Zhao ..."
Nala held him tightly as he tried to make a break for the commotion. He struggled, but she stood her ground. She heard the rush of feet coming towards the two of them. She pulled him further into the shadow and pushed him against the tree's trunk. She had to press her weight into him to keep him still.
"Don't be foolish!" She hissed, grabbing his face and forcing him to look at her. "Look at me."
Zuko seemed to relax, relenting to her. She was so easy to relent to. They listened as the sounds faded into the distance.
"They are getting away ..." Zuko said with anguish. "Zhao is getting away with the Avatar."
"Be smart, Zuko." Nala whispered to him, taking a step back.
*✧*
Zuko had relaxed a little more after a while. Nala was right ... he needed to be smart about this. Uncle was always saying how much he would rush in to things head first without a thought. He decided to take her advice, she'd survived on her own this long, after all.
He watched her slip into the burrow for a while and found a moment to take a deep breath. He took a moment to mull over her strength, before Nala re-emerged with her curved swords. She held them both with care in one hand, then took him by her free hand and pulled him back into the open.
"What's this?" Zuko asked.
"A plan." Nala took a stance and began to move swiftly with the swords. The way she moved was almost like a dance, light on her feet and entirely in control of the blades. He was mesmerised by the display, until he remembered what they needed to plan.
"You're going to try to break out the Avatar?" He asked, with a lump in his throat. Nala nodded. He kept his mouth shut for a moment while he tried to word his next sentence carefully ... outright telling her that he needed to capture the Avatar for himself probably wouldn't sit will.
"Nala I ..." He put on his kindest, most people-pleasing smile he could. "I need to take the Avatar back. Please let me do it."
She stopped to give him a quizzical look.
"Why?"
"Well ... Because if I rebel against the Fire Nation to ... free the Avatar ... maybe it will set an example."
Nala's eyes narrowed and she stared at him for a good while, clearly thinking things through. He could tell she could see through the lie. His anxiousness turned to impatience.
"Well?" He grumbled.
Without a word, she folded the swords together to hand over to him. He took a stance and let her correct it. They spent the next few hours as master and student, without another word from Nala the entire time. He continued to follow her lead, feeling her gaze cutting into him, but not daring to speak up.
*✧*
The day was drawing to a close, and Zuko's arms were beginning to look very heavy. Nala had been watching him silently, perched on the rock letting her mind ticked away as the blades swung. She knew he had lied to her. She felt a pang of anger thinking he considered her a fool. She did not trust him. She would let him do the dirty work, and be there to cut him down at the first chance of him slipping. She figured this was just another small power squabble between Fire Nation people. How strange it was that the nation winning this war seemed to squabble so senselessly between themselves, meanwhile, entire villages went hungry. She almost let out a scoff at the thought.
The swords let out a clang as Zuko, again, fumbled a maneuver. She stood up, shaking her head, staying his arms. He looked at her tentatively. She moved his arms, but he dropped them back to his side and turned to her.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" He demanded. Why did all of his emotion come out as anger? She ignored him and went to position his arms again, but again they fell to his sides. She huffed and looked up at him defiantly.
"Say something!" He snapped. She stepped back from him. That temper ... she wasn't having it.
As she began to walk away, she heard him run up behind her.
"Nala ... please." His hand held her wrist. She sighed.
"You're too guarded." She hissed. He moved to stand in front of her, looking into her eyes as she spoke. "And you don't feel."
Two of her fingers tapped on the centre of his chest. He stared in bewilderment. She moved his arms up to be inline with his shoulders.
"You don't let anything in." She continued, her hands sliding up his arms, making his skin turn to bumps.
"How could you possibly know these swords so intimately if you don't let yourself feel intimately?" She stared deep into his eyes, pressing a palm into his chest. "You work against everything you're given, you insist on swimming against currents that flow in your favour. You block your heart, but you don't use your head."
She tapped a finger on his forehead.
"What do you feel, Zuko?"
"I don't know ..."
"Of course you don't. All it is, is anger." She growled, stepping back from him as his arms fell to his side again. "These swords ... they are meant to be an extension of you. They become an extra length of your arm. They move as two halves of your same whole. But you don't even understand your own feelings. So how are the swords supposed to become what you don't even know? You're just like the rest of the Burning People."
Nala took her leave, leaving Zuko standing hopelessly outside as she slipped into her burrow. Zuko let out a fiery growl.
*✧*
Nala had been watching closely as Zuko and the Avatar made an almost comical escape. It seemed as if they were working together and she felt a growing guilt for having scolded Zuko. Maybe he had been sincere after all.
Trouble seemed to rear it's head as the archers took aim to Zuko and Aang. She held her breath as she watched an arrow soar through the night toward Zuko, hearing a clang and watching him fall to the ground. She went to leap out of the tree as the Avatar kicked up a cloud of dirt. She clambered to a new branch, then made her way branch by branch further into the cover of the woods.
Soon enough, she watched the Avatar dragging Zuko's limp body through the cover, he seemed exhausted. She pulled up her face coverings, obscuring everything but her eyes. The Avatar slumped to the ground. She slunk to a lower branch, then let herself slip beneath it to hang upside down in an upside-down frog crouch. She caught the eye of the Avatar.
"Hello there." He said, oddly cheerful. She cocked an eyebrow. This kid was strangely friendly for someone who'd just been kidnapped. One would think he'd be a little more cautious. But when they'd met before, he'd been just the same
"What's your name? I'm Aang." The Avatar chirped again. Nala's eyes looked over Zuko who was still. In fluid acrobatics, she climbed down from the tree branch and crept toward him.
"He's alive." Aang said. "But he is unconscious so he's not dangerous." Nala moved him to sit in a more comfortable upright position. Aang helped her make a bed of leaves for him.
"Thank you." She mumbled. She decided that she would bring some food for the Avatar as a thank you and talk to him some more, she wanted to thank him for so much more.
Upon returning, she could hear Aang talking to Zuko. She listened intently, overhearing the boy tell a story about his friends all over the world. He spoke as if he'd been around for a hundred years ... even though he was twelve? How was it possible?
"Do you think we could have been friends, too?" Aang asked. Nala watched, hopeful, willing Zuko to accept him.
"Come on, Zuko ..."
Just as she'd began to feel trust for Zuko, he set it alight as a bolt of fire shot from his fist at the Avatar who bounded away. Nala cursed under her breath. The kid was too fast to catch at this point. She dropped down to the forest floor.
"What is your problem, Zuko?" She snarled.
"Nala ... I ..."
"You lied to me."
"No ... I didn't. I just--"
"No, I guess you didn't, really, did you? You've been showing your true colours this whole time, haven't you? The lying, the angry outbursts and now trying to burn the Avatar. This is all the real you."
"Nala, please..." Zuko begged.
"What?!" She snapped.
"Please ... you don't understand. I need him."
"We all do ... but it's not going to help us if you burn him alive, is it?"
"I know ... I'm sorry."
"Sorry isn't good enough, Zuko. You're not sorry if you keep doing it. You're just like the rest of the Fire Nation."
Something about those words cut Zuko deeply. He got to his feet.
"That's not true!" He snapped aggressively, fire shooting from his hands. Nala didn't flinch.
"Oh, isn't it? All you people do is burn everything around you without thinking things through. Your only emotion is anger and hatred."
"Guess you got me all figured out then. Just another angry hateful firebender. Guess it means I hate you, too." He said, getting close to her as the venom dripped off his words. He intended to hurt he. He meant to make the words sting.
"I could tell." Her voice cracked with pain.
"Just say it Nala, you hate me too. Just like you hate the rest of the Fire Nation." He searched her defiant eyes.
"No ..." She took a step back. "I feel sorry for you."
Before he could pull her to him, she had already taken flight in the other direction, leaping into the tree branches and disappearing.
Zuko watched Nala leave and felt a knot of regret twist in him. He looked down to the mask and swords that had been laid carefully next to his bed of leaves and questioned why people like Nala and the Avatar would ever go out of their way to take care of him. He could understand why the Avatar would want to work together to escape - that was a personal benefit - but ensuring his safety after the fact ...
Not to mention Nala's acts of kindness after everything he'd done to her, too, and her thanked her with venom and burns. He picked up the swords and mask and walked slowly back towards Nala's part of the swamp.
"Nala?" He tried to keep his voice gentle. parting the leaves of the willow to peer into the top of the burrow. "Nala, I'm ... I'm sorry. I am. I know I've said it before ..."
He sighed, scolding himself for not practising on the way over. He was terrible at this.
"I mean I'll try to be better ... You were right. I'm angry ... all the time. And it's not at you... I'm just angry at ... I don't know." He stopped himself and leaned closer to the burrow. "Nala?"
He slid inside, feeling a heavy disappointment weigh on him as he found the burrow empty. Zuko laid the swords down carefully, along with the mask, then changed back in to his normal clothes.
Back on the ship, he found Uncle Iroh playing a dreary song.
"Where have you been, Prince Zuko?" Uncle asked. The title seemed to sting more than usual today. He couldn't bare to look his Uncle in the eye.
"I'm going to bed ... no disturbances." He said, touching his head.