(O) (O) (O) (O) (O)

(O) (O) (O) (O) (O)

18: Kindness

“Wh-What are you doing here?” she coughed, sitting up. Her voice was the scratch of bird’s feet over stone and her breath rattled as she drew it.

He crouched beside her, urging silence even as he placed a hand on her shoulder and eased her back. “Shh. You’ll wake your brother.” He carefully pushed away the bizarre objects littered all over her—a teakettle, a crown, an empty coinpurse—as she shifted against the Avatar’s riding beast—Upa? Apuh? He couldn’t recall the thing’s name—and took another ragged breath.

“He’s delirious—even if he did wake up he wouldn’t notice anything was strange.” She gave a reassuring smile. “He won’t even think twice about it once he’s better.”

Zuko sighed. “You shouldn’t have been out in that storm. You’re not made for harsh weather.”

“I was b-born at the South Pole, Zuko,” she whispered, still smiling. “I can handle a little cold.” She coughed then, and Zuko regretted that he couldn’t stay, ease her into recovery with his fire and the herbs his uncle so often spoke of. His only chance for redemption was slipping further away by the minute, he had no time…

“I can’t stay.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. “But here—you need this more than I do.”

He pressed his waterskin into her cold hands and she smiled weakly in thanks.

(O) (O) (O) (O) (O)

19: Friends

The Avatar turned. “If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?”

Little over a month ago the thought would have been laughable. Now the memory of bright blue eyes and a soft voice doused the fire kindling in his palms, forced him to concede that yes, they could have been.

In another time, another place. She would be wearing a pin in her hair with his family insignia on it; he and the Avatar would likely have been trained in Firebending together. Things would certainly have been different.

He looked away, clenching both hands into fists. “Go.”

“What?” He heard the grey-eyed boy rise from his seat, felt his confusion.

“Go. Now, before I change my mind.”

The short bursts of sound that proclaimed his Airbending faded swiftly from earshot, and when Zuko turned he was alone.

(O) (O) (O) (O) (O)

(O) (O) (O) (O) (O)