Chapter 8

XIV

'The water bender that saved you. I will never not be grateful to her.'

His mother's words keep ringing in his mind, won't leave even as he stands now between Alasie and the heathen from the swamp who had snuck up on them.

'I will never not be grateful to her.'

It's absurd, but it almost sounds like his mother likes the water bender. Likes Alasie. His mother, a proud Fire Nation noble who'd been gentle and good and his father's whole world. The very pinnacle of what his people should strive for. And Lu Ten, Lu Ten is at the nadir of his life right now, lost in a swamp with only the enemy for company and relying upon the good graces of the healer.

"So, this place is like a spiritual hub?"

"That's right, little lady," the swamp dweller speaks, having not yet introduced himself as he guides them to a boat of… questionable quality. If Lu Ten were to guess, he'd say water bending is the only thing keeping the vessel from sinking. "We get a whole lotta that spiritual energy and it comes to be in visions of the future and past. Sometimes, one or two lucky folks even see some spirits."

Lu Ten wouldn't exactly call seeing spirits a stroke of luck. Especially not when he considers all the tales his father has told him about them.

Was his mother just a vision then? Just a construct of what his mind wishes to witness? But then, why on earth would he want his mother to approve of his current company? Because her gratitude towards the water bender would be just that, his unconscious mind projecting the fact it is okay to accept her as a whole person. It comes with uncomfortable implications; if Alasie is to be held to the same standards he has for his people, then she should be receiving the same treatment. Attack his own people is wrong. Trying to fit Alasie into that category implies that attacking the Water Tribe is wrong. And that… that goes against everything he has ever been taught.

"-like ya' City Boy here. He's seen sommet the swamp wanted ta' show him, right?"

Lu Ten clamps his hand around the man's hand before he can rest of his arm, chest tense. A swamp dweller who can bend the water within a plant is only a small step away from a water bender who can control the water within a human body. He does not want that person touching him.

"It's none of your business," Lu Ten states, jaw clenching, the muscles coiled beneath his cheeks. He's here to repay his debt to Alasie and that is it. He certainly has no intention of getting bogged down in what these rustics no doubt try to pass as culture and he shall most certainly be making his own food given this one's standards of hygiene.

The distaste must show on his face, for Alasie takes one look and has to turn away from him, one hand to her mouth and shoulders shaking with supressed laughter. Should she eat the same as these people, he doesn't expect her to last the week.

It's exactly why he's here.

"Why the hell is that Zuko guy following us?!"

Lu Ten's head slams against the large pot that the Water Tribe siblings had thoughtfully brought along but, after hearing that, he doesn't care.

"Zuko?" he repeats, watching as the two turn to look at him. Alasie- Alasie knows who he is and, consequently, knows exactly who Zuko is to him. But she has never seen the current Prince of the Fire Nation. Even Lu Ten hasn't seen his baby cousin in years.

Where the fuck did he get that scar?

"So that's his name!" Avatar Aang cries, slamming a close fist into the palm of his hand, grinning the whole while. As if it's a conundrum that he's been struggling with for some time and has only now found the answer.

"Does- do you know Zuko, Lu Ten?" It's Katara that speaks, all hesitance and caution in her voice. Were it any other person, Lu Ten would have laughed and calmly explained that, just because they are from the same nation, it doesn't mean that every Fire Nation citizen knows one another. He cannot fault her for the thought; from what he's heard of the Southern Water Tribe, they are down to a single village where everyone does, in fact, know each other.

But this is different. This is Zuko.

Carefully reseating himself upon the saddle, Lu Ten draws the dadao that he intentionally borrowed, weighing the blade in his hand. It's a good sword, not like his first one was, but it'll certainly serve its purpose. He hasn't held a sword since the Siege of Ba Sing Se.

Alasie slips her hand alongside his, tangling their fingers together, the soft skin of her palms smooth against the rough callouses of his own. She squeezes for a moment, a solid show of support that Lu Ten isn't ashamed to admit he needs.

It doesn't matter that he's now the Avatar's fire bending master. His past still hounds him, no matter how much he tries to shake it off.

"He's my cousin."

There's a moment of stunned silence as the trio of children look between one another in shock. Aang, by way of being the only one to have not yet lived through a life of war, is the first to get over that particular bombshell with a simple shrug of his shoulders. Sokka… not so much.

"He's your what?!"

Aang feels… uncomfortable, listening to Lu Ten's story. How he outlines the beginning of his life (the son of the heir apparent, the dead mother, the happy childhood), how it descends into the warfront (fighting in the Siege of Ba Sing Se, watching the Earth Kingdom people but not wishing to acknowledge them, to think about what he has been taught). Then, then he gets onto the part where he meets Alasie.

He's surprisingly cagey about the past from there, summing it all up with a sharp, "I followed the water bender who saved my life and it opened my eyes. That's why I am here instead of following Zuko onto that boat."

There's a stifling silence from then on; Katara spends her time frowning while Sokka scowls and refuses to look at either of the adults with them. Aang…

Aang doesn't understand.

Sure, it's a bit weird that Lu Ten's literally related to the guy he's apparently fated to take down, but…

'I was training for an Agni Kai.'

But Lu Ten's a good guy. He's trying to do the right thing, even if it means going against the ideals of his own family.

"Well, I'm glad you're my fire bending master," Aang declares, stepping back and off Appa's head, trusting his beloved partner to continue steering them right. He drops down beside the man, leaning into his lovely warm side to soak up the heat that just seems to pour off him. Man, it's no wonder that Alasie is always plastered to Lu Ten's ribcage; this kind of heat is delightful!

Lu Ten pauses, twisting to look down at him with furrowed brows, lips pressing together into a thin line that tilts ever so slightly at the edges in an upwards curve. He doesn't say anything, but the way his shoulders relax, the way he moves is arm so that Aang can get that bit closer to the body heat the man is giving off; it's all a clear sign of his appreciation for what Aang has said.

Yeah, this guy might be the nephew of the Fire Lord. But he was already trying to do something about the Fire Nation before Aang even came along. As far as he's concerned, that proves he's trustworthy enough. Katara and Sokka'll see that, he just knows it.

XV

Alasie is… worried. The way Lu Ten (she'd had a feeling Lee wasn't the right name, was just too small a name for the man she had saved) keeps glancing at something from the corner of his eye, the way he looks about the swamp as if… expecting someone is concerning.

"Your friend has been touched by the swamp," Huu, the master water bender who lives here, muses. While the shocking lack of decency here would usually make Alasie very nervous indeed… she just cannot allow it to hold her back. Not when she might learn how to better defend herself, how to work as a true water bender here. It is an opportunity she never had at home; one she would never be able to strive for. But here, here she can do just that. Here, she can learn to control her element as she should be able to, as she would have been able to by travelling to the South Pole, had the Fire Nation not ransacked it.

Alasie glances to Lu Ten again, gnawing at her lip in worry as he runs a hand along the bark of a tree. He's been distracted and distant and the healer within her worries. The warrior she could have been had her people not been so drowned in their tradition, she screams.

"Will he be okay?"

"Sometimes, the spirits are reaching out. All we have to do is let them in, let them guide us. Don't worry, Little Lady. Perhaps this is just the spirits of his people reaching out to him, perhaps this is about the balance of the world. Now, I'm no master with ice or snow, but plant bending? Now that, I can teach you."

Uncle didn't believe him.

Zuko sits in his quarters, the ship already ploughing after the bison they are once again trailing behind but, for the first time in three years, his mind is not consumed by the thought of the Fire Nation's greatest enemy. Instead, it whirls with the thought of his cousin alive. Lu Ten, the boy that had always taken time out of his day and duties in order to play with him, to train him in the fire bending basics. He'd been the one to teach Zuko how to use a sword, who'd told him tall tales of ancient fire benders and their friendship with dragons.

Lu Ten had been like an older brother and then he'd been gone. The first to disappear, next grandfather and mother. The loss of him had broken Uncle.

Only, he's not lost anymore.

Zuko knows it in his bones, knows it as well as he knows the flames he can call to his palm, knows it like he knows his own face. That had been Lu Ten. Lu Ten who hadn't recognised him (how could he; he'd never expect to see Zuko outside the Fire Nation, would never expect the shame that covers half his face) , Lu Ten who had defended the Avatar and escaped away on the back of the flying beast.

He hadn't recognised the woman that was with the group; she can't have come from the Southern Water Tribe; Lu Ten had most certainly not been there and there had been a familiarity between them.

His cousin, who had been pronounced dead in the aftermath of an earth bender induced landslide, had reached for her. His cousin trusted her.

Water benders could heal, couldn't they? Was it possible one of the enemies had saved the life of his cousin? If so, it'd undoubtedly been a ploy to install something sympathetic to their people onto the throne. But… Lu Ten is strong. He'd never bow to another's will, would never have given up. It'd been his cousin who encouraged him to keep going, to keep training, even as Azula steamed ahead.

His cousin who is now with the Avatar.

It keeps coming back to that, the same thought spinning about in his head but what else can Zuko do, other than sit and obsess. His cousin had been a good prince, had been loved by his people. The only reason the Nation hadn't mourned him as it should is because Grandfather had died a mere handful of days afterwards; dead Fire Lord took precedence. Not that anyone had liked the man more than Lu Ten, that is. Other than Zuko's own father, but he tries not to dwell on that thought. No, instead he fixates on his suddenly living cousin, his uncle who doesn't believe him, who had walked away with shaking hands and shoulders, right after claiming that Zuko's emotions must have clouded his judgement.

But it hadn't. Zuko knows what he has seen. Lu Ten is with the Avatar. And right now, that's just another reason why they need to hunt them down. Nothing else matters right now, other than this. It's a good thing Zuko doesn't know the meaning of the word quit.

Err... Merry Christmas?

Tsume
xxx