𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙵𝚒𝚟𝚎

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"Spar me."

"...What?"

"I want you to spar with me. It would be beneficial for me to learn to fight against a waterbender."

La'kea rubbed the sleep from her eyes, having been woken up by a knocking only to answer to the Prince. Who's first words had been-

"Spar with me," He insisted again.

She rubbed her eyes again, still separating reality from dreams. "Look," She stifled a yawn, "I just woke up. I can't understand what you're saying."

"How did you just wake up," The prince demanded, "It's nearly evening."

"Even if I did spar," She steamrolled over his question, "We're on a ship in the middle of the ocean. It wouldn't be much of a learning experience."

"Just show me how you bend then," Zuko's already thin patience was evaporating. It had been two months since their 'alliance' had formed, and they were sailing closer and closer into water tribe territory. He needed to learn how a waterbender fought.

"Look," He took another step forward but she didn't budge, "I'm teaching you everything I know about the nations. It's time you teach me something too."

"Iroh does most of the teaching," She mumbled, crossing her arms as she blocked the door to her room. He had tried to intimidate her by encroaching on her safe space. Some ally he was.

"If I'm drowned at sea by a waterbender, you'll never get my help getting home." He folded his arms across his chess, staring her down triumphantly.

She groaned loudly, dragging a hand down her face. "Give me five minutes, I'll meet you on deck."

Just as Zuko was protesting, the door was shut in his face, after contemplating blasting it down he threw his hands in the air and stomped towards the deck.

La'kea eyed her cot, weighing the consequences of falling back asleep, but only gave another groan as she started getting dressed. Truth be told, she was nervous. It had been literal years since she last touched her mana. Although she had been gathering it and restoring it by meditation, using it was still... She had only used it twice after being kidnapped. Once to heal the prince, and the second time to calm the storm.

But then there was the close quarters fighting. Her physical form was in ruins, despite the slow recovery she had been making, hand combat without bending was out of question. She had only just started learning how to break her opponents bones from her father when she had been kidnapped.

She gently stretched her limbs, testing her new limits, keeping low to the floor as she shifted her weight from leg to leg. Despite managing to stop the storm a while back, it had knocked her out for a whole day, and she still hadn't figured out if it was because the storm was strong or she was weak.

Zuko paced across the deck, going through all the basic level fire bending forms. "You really should not be insisting on this so soon, Prince Zuko," His uncle cautioned from the side, he was unsure if his nephew was fully recovered.

"I need to learn how to fight waterbenders." The prince persisted, prior to his banishment he had never set foot outside the Fire Nation. The other benders were a mystery to him, and he would hate to be caught unaware.

"I thought I was just showing you how waterbenders worked," La'kea appeared, looking already exhausted at the top of the stairs as she flexed her hands. "We agreed there wouldn't be any fighting."

"You probably don't even know how to fight," He jeered, before instantly regretting his words, she couldn't have been more than ten, eleven, when she was kidnapped. How long had she been in the mines? Of course she didn't know how to fight, no one taught her.

Yet she still seemed to have made it her mission to surprise him. "I know how to fight," La'kea defended herself, "It's just... Been a while."

"Miss La'kea," Iroh chimed in, "You don't need to do anything you're not ready for."

She knew that, but if she didn't try would she ever be ready? Looking back at the prince who was waiting impatiently she thought about how hard it could possibly be to win in a fight against him. The palace brat had probably never done anything strenuous, he had guards to do heavy lifting for him.

Yet again, she only learned the basics from her father before... Well, she had to guess the prince and her were evenly matched. "Fine," She groaned, rolling her shoulders before taking a couple paces away from the prince.

"Finally," He said smugly, they were about to know just how dangerous this waterbender was. Iroh grumbled something that fell on deaf years as the two kids faced off against each other.

Zuko placed his palms out in front of him, ready to strike, expecting her to shift into a defense stance, only to stagger when she suddenly charged at him. The prince stumbled, falling back and throwing up his hands to protect his face, expecting to feel the heat of fire engulf him.

La'kea halted, utterly floored to see that the defiant and fire-spitting prince was... Cowering. Unease spilled into her gut, this wasn't right, something wasn't right. What happened? She crouched down to the balls of her feet, trying to look at the prince.

He jerked his hands down when he realized that he was on a ship in Earth Kingdom waters, and felt ashamed and foolish. "Hey," The girl's brow was furrowed as she stared through him, dark eyes swallowing the sunlight. Her voice was starting to lose it's rasp, but it still had that grated edge to it that made her clear her throat, "Are... You okay?"

"I'm fine," The Prince snapped before jumping back to his feet, she only quirked a brow, looking unimpressed. "You caught me off guard."

"That was the idea," The corners of her mouth twitched before she took a couple of paces back. "Again?"

He shifted back into the offensive pose, this time he knew what to expect and would just have to beat her there first. When she charged again, he threw a fist of fire in her direction, but she only twisted clumsily to the side, barely skimming the fire. As she was reorienting herself, he took the opportunity to rush forward to meet her.

Aiming to slam the butt of his palm into her shoulder, trying to throw her off her feet in order to pin her, just as he was taught. Naturally, it didn't go according to plan. She ducked to the side, slipping her arm underneath his outstretched shoulder and sliding behind him, hooking the other arm under his other shoulder. Placing her hands against both sides of his head, ready to snap it either direction.

Zuko stopped, mind reeling with what just happened. He had been pinned against her effectively, without anytime to react. "Okay, enough!" He barked, shaking her off. The prince turned around to glare at the girl who only looked at him defiantly and... Smugly. The minx was undeniably pleased with herself.

He huffed, stomping back a few feet before placing his hands out in front of him, "Again!"

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La'kea finally dropped down, rolling onto her back as she heaved for air. "Okay, break! I need a break."

It was late into the evening, but even the cool night breeze couldn't stop her from sweating bullets. The prince had forced her to attack with every move she knew, and then show him how she did it again and again until he was satisfied.

He gave in, "Fine. Five minutes." Yet as he finally sat down, he couldn't stop himself from dropping onto his back next to the girl. "Maybe ten minutes."

"You're crazy," She gasped, accepting the cup of water from Iroh with thanks, her hands shook as she lifted it to her mouth. "We've been out here for hours, I've shown you everything I know."

"Miss La'kea is right," The general yawned, "It's getting late, I'm going to bed." Zuko downed his cup of water, grumbling something about laziness, but his uncle only bid them goodnight, "Don't stay up too late."

"Should I be worried you'll try to kill me now that you're unsupervised?" She joked halfheartedly, tipping back the water before sitting up. "Who taught you to fight?"

"Instructors," Zuko answered blandly, still catching his breath as he looked into the empty cup. He glanced at the slave girl from the corner of his eye, the whole time he had been drilling her for her techniques not once had she summoned water. "Who taught you?"

Her eyes widened, obviously surprised he cared, "Various people, but mostly my father."

"And your bending?"

"My mother," She finally turned towards him, brow quirked, "and father."

"They taught you well," He finally admitted with defeat.

La'kea couldn't help the reserved smile that flickered across her face, he looked so perturbed at the idea of complimenting her. "Thank you. You fight well too."

He stopped whatever he was saying, the smile on her face stood out like the sun on a rainy day. It was so opposed to her usual guarded frown that it was impossible to not notice. "No- No bending?"

She shrugged, "I was never taught to fight with it. I would have learned eventually but..." The small smile vanished as she clenched her jaw.

That guilt struck against his rib cage again, squeezing his lungs as he stood up. "We're done, for the day at least."

"I should have known," She gave a dry laugh, but was cut short when the prince suddenly offered his hand, looking away. La'kea took it, pulling herself up, and was astonished to feel the fire nation royal had calloused hands. "You fight with weapons?" She blurted.

He looked startled, clearing his throat, "Swords... How did you-."

"Lucky guess." La'kea dismissed it, strolling towards the stairs down to the quarters hall. "I, uh, was taught some about spears."

"You'll show me what you know of that then too," The prince insisted as they walked down the hall.

She groaned, opening her quarters door, "Tomorrow, after rest-. Wait, I thought we were stopping at another Earth Kingdom town tomorrow. You were going to look for this Avatar."

"It's the Avatar," Zuko corrected, a scheme suddenly popping into his head, "But yes... We're going to comb the town, and you're coming with us this time."

"Come again?"

"If you can hold your own, you can help search the town," The prince nodded along to his own idea. "The faster we could find the Avatar."

"A search," She pondered it, leaning against the door sill, "Something tells me it's a lot different than restocking on supplies."

"You can stay on the ship then," He threw a hand into the air, turning to walk towards his quarters.

"Wait!" She protested, "Fine. Fine, I said I'd help any way I can and I will."

The prince nodded curtly over his shoulder before striding away, "I won't wake you up, if we leave and you're still asleep, it's on you."

La'kea rolled her eyes, closing the door and barely giving herself time to strip off the sweat drenched clothes before collapsing onto her cot. Exhaustion over taking her.